Biological Age and Capacity for Self-Management: Implications for Nursing

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究的目的是检查高血压患者的生物学年龄与执行功能/工作记忆之间的关联。先前的研究表明，执行功能和工作记忆容量是自我管理所必需的重要认知过程。除了这些过程对理解自我管理的重要性之外，已经表明执行功能和工作记忆随着年龄的增长而下降。这似乎暗示年龄是无法自我管理的风险因素，例如药物。然而，这一点尚未得到证明。几项调查表明，实际年龄是自我管理能力的一个很差的预测因素，事实上，老年人在一些日常任务上可能比年轻人做得更好。虽然实际年龄不涉及自我管理，但生物学年龄可能是临床人群中自我管理差异的执行功能/工作记忆能力的预测因子。这项描述性相关性研究使用端粒长度作为生物学年龄的标志，并检查了端粒长度与> 50岁的个体自我管理一种处方药物治疗高血压的执行功能/工作记忆能力的相关性。该研究还确定氧化应激是高血压患者加速生物衰老的可能机制。将量化氧化应激，并将其与疾病严重程度、生物学年龄和执行功能/工作记忆能力相关联。该研究还试图为执行功能/工作记忆能力与药物依从性（一种既定的自我管理活动）之间的关联提供汇聚证据。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this investigation is to examine the association between biological age and executive function/working memory among individuals with hypertension. Prior investigations suggest executive function and working memory capacity are important cognitive processes essential for self-management. In addition to the importance of these processes to understanding self-management, it has been shown that executive function and working memory decline with age. This would seem to implicate age as a risk factor for failure to self-manage, for example, medications. This, however, has not been demonstrated. Several investigations suggest that chronological age is a poor predictor of self-management capacity and indeed that older adults may be better on some everyday tasks than young counterparts. While chronological age is not implicated in self-management, it is possible that biological age is a predictor of executive function/ working memory capacity in clinical populations accounting for differences in self-management. This descriptive correlational study uses telomere length as a marker for biological age and examines the association of telomere length to executive function/working memory capacity among individuals > 50 years of age self-managing one prescribed medication for hypertension. The study also identifies oxidative stress as a likely mechanism for accelerated biological aging in persons with hypertension. Oxidative stress will be quantified and associated with disease severity, biological age and executive function/working memory capacity. The study also seeks to provide converging evidence for the association between executive function/working memory capacity and medication adherence, an established self-management activity.