AGEISM, RACISM, AND HEALTH OF OLDER AFRICAN AMERICANS

与白人同龄人相比，老年非裔美国人更容易患上严重疾病，遭受更大的残疾，死亡率也更高。例如，非裔美国人的年龄调整高血压率比白人美国人高50%以上，相关的发病率和死亡率甚至更高。尽管越来越多的研究旨在确定导致老年非裔美国人健康状况种族差异的机制，但少数群体健康状况下降的原因尚未完全了解。最近的初步结果提出了一种可能性，即年龄歧视，更具体地说，老年人如何看待“老年人”-导致老年人血压升高和功能状态下降，也许在老年非裔美国人中也是如此。在老年白人男性和女性中，除了对压力的心血管反应外，自身老化血清型还影响行走和记忆。此外，潜意识强化的积极血清型的老化明显提高记忆和行走性能，并减少心血管反应的压力。这些研究结果表明，加强对老龄化和种族的刻板印象和老年非裔美国人的自我认知也可能提高日常生活活动的表现和维护独立性，在这个少数民族人口。因此，我们建议：1）检验以下假设：与接受旨在激活衰老负面形象的干预措施的老年非裔美国人相比，接受旨在激活衰老正面形象的干预措施的老年非裔美国人将表现出对压力的心血管反应显着降低，认知功能改善，身体表现增强。2)为了验证这一假设，即种族和老龄化的积极刻板印象的强化将增强老年非裔美国人对压力的心血管反应，步行能力和认知功能。这项研究的结果应该为制定干预措施铺平道路，这些干预措施可以扩大积极加强年龄和种族陈规定型观念的短期效益，从而改善我们越来越多的老龄人口的功能和健康状况。

Older African Americans are more likely to develop serious illness, suffer greater disability, and have increased mortality compared with their Caucasian peers. For example, the age-adjusted rate of hypertension in African Americans is more than 50% greater than the rate of Caucasian Americans and the associated morbidity and mortality is even higher. Despite a growing body of research aimed at identifying the mechanisms that contribute to the racial disparity in the health status of older African Americans, the reason(s) for the decreased health status in the minority population are not fully understood. Recent preliminary results raise the possibility that ageism more specifically, how older persons perceive "older persons"-- contributes to the increased blood pressure and decreased functional status in the elderly in general, and perhaps, also among older African Americans. In older Caucasian men and women, self serotypes of aging affect walking and memory in addition to the cardiovascular response to stress. Moreover, subconscious reinforcement of positive serotypes of aging apparently improves memory and walking performance and reduces the cardiovascular response to stress. These findings suggest that enhancing the stereotype of aging and race and the self-perception of older African Americans may also enhance the performance of activities of daily living and the maintenance of independence in this minority population. Therefore, we propose: 1) To test the hypothesis that older African Americans exposed to an intervention designed to activate a positive imaging of aging will demonstrate a significantly lower cardiovascular response to stress, improved cognitive function and enhance physical performance compared to older African Americans who are exposed to an intervention designed to activate a negative image of aging. 2) To test the hypothesis that reinforcement of positive stereotypes of race and aging will enhance the cardiovascular response to stress, walking performance and cognitive function in older African Americans. The results of this study should pave the way for the development of interventions that extend the short-term benefits of positive reinforcement of the stereotypes of age and race, thereby improving the function and health status of a growing portion of our aging population.