Judgments about estrogen replacement therapy: The role of age, cognitive abilities, and beliefs.

Zwahr, Melissa D.; Park, Denise C.; Shifren, Kim

doi:10.1037/0882-7974.14.2.179

Cited by 56 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 33 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…While the paucity of research makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions, it might seem fair to assume that cognitive decline has a negative effect on older adults' decision-making capabilities, in particular in cases where explicit (as opposed to implicit) knowledge is needed. A number of studies, however, suggest that even though older adults experience cognitive decline and are apt to incorporate less information, their decision making can match that of younger adults [Chen & Sun 2003;Wood et al, 2005;Zwahr, Park, & Shifren, 1999]. This last point raises one important question: what are the conditions that allow older adults, despite their cognitive limitations and reliance on a restricted set of information, to make decisions as good as those made by their younger counterparts?…”

Section: Bounded Rationality Cognition and Older Adults' Decision Mmentioning

confidence: 95%

Bounded Rationality, Emotions and Older Adult Decision Making: Not So Fast and Yet So Frugal

2007

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Herbert Simon’s work on bounded rationality has had little impact on researchers studying older adults’ decision making. This omission is surprising, as human constraints on computation and memory are exacerbated in older adults. The study of older adults’ decision-making processes could benefit from employing a bounded rationality perspective, but any such attempt must take into account the role that emotions play in older adults’ information processing, memory, and attention allocation. This is especially the case because older adults show relatively less decrements in performance when tasks are imbedded in or laden with emotional stimuli, and they exhibit a greater tendency to rely on emotional information. We examine recent work on bounded rationality and studies investigating older adults’ utilization of, and attention to, emotional information, with the aim of creating a framework that captures the mechanisms underlying older adults’ decision making.

show abstract

Section: Bounded Rationality Cognition and Older Adults' Decision Mmentioning

confidence: 95%

Bounded Rationality, Emotions and Older Adult Decision Making: Not So Fast and Yet So Frugal

2007

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Second, cognitive abilities are likely to influence more abilities and behaviors than just comprehension. For example, working memory measures explain age-related variance in medication adherence and medical decision making (Zwahr, Park, & Shifren, 1999).…”

Section: Study Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Correlates of Health Literacy in Patients With Chronic Heart Failure

Morrow¹,

et al. 2006

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose: Many older adults have inadequate healthrelated literacy, which is associated with poor health outcomes. Thus, it is important to identify determinants of health literacy. We investigated relationships between health literacy and general cognitive and sensory abilities, as well as education, health, and demographic variables, in a community sample of middleaged and older adults. Design and Methods: Participants were 314 community-dwelling adults (67% female, 48% African American) diagnosed with chronic heart failure recruited for a pharmacist-based intervention study to improve adherence to chronic heart failure medications. We adminstered demographic, health, education, cognitive (e.g., processing speed, working memory), and sensory measures, and the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (STOFHLA), as part of the baseline condition of this study. Results: STOFHLA scores were lower for participants who were older, less educated, male, African American, had more comorbidities, or scored lower on all cognitive ability measures. Hierarchical linear regression analyses showed that education and cognitive ability were independently associated with the STOFHLA measure and explained age differences in health literacy. Implications: The association of cognitive abilities and literacy has important implications for health literacy models and for interventions to reduce the impact of low health literacy on health outcomes. For example, medication instructions should be designed to reduce comprehension demands on general cognitive abilities as well as literacy skills.

show abstract

“…That is, the medical decisionmaking literature has indicated that older adults demonstrate declines in the thoroughness of the information search process and in the amount of information used (Meyer et al, 1995;Zwahr et al, 1999), as well as a shorter interval between symptom onset and the decision to seek medical care (Leventhal et al, 1993(Leventhal et al, , 1995. Such findings have been interpreted as suggesting that older adults may be may be attempting to conserve diminishing cognitive and emotional resources by making medical decisions in the aforementioned manner.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%