The effects of stresses and strains on health has been the subject extensive research, almost entirely in terms of professionally diagnosed disease, or mortality, and generally without special focus on the elderly. This proposal deals with the issue from a biopsychosocial perspective, namely using as the health measure a person's perception that experienced symptoms constitute illness, whether or not these symptoms are ever identified as a disease, by a health professional . This more inclusive conceptualization of illness is congruent with the psychosocial meanings attributed to stresses and strains by persons experiencing them. The proposal also links stresses to perceived illness through psychological mediating variables. This process is examined in a four year longitudinal study of a random sample of 1000 persons aged 65 and over in an urban and suburban community. The elderly are selected as a target of study because they have seldom been included in research on stress and health, despite the fact that older persons may suffer major negative life events such as losses of relatives and friends, and also be subject to ongoing strains in their daily lives due to economic and mobility problems. As a consequence they may be particularly vulnerable to worry and sadness, which in turn may lead to experienced physical complaints self-assessed as symptoms of illness. Using a random sample of elderly selected from Medicare rolls, data will be collected four times at six month intervals, at the first and last time points by personal interview, and at the second and third by telephone interview. In addition a subsample will complete a one month health diary. This design will permit identification of causal relationships linking life events and/or strains through psychological mediators to perceived physical symptoms. The design will also permit analysis of possible reciprocal relationships between mediators and illness symptoms. In focussing on the elderly and including all experienced illness as related to stressors, as well as in identifying the psychological link between stressor and physical complaints, this proposal makes a unique contribution to knowledge concerning biopsychosocial issues and the well-being of the elderly.
| Haug, M R; Musil, C M; Warner, C D et al. (1998) Interpreting bodily changes as illness: a longitudinal study of older adults. Soc Sci Med 46:1553-67 |
| Haug, M R; Musil, C M; Warner, C D et al. (1997) Elderly persons' interpretation of a bodily change as an illness symptom. J Aging Health 9:529-52 |
