Physical and mental health conditions account for variability in awareness of age-related changes

Serena Sabatini; Shelbie Turner; Helen Brooker; Clive Ballard; Anne Corbett; Adam Hampshire

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1152177

Physical and mental health conditions account for variability in awareness of age-related changes

Serena Sabatini^*, Shelbie Turner, Helen Brooker, Clive Ballard, Anne Corbett, Adam Hampshire

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Background: The concept of Awareness of Age-Related Changes captures people’s perceptions of the positive (AARC-gains) and negative (AARC-losses) age-related changes they experience in several life domains, including their health. We investigated the cross-sectional associations of number and type of physical and mental health conditions with AARC-gains and AARC-losses. Methods: The sample comprised 3,786 middle-aged and older adults (mean age = 67.04 years; SD = 6.88) participating to the UK PROTECT study. We used hierarchical regression models to analyze whether after having included sociodemographic variables (model 1), number of physical (model 2) and of mental (model 3) health conditions explained a significant additional amount of variance in AARC-gains and AARC-losses, and whether the association between number of conditions and AARC depended on participants’ age. We used multiple regression models to analyze the associations of types of physical and mental health conditions with AARC-gains and AARC-losses. Results: A higher number of physical health conditions was associated with higher AARC-gains and higher AARC-losses, but the association did not depend on participant age. After controlling for the number of physical health conditions, a higher number of mental health conditions was associated with higher AARC-losses but not with AARC-gains, and the association was stronger among older participants. Small effects were found between greater AARC-gains and current cancer and between greater AARC-losses and diagnoses of mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s disease, arthritic condition, cancer in full remission, osteoporosis, depression, anxiety disorders, and personality disorder. The remaining health conditions were either negligibly or non-statistically related to AARC-losses. Conclusion: Middle-aged and older adults having more physical health conditions and more mental health conditions may be at higher risk of negative views on their own aging. However, specific physical health conditions, such as arthritis, and certain mental health conditions, such as depression, may make adults particularly vulnerable to negative age-related perceptions.

Original language	English
Article number	1152177
Journal	Frontiers in Psychiatry
Volume	14
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1152177
Publication status	Published - 2023

Keywords

chronic health conditions
diagnosis
mental illnesses
subjective aging
views on aging

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1152177

Cite this

@article{7196591a60b14576939007f31347fa23,

title = "Physical and mental health conditions account for variability in awareness of age-related changes",

abstract = "Background: The concept of Awareness of Age-Related Changes captures people{\textquoteright}s perceptions of the positive (AARC-gains) and negative (AARC-losses) age-related changes they experience in several life domains, including their health. We investigated the cross-sectional associations of number and type of physical and mental health conditions with AARC-gains and AARC-losses. Methods: The sample comprised 3,786 middle-aged and older adults (mean age = 67.04 years; SD = 6.88) participating to the UK PROTECT study. We used hierarchical regression models to analyze whether after having included sociodemographic variables (model 1), number of physical (model 2) and of mental (model 3) health conditions explained a significant additional amount of variance in AARC-gains and AARC-losses, and whether the association between number of conditions and AARC depended on participants{\textquoteright} age. We used multiple regression models to analyze the associations of types of physical and mental health conditions with AARC-gains and AARC-losses. Results: A higher number of physical health conditions was associated with higher AARC-gains and higher AARC-losses, but the association did not depend on participant age. After controlling for the number of physical health conditions, a higher number of mental health conditions was associated with higher AARC-losses but not with AARC-gains, and the association was stronger among older participants. Small effects were found between greater AARC-gains and current cancer and between greater AARC-losses and diagnoses of mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson{\textquoteright}s disease, arthritic condition, cancer in full remission, osteoporosis, depression, anxiety disorders, and personality disorder. The remaining health conditions were either negligibly or non-statistically related to AARC-losses. Conclusion: Middle-aged and older adults having more physical health conditions and more mental health conditions may be at higher risk of negative views on their own aging. However, specific physical health conditions, such as arthritis, and certain mental health conditions, such as depression, may make adults particularly vulnerable to negative age-related perceptions.",

keywords = "chronic health conditions, diagnosis, mental illnesses, subjective aging, views on aging",

author = "Serena Sabatini and Shelbie Turner and Helen Brooker and Clive Ballard and Anne Corbett and Adam Hampshire",

note = "Publisher Copyright: Copyright {\textcopyright} 2023 Sabatini, Turner, Brooker, Ballard, Corbett and Hampshire.",

year = "2023",

doi = "10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1152177",

language = "English",

volume = "14",

journal = "Frontiers in Psychiatry",

issn = "1664-0640",

publisher = "Frontiers Media",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Physical and mental health conditions account for variability in awareness of age-related changes

AU - Sabatini, Serena

AU - Turner, Shelbie

AU - Brooker, Helen

AU - Ballard, Clive

AU - Corbett, Anne

AU - Hampshire, Adam

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Background: The concept of Awareness of Age-Related Changes captures people’s perceptions of the positive (AARC-gains) and negative (AARC-losses) age-related changes they experience in several life domains, including their health. We investigated the cross-sectional associations of number and type of physical and mental health conditions with AARC-gains and AARC-losses. Methods: The sample comprised 3,786 middle-aged and older adults (mean age = 67.04 years; SD = 6.88) participating to the UK PROTECT study. We used hierarchical regression models to analyze whether after having included sociodemographic variables (model 1), number of physical (model 2) and of mental (model 3) health conditions explained a significant additional amount of variance in AARC-gains and AARC-losses, and whether the association between number of conditions and AARC depended on participants’ age. We used multiple regression models to analyze the associations of types of physical and mental health conditions with AARC-gains and AARC-losses. Results: A higher number of physical health conditions was associated with higher AARC-gains and higher AARC-losses, but the association did not depend on participant age. After controlling for the number of physical health conditions, a higher number of mental health conditions was associated with higher AARC-losses but not with AARC-gains, and the association was stronger among older participants. Small effects were found between greater AARC-gains and current cancer and between greater AARC-losses and diagnoses of mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s disease, arthritic condition, cancer in full remission, osteoporosis, depression, anxiety disorders, and personality disorder. The remaining health conditions were either negligibly or non-statistically related to AARC-losses. Conclusion: Middle-aged and older adults having more physical health conditions and more mental health conditions may be at higher risk of negative views on their own aging. However, specific physical health conditions, such as arthritis, and certain mental health conditions, such as depression, may make adults particularly vulnerable to negative age-related perceptions.

AB - Background: The concept of Awareness of Age-Related Changes captures people’s perceptions of the positive (AARC-gains) and negative (AARC-losses) age-related changes they experience in several life domains, including their health. We investigated the cross-sectional associations of number and type of physical and mental health conditions with AARC-gains and AARC-losses. Methods: The sample comprised 3,786 middle-aged and older adults (mean age = 67.04 years; SD = 6.88) participating to the UK PROTECT study. We used hierarchical regression models to analyze whether after having included sociodemographic variables (model 1), number of physical (model 2) and of mental (model 3) health conditions explained a significant additional amount of variance in AARC-gains and AARC-losses, and whether the association between number of conditions and AARC depended on participants’ age. We used multiple regression models to analyze the associations of types of physical and mental health conditions with AARC-gains and AARC-losses. Results: A higher number of physical health conditions was associated with higher AARC-gains and higher AARC-losses, but the association did not depend on participant age. After controlling for the number of physical health conditions, a higher number of mental health conditions was associated with higher AARC-losses but not with AARC-gains, and the association was stronger among older participants. Small effects were found between greater AARC-gains and current cancer and between greater AARC-losses and diagnoses of mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s disease, arthritic condition, cancer in full remission, osteoporosis, depression, anxiety disorders, and personality disorder. The remaining health conditions were either negligibly or non-statistically related to AARC-losses. Conclusion: Middle-aged and older adults having more physical health conditions and more mental health conditions may be at higher risk of negative views on their own aging. However, specific physical health conditions, such as arthritis, and certain mental health conditions, such as depression, may make adults particularly vulnerable to negative age-related perceptions.

KW - chronic health conditions

KW - diagnosis

KW - mental illnesses

KW - subjective aging

KW - views on aging

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85166413576&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1152177

DO - 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1152177

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85166413576

SN - 1664-0640

VL - 14

JO - Frontiers in Psychiatry

JF - Frontiers in Psychiatry

M1 - 1152177

ER -

Physical and mental health conditions account for variability in awareness of age-related changes

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this