How old do you feel? The role of age discrimination and biological aging in subjective age. 2015

Yannick Stephan, and Angelina R Sutin, and Antonio Terracciano
University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France.

Subjective age, or how young or old individuals experience themselves to be relative to their chronological age, is a crucial construct in gerontology. Subjective age is a significant predictor of important health outcomes, but little is known about the criteria by which individuals' subjectively evaluate their age. To identify psychosocial and biomedical factors linked to the subjective evaluation of age, this study examined whether perceived age discrimination and markers of biological aging are associated with subjective age. Participants were 4776 adults (Mage = 68) from the 2008 and 2010 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) who completed measures of subjective age, age discrimination, demographic variables, self-rated health and depression, and had physical health measures, including peak expiratory flow, grip strength, waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Telomere length was available for a subset of participants in the 2008 wave (n = 2214). Regression analysis indicated that perceived age discrimination, lower peak expiratory flow, lower grip strength, and higher waist circumference were associated with an older subjective age, controlling for sociodemographic factors, self-rated health, and depression. In contrast, blood pressure and telomere length were not related to subjective age. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that how old a person feels depends in part on psychosocial and biomedical factors, including the experiences of ageism and perceptible indices of fitness and biological age.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008297 Male Males
D008875 Middle Aged An adult aged 45 - 64 years. Middle Age
D010465 Perception The process by which the nature and meaning of sensory stimuli are recognized and interpreted. Sensory Processing,Processing, Sensory
D002320 Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena Processes and properties of the CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM as a whole or of any of its parts. Cardiovascular Physiologic Processes,Cardiovascular Physiological Processes,Cardiovascular Physiology,Cardiovascular Physiological Concepts,Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomenon,Cardiovascular Physiological Process,Physiology, Cardiovascular,Cardiovascular Physiological Concept,Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomenas,Concept, Cardiovascular Physiological,Concepts, Cardiovascular Physiological,Phenomena, Cardiovascular Physiological,Phenomenon, Cardiovascular Physiological,Physiologic Processes, Cardiovascular,Physiological Concept, Cardiovascular,Physiological Concepts, Cardiovascular,Physiological Phenomena, Cardiovascular,Physiological Phenomenon, Cardiovascular,Physiological Process, Cardiovascular,Physiological Processes, Cardiovascular,Process, Cardiovascular Physiological,Processes, Cardiovascular Physiologic,Processes, Cardiovascular Physiological
D004192 Discrimination, Psychological Differential response to different stimuli. Discrimination, Psychology,Psychological Discrimination
D004644 Emotions Those affective states which can be experienced and have arousing and motivational properties. Feelings,Regret,Emotion,Feeling,Regrets
D005260 Female Females
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000332 Aerobiosis Life or metabolic reactions occurring in an environment containing oxygen. Aerobioses
D000368 Aged A person 65 years of age or older. For a person older than 79 years, AGED, 80 AND OVER is available. Elderly

Related Publications

Yannick Stephan, and Angelina R Sutin, and Antonio Terracciano
July 2018, The Gerontologist,
Yannick Stephan, and Angelina R Sutin, and Antonio Terracciano
October 2010, Mayo Clinic women's healthsource,
Yannick Stephan, and Angelina R Sutin, and Antonio Terracciano
September 2016, Journal of aging and health,
Yannick Stephan, and Angelina R Sutin, and Antonio Terracciano
January 2018, The Journal of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery,
Yannick Stephan, and Angelina R Sutin, and Antonio Terracciano
February 2014, Nursing,
Yannick Stephan, and Angelina R Sutin, and Antonio Terracciano
February 1959, Concours medical,
Yannick Stephan, and Angelina R Sutin, and Antonio Terracciano
October 2004, Mental health today (Brighton, England),
Yannick Stephan, and Angelina R Sutin, and Antonio Terracciano
August 2002, Trends in cognitive sciences,
Yannick Stephan, and Angelina R Sutin, and Antonio Terracciano
April 1982, Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien,
Yannick Stephan, and Angelina R Sutin, and Antonio Terracciano
January 2000, Nursing times,
Copied contents to your clipboard!