Strain, social support, and mental health in rural elderly individuals
Article Abstract:
There have been several studies of the effects of social life on psychological well-being among the elderly, but the interaction of stress, social life and support, and mental health is a relatively neglected area. In this research involving 210 rural elderly individuals, stress is defined as chronic life strain, involving economic deprivation, illness disability, and activity of daily living (ADL) impairment. Measures of social support take the quality of social relationships into account, since this has been shown to be more important than quantity. The results were consistent with previous research, finding relationships among strain, social support, and psychological problems. People with lower incomes were less satisfied. Younger, educated, white males reported higher incomes and fewer disabilities than the others. Whatever their ages, those with physical limitations caused by chronic illness were less satisfied with their lives and had more emotional symptoms. Those who had multiple sources of assistance were more satisfied with life and had fewer psychological problems. The amount of contact with neighbors, friends, and relatives lowered the degree of reported emotional distress, but did not change reports of psychosomatic symptoms or life satisfaction. However, emotional support seems to soften the effects of illness disability on the emotional symptoms of distress. Emotional support can prevent chronic strains from affecting life satisfaction, but active help was the only support indicator that consistently affected life satisfaction and distress. The conclusion is that certain types of life strain act on one another to increase mental health problems, and that those with chronic disabilities suffer increased distress and decreased satisfaction with life. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Journals of Gerontology
Subject: Seniors
ISSN: 0022-1422
Year: 1990
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Effect of aerobic and resistance training on fractionated reaction time and speed of movement
Article Abstract:
One of the obvious consequences of aging is that we slow down; our ability to process and react to specific external information (psychomotor performance) has been said to diminish. However, there have been recent suggestions that physical activity may reduce the effect of age on psychomotor performance and that exercise training can improve it. While that may be true for older persons who have been physically active for most of their lives, it was found that for sedentary people, a six-month training program did not do much to improve either reaction time (RT) or speed of movement (SM), although aerobic capacity did increase. In this study, the effect of a six-month aerobic and variable resistance exercise training on reaction time (RT) and speed of movement (SM) was measured in 49 healthy but sedentary men and women who ranged in age from 70 to 79. The subjects were divided into three groups, including a control group, a walk/jog group and a variable resistance strength training group. Those in the control group were asked not to change their life styles over the six months of the study; those in the other two groups underwent progressive training programs. There were no differences with respect to total reaction time, motor time, or speed of movement between the groups. The authors suggest that to elicit significant improvements in psychomotor performance, less fit subjects, younger subjects, more complex reaction time tasks, and training for longer periods may be required. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Journals of Gerontology
Subject: Seniors
ISSN: 0022-1422
Year: 1990
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Speed and knowledge as determinants of adult age differences in verbal tasks
Article Abstract:
Two studies were done to evaluate the significance of processing speed and knowledge as determinants of age differences in the performance of verbal tasks. Young adults were found to be faster in processingthan the older adults, however, the older adults were found to be equal if not more superior in knowledge than the younger adults. Speculations on the presence of compensatory mechanisms in age effects on processing efficiency andknowledge had been made.
Publication Name: Journals of Gerontology
Subject: Seniors
ISSN: 0022-1422
Year: 1993
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