Tag Archives: aging

By Karene Booker
Reprinted from Cornell Chronicle, February 13, 2013 

Loeckenhoff

 Will you save the best chocolate in the box until last? Do you want the good news first or the bad? Your preferences may depend on your age, reports a Cornell study published in Psychology and Aging (Vol. 27:4). 

In a series of experiments, younger adults preferred to get aversive experiences out of the way and save the most positive ones for last, confirming prior research. However, preferences for the timing of emotional experiences differed by age. Older adults would rather intersperse the good with the bad, and this may have implications for financial planning, medical choices and work life, the authors say. 

"Our research is the first to systematically examine age differences in preferences for emotional sequences," said Corinna Loeckenhoff, assistant professor of human development in Cornell's College of Human Ecology, who authored the study with former students Andrew Reed, Ph.D. '11, and Skye Maresca '11. 

"Much of the prior research on aging and decision-making has focused on isolated events, but we tried to approximate real-life settings where people encounter extended sequences of experiences," said Loeckenhoff. 

The team conducted two studies, each with about 90 adults, spanning different ages. Participants were asked to view a series of photos with positive, negative or neutral content, and they could choose the sequence in which they would see them. As expected, younger adults showed a preference for sequences that began with the negative photos and ended with the positive ones. However, this tendency faded with age, with the oldest participants preferring "flat" sequences, where different types of photos were more evenly interspersed. 

"The findings have potential implications for real-life settings," Loeckenhoff said. "The construction of advantageous sequences is critical for a variety of life domains such as financial planning, sustained performance in work settings, and the management of health conditions," Loeckenhoff added. "Such decisions are particularly relevant for older people because limited physical and cognitive resources may make it more difficult for them to recover from repeated negative experiences and poor choices." 

More research is needed to understand the mechanisms that drive such effects, but Loeckenhoff and colleagues found some hints that age differences in future time horizons may play a role. Participants' preferences for specific sequences were associated with their self-reported time perspectives. Those with expansive horizons (typically seen in younger adults) were more likely to save the best for last, whereas those with limited horizons (typically seen in old age) opted for balanced sequences. To some extent, older adults may be following the adage "life is short, eat dessert first." 

In future work, the authors hope to examine sequences of events that occur over longer time frames ranging from weeks to months. The research was supported in part by Cornell's Department of Human Development and the Lois and Mel Tukman Endowment. 

Karene Booker is an extension support specialist in the Department of Human Development.

By Karene Booker

Jessie Boas

Boas

Meghan McDarby

McDarby

Two Cornell undergraduates have been pursuing their respective passions for working with older adults and solving problems in underserved communities by tackling the burden of chronic pain among minorities.

Over the past year, Meghan McDarby ’14 and Jessie Boas ‘13 delved into the research on how persistent pain affects different racial, ethnic and age groups under the guidance of sociologist Elaine Wethington, professor of human development in the College of Human Ecology and co-director of Cornell’s Translational Research Institute on Pain in Later Life (TRIPLL).

Their conclusion - minorities are at greater risk and are less likely to receive adequate care, and the problem may grow as America’s population ages and becomes increasingly diverse. The causes of the inequities are not simple, they found, ranging from factors like individual differences in pain sensitivity and beliefs about medical care, to provider factors like less effective pain assessment and communication with patients, to systemic factors like differing access to health care.

 “I think I have learned more about being a successful physician from this research than I have from any pre-med prerequisite,” said McDarby, a human development major and aspiring geriatrician. McDarby discovered her passion for older adults in high school through a chance volunteer experience at her local hospital and has pursued this passion through her coursework and activities at Cornell.

“This project sparked my interest in policy and public health issues,” she said. “I’ve realized that the sociological aspects of the practice of medicine are just as important as the biological and psychological principles.”

The students prepared their findings for a Pain Disparities Consensus Workshop, convened in December by TRIPLL, which brought researchers and practitioners together to develop strategies to address inequities in pain care in New York City.

“Our paper served as a springboard for collaborative and interactive discussion on pain disparities and related issues,” said Boas, a sociology major in the College of Arts and Sciences who hopes to join the Peace Corps when she graduates. “I want to have the skill set to effectively research the problems that plague communities, and be able to initiate programs to ameliorate them.” “Meghan and I were fortunate enough to attend this conference and to discuss pain disparities with top experts in the field.”

Now the students are writing an article with Wethington and TRIPLL Director Dr. Cary Reid at Weill Cornell Medical College highlighting their findings as well as the recommendations generated by the conference.

After spending months on the literature review, the highlight of the project came when she met Dr. Carmen Green from the University of Michigan, upon whose work the literature review was based. “Meeting strong, dedicated women like Dr. Green and Professor Wethington has given me the courage to move forward full-force into the healthcare field,” said McDarby.

 “Meghan and Jessie are outstanding examples of how involvement in research is one of the major advantages of a Cornell undergraduate education and a “win-win” for faculty and students,” Wethington said.  “They have brought incredible energy and intelligence to this project and their involvement has helped them apply what they have learned in the classroom to real world issues. Dr. Reid and I have benefited from their commitment and dedication and they have laid the groundwork for their future careers.”

Karene Booker is an extension support specialist in the Department of Human Development.

 

It is a new book called “30 Lessons for Living” (Hudson Street Press) that offers practical advice from more than 1,000 older Americans from different economic, educational and occupational strata who were interviewed as part of the ongoing Cornell Legacy Project.

Its author, Karl Pillemer, a professor of human development at the College of Human Ecology at Cornell and a gerontologist at the Weill Cornell Medical College, calls his subjects “the experts,” and their advice is based on what they did right and wrong in their long lives. Read the full story

By Karene Booker
Reprinted from Cornell Chronicle, April 30, 2012

Anthony Ong

Ong

The social pain of loneliness produces changes in the body that mimic the aging process and increase the risk of heart disease, reports a recent Cornell study published in Psychology and Aging (27:1). Changes in cardiovascular functioning are part of normal aging, but loneliness appears to accelerate the process, say the researchers.

To investigate the effects of age and loneliness on cardiovascular health, the researchers measured cardiovascular reactivity and recovery in 91 young adults (18-30 years old) and 91 older adults (65-80 years old) who presented a speech and did mental arithmetic in a lab setting. Individual differences in perceived isolation (loneliness) were assessed before the tasks, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure measurements were taken before, during and after the tasks.

"The most striking thing we found was that the cardiovascular response of the lonely young adults to the social stressor task looked more like that of the nonlonely older adults," said lead author Anthony Ong, associate professor of human development in Cornell's College of Human Ecology and co-author of the study with Jeremy Rothstein '10, now at the Yale University School of Medicine Child Study Center, and Bert Uchino of the University of Utah.

As expected, they found that older adults had higher resting blood pressure, greater cardiovascular stress reactivity and longer cardiovascular recovery times compared with younger adults. Loneliness increased each of these measures but had even greater negative effects in older adults, putting them at the greatest risk. The recovery time of the lonely older adults, on average, was so delayed, they did not return to baseline levels during the two-hour-long follow-up period.

While prior studies had found a link between loneliness and stress-induced changes in cardiovascular responses, this is the first to look at young and older adults in the same study and is among a select few to analyze cardiovascular recovery rate.

"I think it's helpful to distinguish the emotional pangs that are associated with acute loneliness from the more chronic feelings of distress that accompany perceived deficits in the quality of our social relationships," Ong said.

"Viewed from this perspective, acute loneliness may be seen as adaptive, signaling us to repair social connections. However, it is the persistence of loneliness over time that may set the stage for health problems in later life," Ong said. "I think one of the most important and life-affirming messages of this research is the reminder that we all desire and need meaningful social connections."

The research was supported by the National Institute on Aging and the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research.

Karene Booker is an extension support specialist in the Department of Human Development.

 

Nathan Spreng

Spreng

Please welcome our newest faculty member, Nathan Spreng, assistant professor in the department of human development in Cornell’s College of Human Ecology. Spreng is Director of the Laboratory of Brain and Cognition. His research examines large-scale brain network dynamics and their role in cognition. Currently, he is investigating the link between autobiography and imagination, how we conceive of the future, and successful navigation of the social world. These investigations extend to the related processes of memory, cognitive control, and social cognition and the interacting brain networks that support them. He is also actively involved in the development and implementation of multivariate and network-based statistical approaches to assess brain activity. In doing so, he hopes to better understand the properties of the brain networks underlying complex cognitive processes as they change across the lifespan.

Spreng comes to us from Department of Psychology at Harvard University where he was a postdoctoral research fellow.

By Karene Booker
Reprinted from Cornell Chronicle, February 13, 2012

Loeckenhoff

Taking care of an aging or disabled loved one can be hazardous to your health. But certain personality traits appear to reduce caregivers' risk for health problems, reports a new Cornell study.

"Personality accounted for about a quarter of the variance in caregivers' mental health and about 10 percent of the variance in their physical health," said lead author Corinna Loeckenhoff, assistant professor of human development in Cornell's College of Human Ecology.

The study, published in Psychology and Aging (26:3), was co-authored with Paul Duberstein and Bruce Friedman of the University of Rochester and Paul Costa Jr. of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

To better understand what puts some caregivers at greater risk or makes them more resilient, the authors analyzed data on more than 500 informal caregivers of older adults with multiple impairments in New York, Ohio and West Virginia. Of the caregivers, 98 percent were white and 72 percent were female; their mean age was 63.

The researchers examined the links among caregivers' personality traits; self-reported health; two factors thought to affect health -- caregiver strain (feeling overloaded, worried) and self-efficacy (feeling confident in one's abilities); and the physical and mental impairment of the care recipients.

They measured five basic personality traits to assess the caregivers' tendency to be negative/anxious (neuroticism), energetic/outgoing (extraversion), inventive/curious (openness), friendly/compassionate (agreeableness) and efficient/organized (conscientiousness).

As expected, the team found personality-health links. Extraversion was positively associated with mental and physical health, for example, whereas neuroticism was negatively associated with mental and physical health. The researchers also found that both caregiver strain and self-efficacy played a role in this association between personality and health.

"We expected that self-efficacy would play an important role for subjective health, but we were surprised to see that it was much more important than caregiver strain," said Loeckenhoff. "In fact, it mediated every single significant association between personality traits and subjective health that we observed."

The authors suggest that one reason why personality traits affect health is that these traits powerfully influence caregivers' perceptions of their ability to successfully manage the daily challenges they face.

"Our findings tie in with the recent literature on resilience," said Loeckenhoff. "To understand how people deal with a challenge, it's not sufficient to focus on the sources of stress and strain. It is also critical to examine the resources that people can draw on.

"Our findings suggest that initiatives to assist caregivers could usefully include measures of personality traits to identify caregiver strengths and weaknesses and those most at risk. Interventions might also target self-efficacy beliefs because while personality traits are relatively stable over time, self-efficacy beliefs can change as a result of verbal instruction, personal experience and observing role models."

Karene Booker is an extension support specialist in the Department of Human Development.

By Ted Boscia
Reprinted from Cornell Chronicle, November 10, 2011 

Pillemer

For 25 years, Cornell gerontologist Karl Pillemer has researched answers to many facets of aging -- coping with Alzheimer's disease, improving nursing home care and supporting family caregivers. Now he's turned to America's elders for a very different reason: for guidance on living happier, more fulfilling lives at any age.

In "30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice From the Wisest Americans" (Hudson Street Press/Penguin), Pillemer, the Hazel E. Reed Professor of Human Development in the College of Human Ecology, shares practical advice about living the good life from more than 1,200 individuals age 65 and older -- a number of them Cornellians -- who possess what he calls "transcendental wisdom" gained from surviving war, poverty, social upheaval and other hardships.

"My goal in this project was to ask older people what they know about living that younger people don't," said Pillemer, who worked on the project for six years. "People in their 70s, 80s and beyond -- my oldest interviewee was 108 -- are credible experts on such issues as finding a purpose in life, avoiding regrets and, of course, on how to age fearlessly and well. And it felt urgent to me to capture what the older generation knows, before they are gone."

Upon turning 50, Pillemer thought, "maybe there is something about getting older that teaches you how to live better." He had read research showing that older people show higher levels of happiness than younger people, but no studies of precisely what elders would advise the rest of us about how to live.

With the help of Cornell student research assistants, Pillemer set out to explore the issue through a series of studies. At first, he wrote to older adults seeking replies to the question: "What are the most important lessons you have learned over the course of your life?" After a flood of responses, Pillemer knew he had struck gold. With the help of the Cornell Survey Research Institute, he followed up with a national random sample survey of more than 300 older adults on the subject before selecting approximately 240 additional individuals for in-depth interviews.

The advice [America's elders] give is just so highly relevant to most of us. For example, who better to tell us how to live well through hard times than someone who survived the Great Depression?" Pillemer said.

Pillemer distills the responses into six major themes in the book: marriage, careers, raising children, aging, avoiding regret, and securing happiness/enduring hardship and presents five time-tested lessons on each. The book mixes personal reflections and direct quotes from seniors with commentary and insights from Pillemer.

Older Americans are an "irreplaceable natural resource," Pillemer writes, and his efforts are ensuring that their wisdom lives on. In addition to "30 Lessons for Living," he oversees The Legacy Project, a website to share tips for living, and a companion YouTube channel.

Ted Boscia is assistant director for communications in the College of Human Ecology.

By George Lowery
Reprinted from the Cornell Chronicle, August 15, 2011

Pillemer and Rosenblatt

Helene Rosenblatt '41, who completed her Cornell degree in 1994, chats with professor Karl Pillemer Aug. 1.

When turning 50, "I began to notice some differences in my perspective on life," says Cornell gerontologist Karl Pillemer. "The things that bothered me didn't irk me so much anymore. You begin to take a longer view of things -- you see how individual events find their place in a larger context."

This led Pillemer to ask: Is there something older people know that the young don't about how to live?

To find out, Pillemer, the Hazel E. Reed Professor of Human Development in the College of Human Ecology and professor of gerontology in medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, and colleagues collected pearls of wisdom from more than 1,500 older Americans about living better, happier lives.

In July he launched the Legacy Project blog to share hard-won insights, recommendations and philosophies of living.

Voices of reason

"Try as much as possible to avoid thinking about yourself. ... you should put yourself out of the picture as much as possible in any situation and try to think objectively, almost as if you are a camera (with emotions and feelings) recording what goes on around you and responding to it. I think one will enjoy life to a much greater extent than if thoughts about yourself govern how you react to a problem or situation."

"Enjoy and love people."

"Enjoy animals."

"Take care of yourself physically."

"Be open-minded as much as you can."

--Frederick, 68

"More important when you look back on your life are the unselfish things you have done, the love and support you have given to others, and the sense that you have made the most of your talents and opportunities. I have learned that growing up is the work of a lifetime."

--Maurice, 77

More life lessons:

"Save your money, take care of yourself, play golf."

"Choose to be happy. I even wear my Clinique perfume called 'Happy.'"

"Don't wear a miniskirt when you're 68."

"Well, I don't think my life would have worked without God in my life because my husband is Mexican-Italian and I'm English-Irish, along that line, and if we hadn't had God in our life, we just wouldn't have made it."

"Stick with your beliefs but listen to other people's sides. A couple of times I think I even voted for Democrats."

"Learn new things, don't sit back and stagnate."

"I've learned that it's much easier to be positive than negative, it's easier to smile than to frown, and when in doubt, eat chocolate!"

"A lot of my research has been on what one might call the negative or dark side of aging -- studies on elder abuse, nursing home care, Alzheimer's disease and chronic pain," Pillemer says. "But research also shows that older people are often happier than those in middle age and younger. I wanted to understand why that is and make their advice of happier living available to younger people."

Consulting the academic literature, Pillemer found that although there have been studies on "elder wisdom," older people have not been systematically asked to share practical advice about leading a happy life. Major themes emerged from his interviews, which Pillemer distilled into a set of "life lessons" in such categories as love and marriage; child rearing; work and career; aging well; avoiding regrets; dealing with loss; and prescriptions for happiness.

Contributors have submitted lists, one-line answers and what Pillemer calls "long, existential, soul-searching answers." In-depth interviews were conducted with about 600 elders across the country.

"At 70 and beyond, studies show, many people do develop a sense of purpose and serenity," Pillemer says. "We captured that perspective in hopes that younger people could learn from it."

The Legacy Project website will continue indefinitely, Pillemer says, and it welcomes new submissions from people age 60 and up, as well as comments and discussions. A new life lesson is posted daily, with plans for audio and video content to enhance the site soon.

Reading all this advice has changed Pillemer's life, he says. "One of the strongest lessons from the elders is this principle for dealing with your adult children: Don't interfere! I have two adult daughters, and I really took that advice to heart and became much more careful to offer advice only when asked. The elders give that kind of clear advice that all of us can use in everyday life."

Other major lessons: Don't worry so much; elders say they deeply regret time spent needlessly worrying. Marry someone a lot like you, who has similar values. Avoid showing favoritism to children. And get on the road: Not having traveled enough is a source of regret for many seniors.

Pillemer says the elders he interviewed "have a unique ability to advise us. We've gotten used to motivational speakers and pop psychologists instead of individuals who are right next door or in our families. People in their 70s and beyond can teach us how to meet major challenges in life and to learn to focus more on small-scale, day-to-day happiness. People into their 90s told us they feel a kind of freedom they've never felt before; they can live as they want to; they have less responsibility and are less concerned with what people think."

Another goal of the Legacy Project, says Pillemer, is to capture this practical wisdom before this oldest generation is gone.

By John McKain
Reprinted from Cornell Chronicle, July 18, 2011
Charles Brainerd

Brainerd

Valerie Reyna

Reyna

Cornell scientists have shown a significant correlation for the first time between a human gene and people's risk for mild cognitive impairment (MCI), often a precursor to Alzheimer's disease and related forms of dementia.

The findings could help doctors to recommend simple preventative measures for at-risk patients, including healthy diet, exercise and intellectual activity -- all of which could forestall and even prevent chronic symptoms associated with the disease, said lead author Charles Brainerd and Valerie Reyna, professors of human development in Cornell's College of Human Ecology.

The professors, with researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., linked the ε4 allele of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype to a greater likelihood of the onset of MCI in the July 4 issue of the journal Neuropsychology.

"We're excited about these findings, because they help identify the segment of the population who will most benefit from effective treatments to prevent Alzheimer's-type dementia," Brainerd said.

The clinical applications of linking this genetic marker with MCI are far-reaching, Brainerd said, because genetic testing can now be added to the neuropsychological tests that are currently the only way to identify MCI.

"What is at stake is whether genetic testing is useful for determining MCI susceptibility and candidacy for treatments that are designed to prevent or forestall/treat MCI (and therefore prevent Alzheimer's dementia)," the authors write. "If not, neuropsychological testing remains the only reliable means of identification."

Prior studies have been inconclusive owing to limits of their subject populations. In the new study, the researchers identified the link between the ε4 allele and the risk of MCI by analyzing a large data set from the National Institute on Aging, the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), that accurately represents older adults from all regions and racial and ethnic groups in the United States.

Classifying subtypes of MCI was also critical to the study's success. Led by Dr. Ronald C. Petersen and Glenn E. Smith at the Mayo Clinic, the authors successfully identified subtypes of MCI, only one of which is the precondition for Alzheimer's. The paper outlines how criteria for the different MCI subtypes developed by the Mayo researchers helped control for errors that have plagued previous studies that have attempted to identify an ε4-MCI link.

By sorting the HRS subjects who have the ε4 gene into subtypes of impairment identified in Petersen's and Smith's work, the Cornell researchers were able to show a significant correlation the ε4 gene and risk of the Alzheimer's precondition, known as amnestic MCI (or a-MCI). The results specifically show that 32 percent of study subjects who had been diagnosed as a-MCI were carriers of the ε4 APOE biomarker, as compared to only 20 percent of study subjects who had been diagnosed as normal and healthy.

The Cornell part of the research was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

John McKain is assistant dean for communications in the College of Human Ecology.

Related Links:
College of Human Ecology
Charles Brainerd
Valerie Reyna

Loeckenhoff

    
By Karene Booker

Older adults, compared with younger adults, tend to report they are more upbeat and that their emotions and mental health do not interfere with their work and social life. That better mental health allows them to wait longer for a monetary gain, reports a new Cornell study.

For example, even though younger people have their entire future ahead of them, they're more impatient than older adults when it comes to waiting for financial rewards, the study found.

The researchers, publishing in Psychology and Aging (26:2), sought to resolve how and why age influences people's tendency to devalue or discount future rewards and losses compared to immediate ones.

Although the researchers found no age differences in people's choices about losing money, they found that older adults are more likely than their younger counterparts to wait for a larger amount of money rather than take an immediate, smaller sum.

"Our findings suggest that the improved emotional functioning generally experienced by the older adults is the primary driver of their greater ability to forgo immediate temptation in favor of waiting for a later, greater amount of money," said lead author Corinna Loeckenhoff, assistant professor of human development in Cornell's College of Human Ecology, who conducted the study with Ted O'Donoghue, professor of economics, and David Dunning, professor of psychology.

"We also found that younger adults expected that emotional reactions to gains and losses would feel less intense if they happened in the future. Older adults were more likely to understand that gains and losses would probably feel the same no matter when they occurred."

Unlike other studies, the research examined the effect of age on people's choices about financial gains and losses using computerized testing with real money outcomes, rather than taking a survey approach; and it studied age differences in both gains and losses.

Study participants -- 98 people between the ages of 19 and 91 -- were asked to make a series of choices about receiving or losing money, all involving an immediate gain (or loss) versus a future gain (or loss). For example, they were asked to choose between getting $5 now or $7.50 in 90 days. The gains or losses in the future ranged from $4.75 to $7.50 with time delays ranging from seven to 180 days. Participants also completed questionnaires that assessed cognitive abilities, personality traits and aspects of mental health. At the end of the study session, one of each participant's choices was picked at random and the appropriate amount of money was given to the participant. Participants were given a starting balance of $8, so they would not lose their own money.

"Understanding this [phenomenon] better would have implications for a host of important choices, such as saving for retirement and choosing medical care," said Loeckenhoff, who was designated as a "rising star" by the Association for Psychological Science this past May.

If confirmed by future research, she said, the findings could lead to the developing age-appropriate decision aids. Younger adults, in particular, would benefit from interventions that help them better manage their emotions and recognize the emotional reality of future consequences.

This research was supported in part by Cornell's Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research and the Lois and Mel Tukman Endowed Assistant Professorship awarded to Loeckenhoff, who also received funding from the President's Council of Cornell Women and the Cornell ISS Small Grants Program to support her work on decision making in older adults.

Karene Booker is extension support specialist in the Department of Human Development.

Related Links:
College of Human Ecology
Department of Human Development
Corinna Loeckenhoff
Ted O'Donoghue