ABSTRACT
Scores on Factor L of the 16 PF, a measure of suspiciousness that is closely related to the Cook and Medley hostility scale, predicted survival in a sample of 500 older men and women during a follow-up of approximately 15 years. Those individuals with scores indicating higher levels of suspiciousness had greater mortality risk. This association remained significant after controlling for age, sex, physician's ratings of functional health, smoking, cholesterol, and alcohol intake. In addition, Factor L was associated with physician's ratings of health at the initiation of follow-up. These findings add to the weight of evidence that implicates a set of negative interpersonal attitudes in the domain of hostility, anger, cynicism, and mistrust as a prospective marker of individuals at risk for adverse health outcomes.
Subject(s)
Hostility , Paranoid Personality Disorder/mortality , Personality Disorders/mortality , Aged , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Health Status , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Risk FactorsABSTRACT
A 10-year follow-up of 297 survivors from a community study of the aged found there was little or no decline in social and economic function and only moderate declines in mental, physical, and activities-of-daily-living function; demographic and socioeconomic characteristics were usually strong predictors of decline in function; and impairment in one type of function often predicted greater decline in other types of function. Mental impairment was an especially strong predictor of social decline, but not vice versa.
Subject(s)
Aged , Health Status , Health , Activities of Daily Living , Aged/psychology , Economics , Employment , Female , Humans , Longitudinal Studies , Male , Marriage , Mental Disorders/psychology , Mental Health , Probability , Sex Factors , Social Adjustment , Social ClassABSTRACT
The relationship between heart rate deceleration (HRD) and the contingent negative variation (CNV) was evaluated in 12 healthy, elderly men during performance of a signaled reaction time task. While amplitude of the CNV and HRD did parallel RT, CNV alone was found to be predictive of individual differences in speed of response indicating that phasic concordance of these physiological responses is probably not an important factor in age changes in RT. The results indicate the probable importance of central physiological indices such as the CNV over peripheral events such as HRD in the evaluation of RT performance in elderly individuals.
Subject(s)
Aging , Autonomic Nervous System/physiology , Central Nervous System/physiology , Contingent Negative Variation , Electrophysiology , Heart Rate , Aged , Arousal/drug effects , Contingent Negative Variation/drug effects , Electroencephalography , Electrophysiology/drug effects , Heart Rate/drug effects , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Propranolol/administration & dosage , Reaction Time/drug effectsABSTRACT
Memory loss, as measured by the Wechsler Memory scale was examined as a function of diastolic blood pressure during a 6.5-year follow-up period among individuals initially tested in their 60's. On the initial testing, memory was not related to blood pressure. At the end of the follow-up period, the hypertensives showed greater impairment in memory for nonverbal material involving time limits and a psychomotor component than did their age peers with normotensive and borderline elevations of blood pressure. The hypertensives' poor performance, however, was found only on specific sub-task items and appeared not to be influenced by item difficulty alone but rather by other performance factors such as difficulty in deciding what to do, understanding test instructions, or state anxiety associated with the testing situation. Memory for highly meaningful verbal material was not related to blood pressure.
