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"Close Encounters of the Aging Kind"  "Perception is reality". Put another way, reality is created in the eyes of the beholder. And, for many elder Americans, that's not good news. Because in the eyes of some elders, the process of aging is nothing but negative. That kind of attitude is referred to as "ageism" ... and ageism can be hazardous to your health.
That's right. In fact, as far back as the 1970's, the National Council on Aging released survey findings that reported widespread ageism (age-prejudice) among older people. Of course, the elders who were interviewed saw themselves as an "exception" ... it was other older people who had all the age-related problems. So pervasive was the national negativism on aging, that it took nearly three decades of a counter-culture campaign to turn things around. Over the last 30 years, public relations agencies have been pumping out "positive images" of aging and older people. As a result, today's old Americans are, supposedly, more optimistic about later life and growing older. They're mountain-climbing, sky-diving, going back to college, and doing just about anything their aging hearts desire. There's even a new movie coming out called "Space Cowboys" where NASA calls "geriatric astronauts" out of retirement in order to launch them into space to "save the world". Hmmm. Our images of aging and late life couldn't be better. Right? Wrong. Just when you thought it was safe to "age" again, ageism rears it's ugly face ... again. According to a new study by Yale researchers, elders are once again encountering negative beliefs or stereotypes about aging in their daily lives. And, these "Close Encounters of the Aging Kind" are damaging the health of elders. Ageism, it seems, causes cardiovascular stress. "We were able to reduce this cardiovascular stress by introducing positive stereotypes of aging," says Becca Levy, assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale School of Medicine and lead author of the study. "Previous studies have found that a heightened cardiovascular response to stress contributes to the development of heart disease." Published in the July 2000 issue of the Journal of Gerontology, the study included 54 participants between the ages of 62 and 82, who performed tasks such as recalling the most stressful event in the last five years. After being exposed to positive stereotypes of aging, the group showed a significant decrease in two cardiovascular measures: systolic and diastolic blood pressure. In contrast, participants who were exposed to negative stereotypes of aging showed a significant increase in these measures, even before they performed the stressful tasks. "Negative stereotypes of aging are found in many aspects of our culture," Levy says. In China, a country with more positive aging stereotypes than the United States, Levy found in a past study that older persons performed better on certain memory tasks than their American peers. "The study suggests that negative stereotypes of aging may contribute to health problems in the elderly without their awareness," Levy says. The study also found that the elderly participants who were exposed to positive aging self-stereotypes demonstrated significantly higher self-confidence and higher mathematical performance than those exposed to the negative aging self-stereotypes. Older individuals, says Levy, who mistakenly attribute decline in their health to the inevitability of aging, might reinforce negative stereotypes and ultimately prevent their own successful aging. Based on the findings, Levy says, future treatments aimed at reducing stress in the elderly should consider including the reduction of negative aging self-stereotypes and the promotion of positive ones. Levyıs team included Jeanne Y. Wei, M.D., and Jeffrey M. Hausdorff of Harvard Medical School and Rebecca Hencke of Harvard Graduate School of Education. See related articles in the AgeVenture archives. POP: a film tribute to a father AARP Survey Dispels Age-related Sex Myths America's Oldest Old Get Better With Age America's Gray Liberation Breaks All Age Limits Gender and Age Bias in Medical Rationing AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com |