Age discrimination in the Pandemic was not the rule: Every twentieth person in the second half of life reported experiencing discrimination because of their age

After the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, one-sided portrayals of older people as a vulnerable risk group repeatedly emerged in the media and political discourse. This chapter examines the extent to which these generalised portrayals were also reflected in people in the second half of life feeling disadvantaged or worse off because of their age in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, different areas of life in which this disadvantage was experienced are examined

Physical activity during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Changes in the frequency of sports and walking among people in the second half of life

With the introduction of infection control measures such as distance and hygiene rules, the framework conditions for physical activity fundamentally changed within a short period of time. This chapter examines how the physical activity of people in the second half of life changed after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020

Untersuchung von Zusammenhängen zwischen kognitiver Leistungsfähigkeit und außerhäuslichem Verhalten im Alter

Der Zusammenhang zwischen kognitiver Leistungsfähigkeit und außerhäuslichem Verhalten (außerhäusliche Mobilität sowie Aktivität), speziell im Alter, ist ein Forschungsgebiet, das bislang kaum empirisch thematisiert wurde. In vielen Fällen erfolgte die Erfassung von außerhäuslicher Mobilität und Aktivität bislang auf der Basis von – nicht zwingend ökolo-gisch validen – laborbasierten Tests oder von Selbstauskünften zu einzelnen Indikatoren, ohne dass das komplexe Konstrukt außerhäuslichen Verhaltens auch multidimensional und im Alltags-Setting der älteren Erwachsenen operationalisiert wurde. Im Rahmen des vom Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) im Rahmen der Deutsch-Israelischen Projektkooperation (DIP) sowie von der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) geförderten deutsch-israelischen Forschungsprojekts „Der Gebrauch hochentwickelter Technologie zur Mobilitätsanalyse bei der Alzheimerschen Erkrankung und verwandten kognitiven Einschränkungen“ („SenTra“, Senior Tracking; Leitung: Prof. Dr. Noam Shoval, Prof. Dr. Hans-Werner Wahl, Prof. Dr. Frank Oswald) der Universität Heidelberg sowie der Hebrew University of Jerusalem, aus dem die Daten für diese Untersuchung stammen, wurde die Mobilität älterer Menschen auf Basis moderner GPS-Ortungsverfahren über einen Zeitraum von vier Wochen untersucht. In der vorliegen-den Untersuchung wurden Zusammenhänge zwischen verschiedenen Dimensionen des außerhäuslichen Verhaltens – Mobilität sowie Aktivität und deren jeweilige Subkomponen-ten – und kognitiven Maßen analysiert. Operationalisiert wurde das außerhäusliche Verhal-ten über GPS-basierte Mobilitätsmaße sowie einen Aktivitätsfragebogen, zur Erfassung der kognitiven Leistungsfähigkeit wurden die CERAD-Testbatterie sowie Subtests der Wechsler Memory Scale eingesetzt. Explorativ wurde außerdem untersucht, ob intraindividuelle Fluktuationen in Mobili-tätsleistungen in einem systematischen Zusammenhang mit kognitiven Parametern stehen. In einem weiteren Schritt wurde geprüft, ob die Bezüge zwischen Mobilität, Aktivität und kognitiver Leistung je nach kognitivem Funktionsstatus variieren. Dafür wurde die Gruppe der kognitiv unbeeinträchtigen älteren Erwachsenen (n = 100) mit einer Stichprobe von Personen mit leichter kognitiver Beeinträchtigung (MCI = mild cognitive impairment; n = 37) verglichen. Signifikant positiv fielen zum einen die Effekte der episodischen Gedächtnisleistung auf Maße des Aktionsradius, die außer Haus verbrachte Zeit sowie die Zahl aufgesuchter Orte aus. Überwiegend positiv gerichtet, aber nur vereinzelt signifikant waren zudem die Zusammenhänge zwischen den kognitiven Indikatoren und den intraindividuellen Fluktuati-onsmaßen außerhäuslicher Mobilität. Deutlich stärkere Zusammenhänge ergaben sich andererseits zwischen Maßen der (kognitiv bzw. physisch anspruchsvollen) Aktivität und kognitiver Leistungsfähigkeit. Diese Befunde unterstützen die Annahme, dass zwischen kognitiver Leistung, Mobi-litätsparametern und Indikatoren außerhäuslicher Aktivitäten differentielle Zusammenhänge vorliegen, die von der (kognitiven) Komplexität des jeweiligen außerhäuslichen Verhaltens-indikators abhängig sind

A Multidimensional and Multidirectional Perspective

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in profound changes of individuals’ everyday lives. Restrictions in social contacts and in leisure activities and the threatening situation of a spreading virus might have resulted in compromised well-being. At the same time, the pandemic could have promoted specific aspects of psychosocial well-being, e.g., due to intensified relationships with close persons during lockdown periods. We investigated this potentially multidimensional and multi-directional pattern of pandemic-specific change in well-being by analyzing changes over up to 8 years (2012-2020) in two broad well-being domains, hedonic well-being (life satisfaction) and eudaimonic well-being (one overarching eudaimonic well-being indicator as well as environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations with others, and self-acceptance), among 423 adults who were aged 40-98 years in 2012. By modelling longitudinal multilevel regression models and allowing for a measurement-specific intra-individual deviation component from the general slope in 2020, i.e. after the pandemic outbreak, we analyzed potential normative history-graded changes due to the pandemic. All mean-level history-graded changes were nonsignificant, but most revealed substantial interindividual variability, indicating that individuals’ pandemic-related well-being changes were remarkably heterogeneous. Only for personal growth and self-acceptance, adding a pandemic-related change component (and interindividual variability thereof) did not result in a better model fit. Individuals with poorer self-rated health at baseline in 2012 revealed a pandemic-related change toward lower life satisfaction. Our findings suggest that not all well-being domains - and not all individuals - are equally prone to “COVID-19 effects”, and even pandemic-associated gains were observed for some individuals in certain well-being domains.Peer Reviewe

Trajectories of Functional Health and Its Associations With Information Processing Speed and Subjective Well-Being: The Role of Age Versus Time to Death

Functional health declines with advancing age, which is supposedly the consequence of both normal, “primary aging” as well as of mortality-related, “tertiary aging” processes. To better understand the independent effects of both processes, we investigated how age and time to death relate to changes in functional health over up to 12 years. Additionally, adopting the disablement process model for an end-of-life perspective, we investigated if both age and time to death moderate associations of information processing speed and subjective well-being with functional health. Data from the German Ageing Survey were used. Our sample consisted of 578 participants who had died between 2002 and 2016 (mean age at death: 76.59 years, range 45–95 years). Information processing speed was measured by the Digit Symbol Substitution Test. The well-being indicators assessed were positive affect and depressive symptoms. Based on longitudinal multilevel regression models, we found that functional health significantly decreased over time in study. Approaching death was a stronger predictor of functional health decline than was chronological age. Regarding moderation effects, controlling for gender, education, and multimorbidity, individuals closer to death at baseline revealed stronger associations of both depressive symptoms and information processing speed with baseline functional health, whereas these associations were not moderated by chronological age. Our findings suggest that change in functional health is more strongly affected by time to death than by chronological age. Moreover, there may be a growing importance of cognitive resources and well-being for functional health with advanced “tertiary aging,” but not with progression of “primary aging.

Trajectories of Pain in Very Old Age: The Role of Eudaimonic Wellbeing and Personality

Pain is common in very old age and in the last years prior to death. However, little is known regarding longitudinal trajectories of pain in very old age and at the end of life. Moreover, whereas medical and morbidity-related factors contributing to pain are established, the role of psychosocial factors, such as eudaimonic wellbeing or personality as potential determinants of late-life pain trajectories has so far not been sufficiently investigated. We used data from the LateLine project. The sample consisted of n = 118 very old adults (M = 90.5 years, SD = 2.8 years) who were living alone at baseline and who had died between 2009 and 2021. They took part in up to 16 measurement occasions (M = 5.2, SD = 4.7, range 1–16) within an observational interval of 7 years. Assessment of pain was based on the SF-36 bodily pain subscale. Key indicators of eudaimonic wellbeing (autonomy, environmental mastery, and purpose in life) as well two of the Big Five personality traits (neuroticism and extraversion) were included as predictors. We controlled in all analyses for gender, education, subjective health, and depressive symptoms. Contrasting pain trajectories over chronological age (time since birth) vs. time to death, a time-to-death-related model resulted in a better model fit and accounted for a larger amount of pain variability than the age-related model. Mean-level change in pain, both over age and time to death, was not significant, but there was substantial interindividual variability in intraindividual trajectories. Age-related change in pain was significantly predicted by autonomy and neuroticism, with increasing pain among those who had lower initial autonomy scores and higher initial neuroticism scores. With regard to time-to-death-related trajectories of pain, higher purpose in life as well as lower extraversion at baseline predicted less increase or even steeper decrease in pain with approaching death. Our findings suggest that, despite overall mean-level stability in pain both over age and time to death, there is a substantial proportion of individuals who reveal deterioration in pain over time. Regarding the role of psychosocial predictors, personality traits and eudaimonic wellbeing are related with late-life pain trajectories both over age and time-to-death.Peer Reviewe

Associations of Wellbeing Levels, Changes, and Within-Person Variability With Late-Life All-Cause Mortality Across 12 Years: Contrasting Hedonic vs. Eudaimonic Wellbeing Among Very Old Adults

Advanced old age has been characterized as a biologically highly vulnerable life phase. Biological, morbidity-, and cognitive impairment-related factors play an important role as mortality predictors among very old adults. However, it is largely unknown whether previous findings confirming the role of different wellbeing domains for mortality translate to survival among the oldest-old individuals. Moreover, the distinction established in the wellbeing literature between hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing as well as the consideration of within-person variability of potentially relevant mortality predictors has not sufficiently been addressed in prior mortality research. In this study, we examined a broad set of hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing indicators, including their levels, their changes, as well as their within-person variability, as predictors of all-cause mortality in a sample of very old individuals. We used data from the LateLine study, a 7-year longitudinal study based on a sample of n = 124 individuals who were living alone and who were aged 87–97 years (M = 90.6, SD = 2.9) at baseline. Study participants provided up to 16 measurement occasions (mean number of measurement occasions per individual = 5.50, SD = 4.79) between 2009 and 2016. Dates of death were available for 118 individuals (95.2%) who had deceased between 2009 and 2021. We ran longitudinal multilevel structural equation models and specified between-person level differences, within-person long-term linear change trends, as well as the “detrended” within-person variability in three indicators of hedonic (i.e., life satisfaction and positive and negative affect) and four indicators of eudaimonic wellbeing (i.e., purpose in life, autonomy, environmental mastery, and self-acceptance) as all-cause mortality predictors. Controlling for age, gender, education, and physical condition and testing our sets of hedonic and eudaimonic indictors separately in terms of their mortality impact, solely one eudaimonic wellbeing indicator, namely, autonomy, showed significant effects on survival. Surprisingly, autonomy appeared “paradoxically” related with mortality, with high individual levels and intraindividual highly stable perceptions of autonomy being associated with a shorter residual lifetime. Thus, it seems plausible that accepting dependency and changing perceptions of autonomy over time in accordance with objectively remaining capabilities might become adaptive for survival in very old age.Peer Reviewe

20-Year Trajectories of Health in Midlife and Old Age: Contrasting the Impact of Personality and Attitudes Toward Own Aging

Personality traits affect health throughout adulthood. Recent research has demonstrated that attitudes toward own aging (ATOA) also play an important role in various health outcomes. To date, the role of personality versus ATOA for health has rarely been considered in parallel and contrasted for different periods of the second half of life, such as midlife versus early old age. We posit that with advancing age, associations of personality and ATOA with trajectories of health might change. To address this assumption, we examined trajectories of physician-rated health and its between-person and time-varying, within-person associations with personality (neuroticism and conscientiousness) and ATOA over 20 years in middle-aged (baseline age 43–46 years; n = 502) and older (61–65 years; n = 500) adults. Based on longitudinal multilevel regression models (controlling for gender and education), we found at the between-person level that lower neuroticism scores and more positive ATOA scores were independently associated with better physician-rated health at baseline. This association of ATOA with health was stronger in the old age sample than in the midlife sample. At the within-person level, time-varying associations revealed that both middle-aged and older individuals had better physician-rated health on measurement occasions when they reported more favorable ATOA. In addition, in the old age subsample alone, individuals’ physician-rated health was better on occasions when they had higher conscientiousness scores. Our findings suggest that certain personality traits (conscientiousness, but not neuroticism) as well as attitudes toward own aging may gain in importance in later life as predictors of objective health changes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved

Awareness of Age-Related Changes Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults

Awareness of Age-Related Change (AARC) describes to what extent people become aware of changes which they attribute to getting older. So far little is known regarding how different AARC dimensions change over time, to what extent these changes in different domains of AARC gains and losses are interrelated, and which predictors account for inter-individual differences in within-person longitudinal trajectories. Specifically, the extent to which individuals perceive age-related gains and losses might be shaped by their chronological age, their personality as well as by their general views on aging (i.e., their age stereotypes). We investigated changes in global and domain-specific AARC gains and losses over about five years in a sample of originally N = 423 participants aged 40 to 98 years at baseline. We analyzed the role of personality traits and age stereotypes for levels and changes of AARC, taking into account participants' age at baseline and controlling for gender, education, and subjective health. Based on longitudinal multilevel regression models, we observed mean-level declines in most AARC gain domains. In contrast, perceived general AARC losses, as well as AARC losses in health and physical functioning, in cognitive functioning and in social-cognitive/socio-emotional functioning remained, on average, stable over time. Baseline scores on AARC gains (global scale) were higher among individuals with higher neuroticism, openness, conscientiousness and more positive age stereotypes. Additionally, the association of higher neuroticism with higher AARC gain scores was stronger among individuals with more positive age stereotypes. Higher neuroticism and more negative age stereotypes also predicted higher baseline scores on AARC losses (global scale). At the same time, higher neuroticism was associated with a steeper decrease in AARC loss perceptions over time. Most of the intercorrelations within the intercepts and within the intra-individual trajectories of the different AARC domains were positive, but small in size. Our findings show the importance of considering trajectories of age-related gains and losses in parallel and across multiple developmental domains when investigating the subjective perception of the aging process. They also suggest that personality traits and general age stereotypes are related with individual experiences of aging.Peer Reviewe

Altersdiskriminierung in der Pandemie ist nicht die Regel: jede zwanzigste Person in der zweiten Lebenshälfte berichtet erfahrene Benachteiligung wegen ihres Alters

Ältere Menschen wurden im Zuge der Pandemie teilweise sehr pauschal und einseitig als hochverletzliche "Risikogruppe" dargestellt. Sie könnten aufgrund ihrer Gefährdung bevormundet worden sein und für einige gar als die Schuldigen für Schutzmaßnahmen wie den Lockdown und Kontaktbeschränkungen gelten. Haben viele Ältere in der Pandemie Altersdiskriminierung erfahren? Die Ergebnisse einer im Sommer 2020 durchgeführten Befragung des Deutschen Alterssurveys zeigen, dass erlebte Altersdiskriminierung keineswegs die Regel ist. Die deutliche Mehrheit (94,6 Prozent) der Menschen zwischen 50 und 90 Jahren gibt im Sommer 2020 an, seit Mitte März nicht aufgrund ihres Alters benachteiligt worden zu sein. Nur 5,4 Prozent berichten über erfahrene Altersdiskriminierung. Zudem zeigen sich keine deutlichen Unterschiede nach Alter oder Geschlecht in erfahrener Altersdiskriminierung: In allen Altersgruppen innerhalb der zweiten Lebenshälfte sowie bei Frauen und Männern geben jeweils um die 5 Prozent an, Altersdiskriminierung erfahren zu haben. Allerdings gibt es einen deutlichen Unterschied, wenn man den Gesundheitszustand betrachtet: Von denjenigen, die ihre Gesundheit als gut einschätzen, geben nur 3,9 Prozent erfahrene Altersdiskriminierung an - bei denen, die ihre Gesundheit als beeinträchtigt einstufen, ist der Anteil dagegen mit 7,3 Prozent fast doppelt so hoch. Um Menschen in der zweiten Lebenshälfte vor Altersdiskriminierung zu schützen, besonders die davon häufig betroffenen Personen mit gesundheitlichen Einschränkungen, ist es erforderlich, dass Politik, Medien und Wissenschaft ausgewogen sowohl über Risiken als auch über Stärken des Alters berichten. Die Öffentlichkeit sollte für negative Altersbilder sowie für Altersdiskriminierung und deren Konsequenzen sensibilisiert werden. Denn auch wenn der Anteil der Personen, die angeben Altersdiskriminierung erfahren zu haben, gering ist, darf nicht vergessen werden, dass derartige Diskriminierungserfahrungen für die betroffenen Personen erhebliche nachteilige Konsequenzen für Wohlbefinden, Gesundheit und sogar die eigene Lebenserwartung haben können