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

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究的目的是研究高血压患者的生物年龄与执行功能/工作记忆之间的关系。先前的研究表明，执行功能和工作记忆容量是自我管理的重要认知过程。除了这些过程对理解自我管理的重要性之外，已有研究表明，执行功能和工作记忆会随着年龄的增长而下降。这似乎意味着年龄是自我管理失败的一个风险因素，比如药物。然而，这一点还没有得到证实。几项调查表明，实足年龄并不能很好地预测自我管理能力，事实上，老年人在某些日常任务上可能比年轻人做得更好。虽然实足年龄与自我管理无关，但生物学年龄可能是临床人群中执行功能/工作记忆能力的预测因子，说明了自我管理的差异。本描述性相关研究使用端粒长度作为生物学年龄的标记，并检查端粒长度与执行功能/工作记忆能力之间的关系，在50岁至50岁的个体中，自我管理一种处方药治疗高血压。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。氧化应激将被量化，并与疾病严重程度、生物年龄和执行功能/工作记忆能力相关联。该研究还试图为执行功能/工作记忆容量和药物依从性（一种既定的自我管理活动）之间的联系提供一致的证据。

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.