Stress Biomarkers as a Potential Link Between Age Beliefs and Health

描述（由申请人提供）：实验和纵向研究发现，年龄观念越消极的老年人的健康状况越差。解释这一过程的机制尚不清楚。拟议项目的总体目标是首次调查压力生物标志物随着时间的推移是否反映了一个生物过程，该过程将消极的年龄信念（定义为社会对老年人的贬低看法）与老年人的健康状况恶化联系起来。研究压力生物标志物作为潜在机制的重要性，因为它们有可能为老龄化健康中的种族和性别差异提供以前未被研究的解释。拟议的项目将利用两个正在进行的补充性纵向数据集，重点关注社区居住的老年人。因此，我们将首次追求以下目标和假设：目标1：随着时间的推移，研究老年人的年龄信念是否与压力生物标志物相关。假设1：随着时间的推移，老年人的消极年龄观念会预测压力生物标志物的升高。目的2：研究随着时间的推移，老年人的年龄观念对压力生物标志物的影响是否存在种族和性别差异。假设2a：随着时间的推移，消极年龄观念对压力生物标志物的不利影响会使年长的非裔美国人比同龄的年长白人更容易受到影响。假设2b：随着时间的推移，老年女性比同龄男性更容易受到负面年龄观念对压力生物标志物的不利影响。目的3：研究随着时间的推移，老年人的压力生物标志物是否介导了年龄信念与长期认知和身体健康状况恶化之间的关系。假设3：老年人的压力生物标志物将介导消极年龄信念与较差的认知健康（即记忆缺陷、轻度认知障碍和阿尔茨海默病的风险、较小的海马体积）和较差的身体健康（即身体功能缺陷、心血管事件的风险）之间的关系。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Experimental and longitudinal studies have found that older individuals with more negative age beliefs demonstrate worse health outcomes. The mechanism that explains this process is not known. The overall aim of the proposed project is to investigate for the first time whether stress biomarkers over time reflect a biological process tha links negative age beliefs (defined as disparaging perceptions that are assimilated from society about older individuals as a category) with worse health of older individuals. The importance of examining stress biomarkers as the potential mechanism is enhanced by their potential ability to provide a previously unexamined explanation for racial and gender disparities in aging health. The proposed project will draw on two ongoing complementary longitudinal datasets that focus on community-dwelling older individuals. Thus, we will pursue the following aims and hypotheses for the first time: Aim 1: Examine whether older individuals' age beliefs are associated with stress biomarkers over time. Hypothesis 1: Older individuals' negative age beliefs will predict elevated stress biomarkers over time. Aim 2: Examine whether racial and gender disparities exist in the influence of older individuals' age beliefs on stress biomarkers over time. Hypothesis 2a: Older African Americans will be more vulnerable than same-aged older whites to the adverse impact of negative age beliefs on stress biomarkers over time. Hypothesis 2b: Older women will be more vulnerable than same-aged older men to the adverse impact of negative age beliefs on stress biomarkers over time. Aim 3: Examine whether older individuals' stress biomarkers over time mediate the relationship between age beliefs and worse cognitive and physical health over time. Hypothesis 3: Older individuals' stress biomarkers will mediate the relationship between negative age beliefs and worse cognitive health (i.e., memory deficits, risk of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease, and smaller hippocampal volume) and worse physical health (i.e., physical-function deficits, risk of cardiovascular events, and higher mortality) over time. Aim 4: Identify the factors that moderate negative age beliefs' influence on older individuals' stress biomarkers over time. Hypothesis 4: Resiliency factors (i.e. Feeling Useful to Others, Openness, and Emotional Stability) and vulnerability factors (i.e., Age-belief Self-relevance and Adverse Life Events) will moderate negative age beliefs' effect on stress biomarkers over time. This study could identify a new and potentially modifiable process, negative age beliefs' association with stress biomarkers over time, as a factor that contributes to adverse health outcomes among older individuals.