| Mature adults lead nation in control of lives, functions | |
| By Leonard J. Hansen | |
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Another myth about aging has crashed under the weight of new research. A long-held assumption is that, as a person ages, he or she loses mental and/or physical control of life, affairs, work and finances. That assumption can now be labeled a wrongful myth, according to new research by Brandeis University published in Psychology and Aging, a journal of the American Psychological Association. The study of 3,032 adults nationwide is the first to question respondents in detail on their sense of control in seven specific areas of life: health, work, finances, marriage, sex life, contributions to the well-being of others, and relationships with children. In five of the categories, older adults felt considerably more in control than younger respondents, and significantly more in control over work, finances and marriages. Younger adults scored higher only in the categories of sex life and relationships with children. "Our culture is very youth-centered, and views aging as a series of inevitable, irreversible losses: loss of mental and bodily functions, loss of employment, loss of friends and social relationships, and a general loss of control over life," stated psychologist, Brandeis professor and lead researcher Margie Lachman, Ph.D. “Our study casts doubt on the belief that aging is accompanied by a waning sense of control over one’s life and surroundings." Being in control of one’s life bodes well for a person’s physical health and psychological well-being. The personal sense of control over life and functions increases at middle-age (40-59) and increases even more as a person ages, according to the study. "Of particular interest is that the sense of control over one’s marriage relationship appears to increase during mid-life even while the sense of control over children is declining," stated Dr. Lachman. Of all age groups studied, finances and sex life are the two areas in which people feel the least amount of control, while feelings of control over health and family relationships are strongest overall. The new psychological research presents another course correction to a negative assumption which may now be branded a myth. HEALTH COST RESEARCH Many professional studies earlier reported that natural vitamin E may help reduce the risk of heart disease; and new research published in the American Journal of Cardiology calculates that antioxidant supplements, including vitamin E, may save hundreds of dollars in health care costs for mature adults. In the new study, researchers at the Medical Technical Assessment Group and the University of Sydney in Australia estimated the financial savings from taking natural antioxidant supplements using published data from the Cambridge Heart Antioxidant Study. The latter was a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 2,002 patients and showed that vitamin E reduced non-fatal heart attack risk by 77 percent. The Australian researchers compared cost-effectiveness of vitamin E supplementation with coronary artery disease in both Australian and U.S. health care settings, focusing on non-fatal heart attacks. They determined cost savings based on the cost of heart attacks that were avoided by administering natural vitamin E supplements to patients with atherosclerosis. For persons taking vitamin E supplements, researchers found cost savings of $578 per patient in the United States, and $181 per patient in Australia, when compared with patients receiving a placebo. A GRIP ON HEALTH How’s your handshake? The strength of a mature adult’s hand grip can be used for early screening of people at increased risk of physical disability in old age. New research reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association studied healthy men between 45 and 68 years of age, finding that hand grip strength was highly predictive of functional limitations and disability 25 years later. "Good muscle strength in the mid-life may protect people from old age disability by providing a greater safety margin above the threshold of disability," state Taina Rantanen, Ph.D., formerly of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and Jack M. Guralnik, M.D., Ph.D., lead researchers. The 25-year prospective cohort study began in 1965 among 6,089 Japanese-American men living on Oahu, Hawaii. Researchers found that the risk of self-care disability was more than two times greater in the lowest vs. the highest grip strength group. They add that hand grip strength has been found to correlate with strength of other muscle groups and is thus a good indicator of overall strength. Muscle strength was found to track over the life span - those who had higher grip strength during mid-life remained stronger than others in old age. READ FOR HEALTH Better health outcomes may depend on your ability read and understand information about chronic or other conditions. The Prudential Center for Health Care Research in Atlanta, Ga., studied 3,260 new Medicare enrolles from its HMO programs in Cleveland, Houston, south Florida and Tampa on their ability to read and understand written medical information. They discovered that overall, 33.9 percent of English-speaking and 53.9 percent of Spanish-speaking respondents had inadequate or marginal health literacy. Those with inadequate functional health literacy often misread simple prescription instructions, information regarding the results of blood sugar tests, and simple instructions for preparation for an upper gastrointestinal tract radiographic procedure, according to Julie Gazmararian, M.P.H., Ph.D., the lead researcher on the study. Health literacy is indicated as key to better health, states the report. Researchers indicate that patients with low health literacy and chronic diseases, such as diabetes, asthma or hypertension, have less knowledge of their disease and its treatment and fewer correct self-management skills than literate patients. They say these factors may explain why patients with inadequate functional health literacy are more likely to be hospitalized than those with adequate health literacy. |
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