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

描述(申请人提供)：这项调查的目的是研究高血压患者的生物学年龄和执行功能/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外，已有研究表明，执行功能和工作记忆随着年龄的增长而下降。这似乎意味着年龄是无法自我管理的风险因素，例如，药物。然而，这一点还没有得到证明。一些研究表明，按时间顺序排列的年龄不能很好地预测自我管理能力，事实上，老年人在一些日常工作中可能比年轻人做得更好。虽然实际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/工作记忆容量的预测因子，这说明了自我管理的差异。这项描述性的相关性研究使用端粒长度作为生物年龄的标志，并在50岁、自我管理一种治疗高血压的处方药的人群中检验了端粒长度与执行功能/工作记忆容量的关系。这项研究还发现，氧化应激可能是高血压患者生物衰老加速的一个可能机制。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。这项研究还试图为执行功能/工作记忆能力和服药依从性之间的联系提供一致的证据，服药依从性是一种既定的自我管理活动。

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.