Negative attitudes to ageing affect both physical and cognitive health in later years, new research reveals. The study from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), at Trinity College Dublin, further reveals that participants with positive attitudes towards ageing had improved cognitive ability.
Key findings:
Speaking about the findings, lead researcher Dr Deirdre Robertson commented: "The way we think about, talk about and write about ageing may have direct effects on health. Everyone will grow older and if negative attitudes towards ageing are carried throughout life they can have a detrimental, measurable effect on mental, physical and cognitive health."
Principal Investigator of TILDA, Professor Rose Anne Kenny, added: "Researchers and policy makers can work together to develop and implement societal-wide interventions to target attitudes and perhaps, ultimately, find novel ways of maintaining health in later life."
Data from TILDA provides a unique opportunity to study attitudes towards ageing as it tracks health changes over time in a nationally representative sample of community-dwelling older adults.
These latest findings have important implications for media, policymakers, practitioners and society more generally. Societal attitudes towards ageing are predominantly negative. Everyone will grow older and if these attitudes persist they will continue to diminish quality of life.
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Robertson D, Kenny RA, Negative perceptions of aging modify the relationship between frailty and cognitive function. Personality and Individual Differences 2015. Doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2015.12.010
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Personality and Individual Differences