Remembering the Good Times Is Secret to Happiness
for Oldest American Seniors
Iowa State researchers find loss of cognitive ability
is major source of depression for centenarians and older senior citizens
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| Peter Martin (right), director of Iowa State's
gerontology program, professor of human development and family studies,
shares a laugh during a research session with centenarian
John Persinger. Photo by Bob Elbert, ISU News Service |
April 9, 2010 A new study of senior citizens has
found that past satisfaction with life - even if it's simply recalling
isolated career accomplishments - is the key to happiness in our oldest
years. Researchers from Iowa State University's gerontology program have
helped identify what predicts happiness and long life in centenarians,
as well as what causes depression in 80-somethings and above.
The Ames, Iowa researchers studied 158 Georgia
centenarians.
"The past is the best predictor of the future, so
you're not going to turn your life around at 85 or 90," said Peter
Martin, director of Iowa State's gerontology program and a professor of
human development and family studies (HDFS), who collaborated on both
studies.
"But it's also good to know that past
accomplishments and the happiness that you had -- looking back at your
past -- carries you through these very last years."
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Longevity & Statistics on Senior Citizens |
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Depression grows from loss of cognitive ability
For the depression study, researchers added 78
octogenarians (people 80 or older) to the happiness centenarian sample.
They found that diminished cognitive problem-solving ability was a
significant predictor of depressive symptoms in octogenarians, while
living in a nursing home and greater neurotic tendencies increased
depression among centenarians.
Both studies were published online in the Jan. 26
issue of the journal Gerontology. Jennifer Margrett, an assistant
professor of HDFS, was the lead author on the depression study. Alex
Bishop, an assistant professor of human development and family studies
at Oklahoma State University (who was a doctoral student at Iowa State),
was lead author of the happiness study.
Past life satisfaction pays happiness dividends
In that study, researchers analyzed the subjects'
responses to a series of questions that assessed their happiness,
perceived health, social provisions, economic security and life
satisfaction. While there was no indication that resources affect
happiness, past life satisfaction - even individual achievements - was
found to have a direct association.
Because of their results, the researchers urge
caregivers of the elderly to implement programs - including
reminiscence therapy and structured life review sessions - to foster
feelings of happiness among very old populations.
"You can be not overly satisfied with your overall
current capacity and physical well-being, but you can still be a very
happy person because there's a lot you can contribute just by sharing
some of the things that nobody knew because it was 80 or 90 years ago,"
said Martin, who is also in the second year of a three-year study of
Iowa centenarians.
In the second other study, researchers measured
depressive symptoms, demographics and functional indicators, cognition
and personality in the subjects. They then compared the ability of
cognition, personality, and demographic and functional indicators in
explaining depressive symptoms in the octogenarians and centenarians
respectively.
They were surprised to learn that overall cognition
was not a stronger predictor of depressive symptoms at either age.
Rather, it was the loss of the subject's control -- problem-solving in
the octogenarians, and choosing where they lived in the centenarians --
that tended to depress them.
"In the case of the octogenarians, it's not so much
your intellectual ability as it is the ability to come up with a
solution to a particular task that you used to be able to solve in your
60s and 70s," Martin said. "And so for the first time, you realize that
there may be decline in being able to manage tasks.
"And at 100, it's not so much the surrounding of
the nursing home that gets you depressed," he added.
"But in a nursing
home, two things have changed. First, there's a sign that you cannot
take care of yourself anymore. And then there's the sign that you know
you only have limited time to live, which is different for an
80-year-old."
Elderly worried about direction country is
headed
The research also confirmed that worry and anxiety
contribute to depression in centenarians. And one of the things they're
worried about, according to Martin, is the direction the country is
headed and the world they're leaving for their grandchildren and
great-grandchildren.
Martin says these studies have practical
applications for elderly care providers.
"When we have professionals who work with elderly
in nursing homes, we pay so much attention to the helping condition --
make sure they eat, make sure they have their hygiene taken care of, and
so forth -- but you also have to work on the mood aspect of it," Martin
said.
"And I know people who work in nursing homes have difficult jobs,
but just a brief conversation with a very old person can lighten up
their entire day."
The research team also published two related papers
in the Jan. 26 issue of Gerontology. One confirms the importance of
family history on present-day functioning among centenarians and
octogenarians, while the other analyzed the influences on their economic
dependency.
