Feeling Needed: Effects of Generativity on Health in Lonely Older Adults

 描述（由申请人提供）：世界60岁以上人口的比例正在以前所未有的速度增长。鉴于这一趋势，研究老年人的身心健康势在必行。社会心理因素，如孤独，是了解老年人的整体健康至关重要，因为孤独感的增加已与老年人的功能衰退和死亡风险增加有关。老年人的孤独可能部分是由有意义的社会参与中断造成的。事实上，生育力被定义为关注和致力于他人福祉的活动，特别是年轻一代及其相关组成部分，例如感觉社会有用或需要，通常包括在成功老龄化的模型中。此外，对生育率的更高认识与老年人更好的健康结果和长寿有关。因此，孤独的老年人可能特别受益于有针对性的心理干预，旨在增加对生殖力的看法，这可能会通过增加社会有用性的感觉来改善社会联系的感觉，并改善健康状况。本NIA R03应用程序的目的是调查健康和老龄化背景下社会心理过程与促炎反应之间的关系。为了做到这一点，这项拟议中的研究将调查一种旨在增加孤独人群对生殖力的感知的干预措施的效果。 老年人的身体和心理健康结果。鉴于促炎活动与孤独和健康状况不佳有关，该研究还将检查干预对炎症生物标志物的影响（即，循环和刺激的促炎细胞因子和促炎基因表达）。参与者（n=70）将被随机分配到一个为期6周的干预，旨在增加对生殖或控制条件的看法。在干预前和干预后，所有参与者将完成自我报告的身体和心理健康措施，并抽血（以评估炎症的生物标志物）。据推测，与对照条件下的参与者相比，生殖干预的参与者将显示：1）改善的身心健康结果和2）从干预前到干预后的促炎活性降低。此外，假设生物促炎活性的降低将介导健康结果的改善。本研究将有助于促进对老年人生活的影响的理解，包括其对健康和炎症活动的影响。这可能为改善老年人的健康状况提供了一种低成本和低努力的方法，特别是那些最容易受到不良健康状况影响的人，例如孤独的人。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proportion of the world's population over age 60 is increasing at an unprecedented rate. Given this trend, it is imperative to study the mental and physical health of older adults. Psychosocial factors, such as loneliness, are critical in understanding the overall health of older adults, given that increased feelings of loneliness have been linked to functional decline and increased risk of mortality in older adults. Loneliness in older adults may be partially driven by disruptions in meaningful social engagement. In fact, generativity defined as concern and activity dedicated to the well-being of others, especially younger generations and its related components, such as feeling socially useful or needed, are often included in models of successful aging. Furthermore, greater perceptions of generativity have been linked to better health outcomes and longevity in older adults. Thus, lonely older adults may especially benefit from a targeted psychological intervention aimed at increasing perceptions of generativity, which may improve feelings of social connection through increased feelings of social usefulness, as well as improve health outcomes. The objective of this NIA R03 application is to investigate the relationships between social psychological processes and pro-inflammatory responses in the context of health and aging. To do so, the proposed study will investigate the effect of an intervention aimed at increasing perceptions of generativity in lonely older adults on physical and mental health outcomes. Given that pro-inflammatory activity has been linked to both loneliness and poor health outcomes, the study will also examine the effect of the intervention on biological markers of inflammation (i.e., circulating and stimulated pro-inflammatory cytokines and pro-inflammatory gene expression). Participants (n=70) will be randomly assigned to a 6-week intervention aimed at increasing perceptions of generativity or a control condition. During pre- and post-intervention sessions, all participants will complete self-report measures of physical and mental health and have blood drawn (in order to assess biological markers of inflammation). It is hypothesized that participants in the generativity intervention, compared to those in the control condition, will show: 1) improved physical and mental health outcomes and 2) decreased pro-inflammatory activity from pre- to post-intervention. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that decreases in biological pro-inflammatory activity will mediate improvements in health outcomes. The present study will help advance the understanding of the impact of generativity on the lives of older adults, including its effects on health and inflammatory activity. This may inform a low-cost and low-effort way to improve health outcomes in older adults, especially those who may be most vulnerable to poor health outcomes, such as those who are lonely.