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，年龄信念较负面的老年人健康状况较差。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随着时间的推移，压力生物标记物是否反映了一种生物过程，即将消极的年龄信念(定义为社会对老年人作为一个类别而同化的贬低观念)与老年人健康状况较差联系起来的生物学过程。研究应激生物标志物作为潜在机制的重要性因其潜在的能力而得到加强，这些生物标志物能够为老龄化健康中的种族和性别差异提供以前未经检验的解释。拟议的项目将利用两个正在进行的相互补充的纵向数据集，重点是居住在社区的老年人。因此，我们将首次追求以下目标和假设：目标1：检验随着时间的推移，老年人的年龄信念是否与压力生物标记物有关。假设1：随着时间的推移，老年人消极的年龄信念将预测压力生物标记物的升高。目的2：检验随着时间的推移，老年人的年龄信念对压力生物标记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，年长的非裔美国人将比同龄的年长白人更容易受到负面年龄信念对压力生物标记物的不利影响。假设2b：随着时间的推移，老年女性比同龄老年男性更容易受到负面年龄信念对压力生物标记物的不利影响。目的3：研究随着时间的推移，老年人的压力生物标记物是否在年龄信念与随着时间推移而变差的认知和身体健康之间的关系中起中介作用。假设3：随着时间的推移，老年人的压力生物标志物将在消极的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以及较小的海马体体积)和较差的身体健康(即身体功能缺陷、心血管事件风险和较高死亡率)之间的关系中起中介作用。目的4：确定随着时间的推移，中度负面年龄信念对老年人压力生物标记物的影响的因素。假设4：弹性因素(即对他人有用的感觉、开放性和情绪稳定性)和易损性因素(即年龄信念自我相关和不良生活事件)将随着时间的推移调节年龄信念对压力生物标记物的负面影响。这项研究可以确定一个新的、潜在的可修改的过程，即随着时间的推移，负面年龄信念与压力生物标记物的关联，作为导致老年人不良健康结果的一个因素。

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.