Change in body weight of older adults before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: longitudinal results from the Berlin Aging Study II.

OBJECTIVES: Change in body weight during the COVID-19 pandemic as an unintended side effect of lockdown measures has been predominantly reported for younger and middle-aged adults. However, information on older adults for which weight loss is known to result in adverse outcomes, is scarce. In this study we describe the body weight change in older adults before, during, and after the COVID-19 lockdown measures and explore putative associated factors with a focus on the period that includes the first six months of the COVID-19 containment measures. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study with three follow-up examinations over the course of 10 years. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: In this study, we analyzed the longitudinal weight change of 472 participants of the Berlin Aging Study II (mean age of 67.5 years at baseline). MEASUREMENTS: Body weight was assessed at four time points. Additionally, differences between subgroups characterized by socio-economic, cognitive, and psychosocial variables as well as morbidity burden, biological age markers (epigenetic clocks, telomere length), and frailty were compared. RESULTS: On average, women and men lost 0.87% (n = 227) and 0.5% (n = 245) of their body weight per year in the study period covering the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Weight loss among men was particularly pronounced among groups characterized by change in physical activity due to COVID-19 lockdown, low positive affect, premature epigenetic age (7-CpG clock), diagnosed metabolic syndrome, and a more masculine gender score (all variables: p < 0.05, n = 245). CONCLUSION: During the COVID-19 pandemic, older participants lost weight with a 2.5-times (women) and 2-times (men) higher rate than what is expected in this age.

Stability and change of optimism and pessimism in late midlife and old age across three independent studies.

Research across a number of different areas in psychology has long shown that optimism and pessimism are predictive of a number of important future life outcomes. Despite a vast literature on the correlates and consequences, we know very little about how optimism and pessimism change across adulthood and old age and the sociodemographic factors that are associated with individual differences in such trajectories. In the present study, we conducted (parallel) analyses of standard items from the Life Orientation Test (Scheier & Carver, 1985) in three comprehensive data sets: Two-wave data from both the Berlin Aging Study II (N = 1,423, aged 60-88; M = 70.4, SD = 3.70) and the Midlife in the U.S. Study (N = 1,810 aged 60-84; M = 69.12, SD = 6.47) as well as cross-sectional data from the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement (N = 17,087, aged 60-99; M = 70.19, SD = 7.53). Using latent change-regression models and locally weighted smoothing curves revealed that optimism is on average very stable after age 60, with some evidence in Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement of lowered optimism in very old age. Consistent across the three independent studies, pessimism evinced on average modest increases, ranging between .25 and .50 SD per 10 years of age. Of the sociodemographic factors examined, higher levels of education revealed the most consistent associations with lower pessimism, whereas gender evinced more study-specific findings. We take our results to demonstrate that age-related trajectories and correlates thereof differ for optimism and pessimism. Older adults appear to preserve into older ages those levels of optimistic expectations they have had at 60 years of age and show only modest increases in pessimism. We discuss possible reasons for these findings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Codevelopment of life goals and the Big Five personality traits across adulthood and old age.

Since the new millennium, research in the field of personality development has focused on the stability and change of basic personality traits. Motivational aspects of personality and their longitudinal association with basic traits have received comparably little attention. In this preregistered study, we applied bivariate latent growth curve model to investigated the codevelopment of nine life goals and the Big Five traits. We tested age, perceived control, gender, educational background, and regional socialization as potential moderators of codevelopment. Data came from the German Socio-Economic Panel study (N = 55,040, age range: 18-103 years) and span a study period of 13 years. During this period, the Big Five traits and life goals were assessed four times. Our findings suggest that development in broader life goal domains (e.g., self-fulfillment) is more strongly connected to personality development across the life span, whereas changes in specific goals (e.g., having children) are more closely tied to trait changes during young and middle adulthood. The strongest codevelopment was found between Openness and agentic goals with a focus on personal growth followed by codevelopment between Agreeableness and communal goals. Developmental stage and educational background moderated the codevelopment of Conscientiousness and economic achievement as well as family-related goals. Contrary to the previous research, we found that Neuroticism codeveloped with communal life goals (i.e., having a happy relationship/marriage). Our findings reinforce theoretical frameworks that highlight the role of changing opportunities, constraints, and developmental tasks across adulthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Today's Older Adults Are Cognitively Fitter Than Older Adults Were 20 Years Ago, but When and How They Decline Is No Different Than in the Past.

History-graded increases in older adults' levels of cognitive performance are well documented, but little is known about historical shifts in within-person change: cognitive decline and onset of decline. We combined harmonized perceptual-motor speed data from independent samples recruited in 1990 and 2010 to obtain 2,008 age-matched longitudinal observations (M = 78 years, 50% women) from 228 participants in the Berlin Aging Study (BASE) and 583 participants in the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II). We used nonlinear growth models that orthogonalized within- and between-person age effects and controlled for retest effects. At age 78, the later-born BASE-II cohort substantially outperformed the earlier-born BASE cohort (d = 1.20; 25 years of age difference). Age trajectories, however, were parallel, and there was no evidence of cohort differences in the amount or rate of decline and the onset of decline. Cognitive functioning has shifted to higher levels, but cognitive decline in old age appears to proceed similarly as it did two decades ago.

Fact boxes that inform individual decisions may contribute to a more positive evaluation of COVID-19 vaccinations at the population level.

OBJECTIVE: For an effective control of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic with vaccines, most people in a population need to be vaccinated. It is thus important to know how to inform the public with reference to individual preferences-while also acknowledging the societal preference to encourage vaccinations. According to the health care standard of informed decision-making, a comparison of the benefits and harms of (not) having the vaccination would be required to inform undecided and skeptical people. To test evidence-based fact boxes, an established risk communication format, and to inform their development, we investigated their contribution to knowledge and evaluations of COVID-19 vaccines. METHODS: We conducted four studies (1, 2, and 4 were population-wide surveys with N = 1,942 to N = 6,056): Study 1 assessed the relationship between vaccination knowledge and intentions in Germany over three months. Study 2 assessed respective information gaps and needs of the population in Germany. In parallel, an experiment (Study 3) with a mixed design (presentation formats; pre-post-comparison) assessed the effect of fact boxes on risk perceptions and fear, using a convenience sample (N = 719). Study 4 examined how effective two fact box formats are for informing vaccination intentions, with a mixed experimental design: between-subjects (presentation formats) and within-subjects (pre-post-comparison). RESULTS: Study 1 showed that vaccination knowledge and vaccination intentions increased between November 2020 and February 2021. Study 2 revealed objective information requirements and subjective information needs. Study 3 showed that the fact box format is effective in adjusting risk perceptions concerning COVID-19. Based on those results, fact boxes were revised and implemented with the help of a national health authority in Germany. Study 4 showed that simple fact boxes increase vaccination knowledge and positive evaluations in skeptics and undecideds. CONCLUSION: Fact boxes can inform COVID-19 vaccination intentions of undecided and skeptical people without threatening societal vaccination goals of the population.

Using blood test parameters to define biological age among older adults: association with morbidity and mortality independent of chronological age validated in two separate birth cohorts.

Biomarkers defining biological age are typically laborious or expensive to assess. Instead, in the current study, we identified parameters based on standard laboratory blood tests across metabolic, cardiovascular, inflammatory, and kidney functioning that had been assessed in the Berlin Aging Study (BASE) (n = 384) and Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II) (n = 1517). We calculated biological age using those 12 parameters that individually predicted mortality hazards over 26 years in BASE. In BASE, older biological age was associated with more physician-observed morbidity and higher mortality hazards, over and above the effects of chronological age, sex, and education. Similarly, in BASE-II, biological age was associated with physician-observed morbidity and subjective health, over and above the effects of chronological age, sex, and education as well as alternative biomarkers including telomere length, DNA methylation age, skin age, and subjective age but not PhenoAge. We discuss the importance of biological age as one indicator of aging.

Linking Brain Age Gap to Mental and Physical Health in the Berlin Aging Study II.

From a biological perspective, humans differ in the speed they age, and this may manifest in both mental and physical health disparities. The discrepancy between an individual's biological and chronological age of the brain ("brain age gap") can be assessed by applying machine learning techniques to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data. Here, we examined the links between brain age gap and a broad range of cognitive, affective, socioeconomic, lifestyle, and physical health variables in up to 335 adults of the Berlin Aging Study II. Brain age gap was assessed using a validated prediction model that we previously trained on MRI scans of 32,634 UK Biobank individuals. Our statistical analyses revealed overall stronger evidence for a link between higher brain age gap and less favorable health characteristics than expected under the null hypothesis of no effect, with 80% of the tested associations showing hypothesis-consistent effect directions and 23% reaching nominal significance. The most compelling support was observed for a cluster covering both cognitive performance variables (episodic memory, working memory, fluid intelligence, digit symbol substitution test) and socioeconomic variables (years of education and household income). Furthermore, we observed higher brain age gap to be associated with heavy episodic drinking, higher blood pressure, and higher blood glucose. In sum, our results point toward multifaceted links between brain age gap and human health. Understanding differences in biological brain aging may therefore have broad implications for future informed interventions to preserve mental and physical health in old age.

A domain-differentiated approach to everyday emotion regulation from adolescence to older age.

Flexibly using different emotion-regulation (ER) strategies in different situational contexts, such as domains, has been argued to promote effective emotion regulation. Additionally, emotion regulation processes may change with age as narrowing time horizons shift emotion-regulation preferences. The purpose of the present study was to examine the occurrence and effectiveness of flexible emotion regulation in response to daily hassles from different domains within the age range from adolescence to old age. Participants, ranging from 14 to 88 years old (N = 325), completed an experience-sampling study of approximately 9 days over a 3-week period. At each momentary assessment, participants reported on their hassles, emotion-regulation strategies, and affect. As expected, strategy use varied across individuals and domains. For example, emotion expression and suppression were typical responses to interpersonal hassles, whereas social sharing was often used in response to work/school hassles. In situations wherein hassles included multiple life domains, participants reported the use of more emotion-regulation strategies than for single-domain hassles. Although flexible emotion regulation was evident in participants' responses to hassles, the expectation that it would be associated with lower hassle reactivity was not confirmed. These patterns were, for the most part, consistent across ages. This study contributes new insights into situational characteristics that are associated with emotion-regulation flexibility, showing that hassles domains are important for strategy selection, and that this holds from adolescence to old age. It also suggests that such defined emotion-regulation flexibility is not as strongly linked to emotion-regulation effectiveness as has been previously suggested. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Location, Location, Location: The Role of Objective Neighborhood Characteristics for Perceptions of Control.

INTRODUCTION: Control beliefs can protect against age-related declines in functioning. It is unclear whether neighborhood characteristics shape how much control people perceive over their life. This article studies associations of neighborhood characteristics with control beliefs of residents of a diverse metropolitan area (Berlin, Germany). METHODS: We combine self-report data about perceptions of control obtained from participants in the Berlin Aging Study II (N = 507, 60-87 years, 51% women) with multisource geo-referenced indicators of neighborhood characteristics using linear regression models. RESULTS: Findings indicate that objective neighborhood characteristics (i.e., unemployment rate) are indeed tied to perceptions of control, in particular, how much control participants feel others have over their lives. Including neighborhood characteristics in part doubled the amount of explained variance compared with a reference model covarying for demographic characteristics only (from R2 = 0.017 to R2 = 0.030 for internal control beliefs; R2 = 0.056 to R2 = 0.102 for external control beliefs in chance; R2 = 0.006 to R2 = 0.030 for external control beliefs in powerful others). DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: Findings highlight the importance of access to neighborhood resources for control beliefs across old age and can inform interventions to build up neighborhood characteristics which might be especially helpful in residential areas with high unemployment.

Subjective age and attitudes toward own aging across two decades of historical time.

A large body of empirical evidence has accumulated showing that the experience of old age is "younger," more "agentic," and "happier" than ever before. However, it is not yet known whether historical improvements in well-being, control beliefs, cognitive functioning, and other outcomes generalize to individuals' views on their own aging process. To examine historical changes in such views on aging, we compared matched cohorts of older adults within two independent studies that assessed differences across a two-decade interval, the Berlin Aging Studies (BASE; 1990/1993 vs. 2017/2018, each n = 256, Mage = 77) and the Midlife in the United States Study (MIDUS; 1995/1996 vs. 2013/14, each n = 848, Mage = 67). Consistent across four different dimensions of individuals' subjective views on aging (age felt, age appeared, desired age, and attitudes toward own aging) in the BASE and corroborated with subjective age felt and subjective age desired in the MIDUS, there was no evidence whatsoever that older adults of today have more favorable views on how they age than older adults did two decades ago. Further, heterogeneity in views on aging increased across two decades in the MIDUS but decreased in BASE. Also consistent across studies, associations of views on aging with sociodemographic, health, cognitive, and psychosocial correlates did not change across historical times. We discuss possible reasons for our findings, including the possibility that individual age views may have become increasingly decoupled from societal age views. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Sociohistorical Change in Urban Older Adults' Perceived Speed of Time and Time Pressure.

OBJECTIVES: Perceptions of time are shaped by sociohistorical factors. Specifically, economic growth and modernization often engender a sense of acceleration. Research has primarily focused on one time perception dimension (perceived time pressure) in one subpopulation (working-age adults), but it is not clear whether historical changes extend to other dimensions (e.g., perceived speed of time) and other subpopulations, such as older adults who are no longer in the workforce and experience age-related shifts in time perception. We therefore examined sociohistorical and age-related trends in two dimensions of time perception in two cohorts of urban older adults. METHOD: Using propensity score matching for age and education, samples were drawn from the Berlin Aging Study (1990-1993, n = 256, Mage = 77.49) and the Berlin Aging Study-II (2009-2014, n = 248, Mage = 77.49). Cohort differences in means, variances, covariance, and correlates of perceived speed of time and time pressure were examined using multigroup SEM. RESULTS: There were no cohort differences in the perceived speed of time, but later-born cohorts reported more time pressure than earlier-born cohorts. There were no significant age differences, but perceptions of speed of time were more heterogeneous in the 1990s than in the 2010s. Cohorts did not differ in how time perceptions were associated with sociodemographic, health, cognitive, and psychosocial correlates. DISCUSSION: These findings document sociohistorical trends toward greater perceived time pressure and reduced heterogeneity in perceived speed of time among later-born urban adults. Conceptualizations of social acceleration should thus consider the whole adult life span.

Age Trajectories of Perceptual Speed and Loneliness: Separating Between-Person and Within-Person Associations.

OBJECTIVES: We aimed at examining between-person and within-person associations across age trajectories of perceptual speed and loneliness in old age. METHOD: We applied multilevel models to 4 waves of data collected over 6 years from 1,491 participants of the Berlin Aging Study II (60-88 years at baseline, 50% women) to disentangle between-person and within-person associations across age trajectories of perceptual speed and both emotional and social loneliness. Sex and education were considered as relevant individual characteristics and included as covariates in the model. RESULTS: Analyses revealed that on average perceptual speed exhibited moderate within-person age-related declines, whereas facets of loneliness were rather stable. Perceptual speed did not predict age trajectories of emotional or social loneliness, at either the between- or within-person level. In contrast, loneliness discriminated individuals at the between-person level, such that those feeling emotionally or socially more lonely showed lower cognitive performance than those feeling emotionally or socially less lonely. Predictive effects of social loneliness were stronger for relatively young people (i.e., in their mid to late 60s) than for relatively older participants (i.e., in their 80s). In addition, predictive effects of social loneliness for perceptual speed at the within-person level were modest and deviated in direction and size from between-person social loneliness effects among those in their mid- to late 60s, whereas they did not among those in their 80s. DISCUSSION: We conclude that loneliness may serve as a precursor for basic cognitive functioning in old age and suggest routes for further inquiry.

People underestimate the errors made by algorithms for credit scoring and recidivism prediction but accept even fewer errors.

This study provides the first representative analysis of error estimations and willingness to accept errors in a Western country (Germany) with regards to algorithmic decision-making systems (ADM). We examine people's expectations about the accuracy of algorithms that predict credit default, recidivism of an offender, suitability of a job applicant, and health behavior. Also, we ask whether expectations about algorithm errors vary between these domains and how they differ from expectations about errors made by human experts. In a nationwide representative study (N = 3086) we find that most respondents underestimated the actual errors made by algorithms and are willing to accept even fewer errors than estimated. Error estimates and error acceptance did not differ consistently for predictions made by algorithms or human experts, but people's living conditions (e.g. unemployment, household income) affected domain-specific acceptance (job suitability, credit defaulting) of misses and false alarms. We conclude that people have unwarranted expectations about the performance of ADM systems and evaluate errors in terms of potential personal consequences. Given the general public's low willingness to accept errors, we further conclude that acceptance of ADM appears to be conditional to strict accuracy requirements.

Understanding the Societal Impact of the Social Sciences and Humanities: Remarks on Roles, Challenges, and Expectations.

Science is increasingly expected to help in solving complex societal problems in collaboration with societal stakeholders. However, it is often unclear under what conditions this can happen, i.e., what kind of challenges occur when science interacts with society and what kind of quality expectations prevail. This is particularly pertinent for Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), which are part of the object they study and whose knowledge is always subject to provisionality. Here we discuss how SSH researchers can contribute to societal problems, what challenges might occur when they interact with societal stakeholders, and what quality expectations arise in these arrangements. We base our argumentation on the results of an online consultation among 125 experts in Germany (representatives from SSH, learned societies, stakeholders from different societal groups, and relevant intermediaries).

Longitudinal coupling of momentary stress reactivity and trait neuroticism: Specificity of states, traits, and age period.

Personality traits like neuroticism show both continuity and change across adolescence and adulthood, with most pronounced changes occurring in young adulthood. It has been assumed, but insufficiently examined, that trait changes occur gradually over the years through the accumulation of daily experiences. The current longitudinal measurement burst study examined (a) how changes in average momentary stress reactivity are coupled with changes in trait neuroticism, (b) the extent to which this coupling is specific to stress reactivity and neuroticism, and (c) the extent to which there are age differences in the association between changes in stress reactivity and changes in neuroticism. Participants (N = 581; 50% male) between 14 and 86 years of age completed up to 3 waves (T1-T3) of Big Five trait questionnaires and experience-sampling assessments during 6 years. During each three-week experience-sampling period, participants reported their momentary affect and occurrences of hassles on average 55 times. Latent change models showed that increases over time in affective reactivity to daily hassles were associated with increases in neuroticism. This effect was consistent from T1 to T2 as well as from T2 to T3, and most pronounced in young adulthood. Importantly, the results were specific to associations between stress reactivity and neuroticism because changes in frequency of hassles in daily life did not predict changes in neuroticism, and stress reactivity did not consistently predict changes in the other Big Five traits. The findings help to inform theoretical models that outline how short-term states might contribute to gradual longer-term changes in traits like neuroticism. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Acceptance of criteria for health and driver scoring in the general public in Germany.

Numerous health insurers offer bonus programmes that score customers' health behaviour, and car insurers offer telematics tariffs that score driving behaviour. In many countries, however, only a minority of customers participate in these programmes. In a population-representative survey of private households in Germany (N = 2,215), we study the acceptance of the criteria (features) on which the scoring programmes are based: the features for driver scoring (speed, texting while driving, time of driving, area of driving, accelerating and braking behaviour, respectively) and for health scoring (walking distance per day, sleeping hours per night, alcohol consumption, weight, participation in recommended cancer screenings, smoking status). In a second step, we model participants' acceptance of both programmes with regard to the underlying feature acceptance. We find that insurers in Germany rarely use the features which the participants consider to be the most relevant and justifiable, that is, smoking status for health scoring and smartphone use for driver scoring. Heuristic models (fast-and-frugal trees) show that programme acceptance depends on the acceptance of a few features. These models can help to understand customers' preferences and to design scoring programmes that are based on scientific evidence regarding behaviours and factors associated with good health and safe driving and are thus more likely to be accepted.

Parental well-being in times of Covid-19 in Germany.

We examine the effects of Covid-19 and related restrictions on individuals with dependent children in Germany. We specifically focus on the role of day care center and school closures, which may be regarded as a "disruptive exogenous shock" to family life. We make use of a novel representative survey of parental well-being collected in May and June 2020 in Germany, when schools and day care centers were closed but while other measures had been relaxed and new infections were low. In our descriptive analysis, we compare well-being during this period with a pre-crisis period for different groups. In a difference-in-differences design, we compare the change for individuals with children to the change for individuals without children, accounting for unrelated trends as well as potential survey mode and context effects. We find that the crisis lowered the relative well-being of individuals with children, especially for individuals with young children, for women, and for persons with lower secondary schooling qualifications. Our results suggest that public policy measures taken to contain Covid-19 can have large effects on family well-being, with implications for child development and parental labor market outcomes.

Gender score development in the Berlin Aging Study II: a retrospective approach.

In addition to biological sex, gender, defined as the sociocultural dimension of being a woman or a man, plays a central role in health. However, there are so far few approaches to quantify gender in a retrospective manner in existing study datasets. We therefore aimed to develop a methodology that can be retrospectively applied to assess gender in existing cohorts. We used baseline data from the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II), obtained in 2009-2014 from 1869 participants aged 60 years and older. We identified 13 gender-related variables and used them to construct a gender score by using primary component and logistic regression analyses. Of these, nine variables contributed to a gender score: chronic stress, marital status, risk-taking behaviour, personality attributes: agreeableness, neuroticism, extraversion, loneliness, conscientiousness, and level of education. Females and males differed significantly in the distribution of the gender score, but a significant overlap was also found. Thus, we were able to develop a gender score in a retrospective manner from already collected data that characterized participants in addition to biological sex. This approach will allow researchers to introduce the notion of gender retrospectively into a large number of studies.

Is Healthy Neuroticism Associated with Health Behaviors? A Coordinated Integrative Data Analysis.

Current literature suggests that neuroticism is positively associated with maladaptive life choices, likelihood of disease, and mortality. However, recent research has identified circumstances under which neuroticism is associated with positive outcomes. The current project examined whether "healthy neuroticism", defined as the interaction of neuroticism and conscientiousness, was associated with the following health behaviors: smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical activity. Using a pre-registered multi-study coordinated integrative data analysis (IDA) approach, we investigated whether "healthy neuroticism" predicted the odds of engaging in each of the aforementioned activities. Each study estimated identical models, using the same covariates and data transformations, enabling optimal comparability of results. These results were then meta-analyzed in order to estimate an average (N-weighted) effect and to ascertain the extent of heterogeneity in the effects. Overall, these results suggest that neuroticism alone was not related to health behaviors, while individuals higher in conscientiousness were less likely to be smokers or drinkers, and more likely to engage in physical activity. In terms of the healthy neuroticism interaction of neuroticism and conscientiousness, significant interactions for smoking and physical activity suggest that the association between neuroticism and health behaviors was smaller among those high in conscientiousness. These findings lend credence to the idea that healthy neuroticism may be linked to certain health behaviors and that these effects are generalizable across several heterogeneous samples.