Between-person and within-person associations among sensory functioning and attitude toward own aging in old age: Evidence for mutual relations.

Abstract

Late-life hearing loss and vision loss might prompt more negative attitudes toward one’s own aging because older adults may interpret impaired sensory functioning as a sign of aging. At the same time, more positive attitudes toward own aging might, via various mechanisms, be associated with better sensory functioning. We investigated how objective hearing and vision are associated with attitude toward own aging (ATOA) over time. Our sample comprised 497 participants from the Berlin Aging Study (mean baseline age: 85.15 years, SD = 8.58 years) who provided up to six observations over an average time span of 3.73 years (range 0−15 years). We computed longitudinal multilevel regression models, specifying vision, hearing, and age as within-person and between-person predictors of ATOA, and ATOA and age as between- and within-person predictors of vision and hearing. Covariates were sex, socioeconomic status, suspected dementia, chronic physical diseases, and depression. Significant within-person age effects indicated that vision and hearing declined over time, and ATOA became less favorable over time. At the between-person level, we found that participants with a more favorable ATOA exhibited better hearing, but not better vision, at baseline. Between-person associations of vision and hearing with ATOA were not significant. At the within-person level, there was only one significant effect across all models: On measurement occasions when individuals’ vision was better, they also reported more favorable ATOA. This association was stronger among older individuals. Improving prevention and treatment of vision loss could thus help older adults to maintain positive views on their own aging.

Feeling older, feeling pain? Reciprocal between-person and within-person associations of pain and subjective age in the second half of life.

“…Specifically, we analyze between-person and within-person associations of subjective age, pain, and chronological age. Disentangling between-person and within-person associations is important (Curran & Bauer, 2011; Hoffman & Stawski, 2009; Raz & Lindenberger, 2011), not only because these can be discrepant (Brose et al, 2015; Drewelies et al, 2022; Neubauer et al, 2017; Wettstein, Ghisletta, & Gerstorf, 2023), but also because implications derived from between-person associations (e.g., individuals who feel older report more pain) may be different from those derived from within-person associations (e.g., on occasions when individuals feel older than usual, they also report stronger pain than usual). Specifically, with regard to subjective age, the separation of between-person and within-person associations is particularly important in order to examine “for whom (between-person effects) and under which situations or contexts (within-person effects) subjective views of aging function as antecedents and consequences of health and well-being” (Neupert & Bellingtier, 2022, p. 196).…”

“…Specifically, we analyze between-person and within-person associations of subjective age, pain, and chronological age. Disentangling between-person and within-person associations is important (Curran & Bauer, 2011;Hoffman & Stawski, 2009;Raz & Lindenberger, 2011), not only because these can be discrepant (Brose et al, 2015;Drewelies et al, 2022;Neubauer et al, 2017;Wettstein, Ghisletta, & Gerstorf, 2023), but also because implications derived from between-person associations (e.g., individuals who feel older report more pain) may be different from those derived from within-person associations This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.…”