The Relationship of Perceived Ageism and Self-perception of Aging to Health Behaviors in Older Adults who Reside in Assisted Living

Abstract

Objective: To examine the relationships between perceived ageism, self-perceptions of aging (SPA), and health behaviors in older adults residing in assisted living facilities (ALF).Design: A nonexperimental descriptive cross-sectional correlational design. Setting: Seven ALF located in a large urban city in a Midwestern state in the United States. Participants: One hundred and five older adults recruited from seven ALF. Measurement: The Mini-Cog was used to screen for cognitive impairment in potential older adult participants. Depressive symptoms were measured by the short version of the Geriatric Depression Scale. Perceived ageism was measured using the Perceived Ageism Questionnaire. SPA was measured by the Attitude Toward Own Aging subscale of the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale. Health behaviors were measured by the subscale Current Health Behaviors of the Health Awareness and Behaviour Tool. The subscale measures by a cluster of independent activities that include physical activity, sedentary behavior, diet, tobacco use, alcohol use, and stress. Results: Participants perceive higher levels of ageism, have less positive SPA, and adhere less to healthy behaviors compared to previous studies examining community-dwelling older adults. The findings lend support to the internalization hypothesis (Levy, 2009), that individuals who perceive more negative age stereotypes have more negative SPA. The findings showed a trend for individuals who perceive less ageism and have more positive SPA to adhere more to healthy behaviors like physical activity, active lifestyle, not smoking, low alcohol use, and lower stress. Conclusion: The findings of this study have important implications for the identification of gero-psychosocial factors associated with adherence to health behaviors in older adults residing in ALFs. The findings that ageism and SPA influence health behaviors have important implications for designing future interventions to promote and maintain active healthy aging in ALF.