Level and change in economic, social, and personal resources for people retiring from paid work and other labour market statuses Abstract Well-being in retirement is thought to depend on person’s level of resources and how his or her resources change during retirement. However, to date few studies have directly investigated resource trajectories during retirement. The current study therefore examines how economic, personal, and social-relational resources change during the retirement transition for people retiring from paid employment and for people retiring from other, non-working labour market statuses (e.g. disability pension, homemaker, unemployment). Based on four representative baseline samples of the German Ageing Survey (1996, 2002, 2008, and 2014) and their respective 6-year follow-up interviews, we identified N = 586 retirees. We then used dual change score models to separately estimate the level and change in income, health, activity, family and non-family network size, and social support for people retiring from paid work (n = 384) and people retiring from other statuses (n = 202) adjusted for age, gender, education, region, period, and time since retirement. Overall, we found that resources changed only modestly during the retirement transition. Resource changes did, however, differ by last labour market status and sociodemographic characteristics. Income and social support declined and family networks increased for both those retiring from paid work and those retiring from other statuses. Leisure activities increased only for those retiring from paid work. No changes in health or non-family networks were observed. People with many resources before retirement also had many resources after retirement. We conclude that retirement affects resources less than researchers often expect. Accordingly, differences based on labour market remain despite retirement.

Age- and education-adjusted normative data for the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test (RBMT) Abstract The original Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test (RBMT) suggests a cutoff global score of 10 points. However, this limit may be too stringent for older adults attending memory training programs, particularly for those with low education levels. This study aims to provide appropriately adjusted age and education norms for the RBMT. Data from 711 subjects were grouped based on age (65–67, 68–71, 72–75 and 76–83) and education level (primary school, high school and university studies). The data exhibit a clear trend of scores decreasing with age. The diminution in scores does not reach trend levels of significance between neighboring (< 5 years) age intervals, but it is statistically significant at the designated alpha level (p = .05) when younger and older adults are compared over a range of 5 years of difference. 81.86% of our sample has global scores below the suggested cutoff of 10 points. The present study provides a more accurate representation of RBMT global score performance in older adults for specific age and education stratifications.

Age integration in older Europeans’ non-kin core networks: Does formal social participation play a role? Abstract Age segregation—the widespread separation of people by age—is deemed by many gerontologists a major problem in contemporary societies. Contributing to this dialog, the current exploratory article examines the presence of non-kin members in European seniors’ close personal networks. Specifically, we document network connections to people outside of their 10-year birth cohort, both younger (“downward” age integration) and older (“upward” age integration). We consider whether different aspects of social participation—breadth and intensity of activity, and specific types of participation—are associated with age integration and we pay particular attention to variation across four regions of the continent. Analyses use Wave 6 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (N = 34,282) which contains an updated social networks module. Results of descriptive analyses and logistic regression models demonstrate three key findings. First, both forms of age integration are rare—fewer than 10% of older Europeans have non-kin networks that extend beyond their own cohorts. Nevertheless, both forms of age integration tend to be higher in northern and central Europe than in the south and east. Second, two dimensions of formal social activity involvement were associated with age integration, namely activity breadth and intensity. Third, though there was some evidence that particular formal activities were linked to age integration, this pattern was not consistent across the whole of Europe. Overall, findings point to the significance of cultural and organizational variation across Europe as well as to important and increasingly relevant social cleavages in the later segments of adulthood.

Modelling long-term cost-effectiveness of health promotion for community-dwelling older people Abstract The effectiveness of health promotion for community-dwelling older people is well documented; however, there is a general lack of health economic evaluations. The aim of the present study was to evaluate long-term cost-effectiveness over 4 years of two health promoting interventions: senior meetings and a preventive home visit, for community-dwelling older people in relation to no intervention. We applied a Markov model including five states defined in relation to level of dependency of home help and place of residency. The model included transitions between dependency states, scores for quality of life and societal costs for each state, intervention costs and intervention effects for two formats of health promoting interventions. For each intervention and a no-intervention control group, we calculated the accumulated quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and societal costs over 4 years. Sensitivity analyses included higher intervention costs, lower intervention effects and additional intervention costs and effects related to booster sessions. The results of all analyses indicated that health promotion implemented for community-dwelling older people in the format of senior meetings or a preventive home visit was cost-effective. Both interventions lead to QALY gains and reduce societal costs at any follow-up over 4 years, and thus, resources can be used to implement other interventions. The most important factor for the magnitude of QALY gains and cost savings was the intervention effect. Yearly booster sessions implemented for those persons who maintained their level of functioning extended the intervention effects adding additional QALYs and further reducing societal costs.

Card playing enhances speech perception among aging adults: comparison with aging musicians Abstract Speech perception and auditory processing have been shown to be enhanced among aging musicians as compared to non-musicians. In the present study, the aim was to test whether these functions are also enhanced among those who are engaged in a non-musical mentally challenging leisure activity (card playing). Three groups of 23 aging adults, aged 60–80 years, were recruited for the study: Musicians, Card players, and Controls. Participants were matched for age, gender, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III Matrix Reasoning, and Digit Span scores. Their performance was measured using auditory spectral and spatial temporal order judgment tests, and four tasks of speech perception in conditions of: no background noise, background noise of speech frequencies, background noise of white noise, and 60% compressed speech. Musicians were better in auditory and speech perception than the other two groups. Card players were similar to Controls in auditory perception tasks, but were better in the speech perception tasks. Non-musician aging adults may be able to improve their speech perception ability by engaging in leisure activity requiring cognitive effort.

Are there educational disparities in health and functioning among the oldest old? Evidence from the Nordic countries Abstract With the ageing of the population and recent pressures on important welfare state arrangements, updated knowledge on the linkage between socioeconomic status and health in old age is pertinent for shedding light on emerging patterns of health inequalities in the Nordic countries. This study examined self-rated health (SRH), mobility and activities of daily living (ADL) according to level of education in the three oldest old age groups 75–84, 85–94, and 95+, in four Nordic countries. Altogether, 6132 individuals from Danish Longitudinal Study of Ageing, Norwegian Life Course, Ageing and Generation study, Swedish Panel Study of Living Conditions of the Oldest Old, the 5-Country Oldest Old (Sweden) and Vitality 90 + Study were analysed. First, associations of education level with SRH, mobility, and ADL were estimated for each individual study by means of age- and gender-adjusted logistic regression. Second, results from individual studies were synthesized in a meta-analysis. Older adults with higher education level were more likely to report good SRH, and they were more often independent in mobility and ADL than those with basic education when all age groups were combined. In mobility and ADL, differences between education groups remained stable across the age groups but for SRH, differences seemed to be weaker in older ages. With only a few exceptions, in all age groups, individuals with higher education had more favourable health and functioning than those with basic education. This study shows remarkable persistence of health and functioning inequalities in the Nordic countries throughout later life.

Attitudes of elderly Austrians towards new technologies: communication and entertainment versus health and support use Abstract We use data from SHARE (The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe) in Austria to investigate attitudes towards new technologies in information and communication technology. The technologies can significantly facilitate the daily lives of an ageing population. In Austria, in wave 6 in 2015, an additional paper-and-pencil questionnaire was implemented which asked details about attitudes towards different technological innovations. From these questions, we develop a binary attitude score which indicates positive attitudes towards new technologies. In probit estimations, the attitude score is related to different demographic and health variables. Our main results indicate that strong gender differences in attitudes towards new technologies exist: men value communication and entertainment devices more, whereas women’s attitudes are more positive towards devices that include a specific health or support value. Furthermore, while older cohorts value entertainment devices less than younger ones, no such pattern exists for health and support systems.

Association of endemic goitre and exceptional longevity in Sardinia: evidence from an ecological study Abstract This study aims to test the hypothesis that a high prevalence of endemic goitre, considered as a proxy measure for subclinically reduced thyroid function in the population, is geographically associated with exceptional longevity. Using historical data available for 377 Sardinian municipalities in the first half of the twentieth century, we performed an ecological study to investigate the geographic distribution of goitre and its spatial association with demographic indicators of population longevity. This analysis was conducted by using both conventional ordinary least square and geographically weighted regression models to take into account spatial autocorrelation and included other longevity-associated factors previously identified in Sardinia. The spatial analysis revealed that the goitre rate (p < 0.0001), the proportion of inhabitants involved in pastoralism (p = 0.016), the terrain inclination (p = 0.008), and the distance from the workplace as a proxy for physical activity (p = 0.023) were consistently associated with population longevity at an aggregated level in the 377 municipalities. Within the limits of an ecological study design, our findings support the existence of a significant association between high goitre prevalence and increased probability to survive into old age. The present study confirms previous results and is consistent with animal studies and epidemiological surveys in other long-lived areas known as Blue Zones. Potential mechanisms underlying this association need to be further investigated.

Association of non-exercise physical activity in mid- and late-life with cognitive trajectories and the impact of APOE ε4 genotype status: the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging Abstract In this study derived from the population-based Mayo Clinic Study of Aging, we investigated whether non-exercise physical activity (PA) was associated with global and domain-specific cognitive trajectories (memory, language, visuospatial skills, attention) and whether the association differed by apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 genotype status. We included 2061 community-dwelling individuals aged ≥ 70 years (50.5% males, 26.7% APOE ε4 carriers) who were cognitively unimpaired at baseline and on whom serial cognitive data and self-reported information on non-exercise PA were available. We specifically inquired about non-exercise PA carried out at two time points, i.e., midlife (between 50 and 65 years of age) and late-life (within 1 year prior to assessment) and three intensity levels, i.e., light (e.g., laundry), moderate (e.g., scrubbing floors) and heavy (e.g., hard manual labor). Linear mixed-effect models revealed that engaging in midlife PA of moderate or heavy intensity was associated with significantly less-pronounced decline of z-scores in all cognitive domains. Similarly, participants that engaged in late-life moderate or heavy PA had less decline in visuospatial, attention and global z-scores than non-active peers. These associations varied depending on APOE ε4 carrier status, i.e., APOE ε4 non-carriers but not APOE ε4 carriers that engaged in late-life PA had less decline in cognitive z-scores. In contrast, engaging in midlife PA, irrespective of intensity, was significantly associated with less decline in memory function only among APOE ε4 carriers.

Childhood and adulthood circumstances predicting affective suffering and motivation among older adults: a comparative study of European welfare systems Abstract The aims of the study are, first, to examine the effect of childhood and adulthood predictors on affective suffering and motivational symptoms among older adults in Europe and, second, to assess differentials across European welfare systems. The mediating role of adulthood circumstances is also explored. Data are derived from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) waves 2 (cross-sectional material) and 3 (retrospective information). The sample includes 23,050 respondents aged 50 +. The EUROD subscales were obtained using factor analysis; scores were transformed to binary constructs; logistic regression models were used to identify predictors; mediation was assessed employing a decomposition technique. Prevalence of both subscales is higher in Southern and Central/Eastern Europe and lower in Nordic countries, which are characterised by more equitable and generous welfare provisions. Though health, childhood socioeconomic status and childhood adversity are significant for both subscales, there are also differences; female gender, adulthood socioeconomic status and stress are associated with affective suffering, whereas age and educational attainment are of greater consequence for motivational symptoms. These findings are quite consistent across regions, indicating that the subscales represent different aspects of depression. By contrast, childhood circumstances are attenuated differentially by adulthood factors across Europe. Nevertheless, important mediating circumstances are stress for affective suffering and poor health for motivational symptoms. The importance of childhood circumstances in all aspects of later life mental health highlights the need for policy interventions across welfare systems, which should target vulnerable groups early in life.