{"id":7031,"date":"2022-08-08T07:15:11","date_gmt":"2022-08-08T11:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.silvercentury.org\/?p=7031"},"modified":"2022-08-08T07:15:11","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T11:15:11","slug":"ageism-affects-us-both-physically-and-mentally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/2022\/08\/ageism-affects-us-both-physically-and-mentally\/","title":{"rendered":"Ageism Affects Us, Both Physically and Mentally"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ageism affects how our minds and bodies function, and not in a good way. We\u2019ve known that for a while, thanks in large part to the work of Yale\u2019s Becca Levy, PhD, whose groundbreaking work, <\/span>Breaking the Age Code: How Your Beliefs about Aging Determine How Long and Well You Live <\/span><\/i>(2022) was published this spring.<\/span><\/p>\n

So it\u2019s exciting to see new data on the health effects of ageism from the National Poll on Healthy Aging, a survey of 2,035 nationally representative Americans, ages 50 to 80, published on June 15 by <\/span>JAMA Network Open<\/span><\/a>. Instead of focusing on well-researched contexts like health care or the workplace, this study is the first to confirm the near-universal nature of minor but pervasive forms of age discrimination, which the authors refer to as \u201ceveryday ageism.\u201d A full 93 percent of respondents encountered some form of it in their daily lives, such as commercials for anti-aging products, \u201csenior moment\u201d quips or what the researchers describe as \u201cbrief verbal, nonverbal, and environmental indignities that convey hostility, a lack of value, or narrow stereotypes of older adults.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a word for these derogatory behaviors: microaggressions\u2014indirect, often unintentional expressions of prejudice. There\u2019s <\/span>nothing \u201cmicro\u201d about their effect<\/span><\/a> on our well-being. Exposure to microaggressions is associated with depression, anxiety, lower job satisfaction and poor self-esteem in targeted groups, and older people are no exception. Study participants were asked to assess their health in four ways: overall physical health, overall mental health, number of chronic conditions and whether they were depressed. The investigators found those with higher \u201ceveryday ageism\u201d scores\u2014who reported more exposure to demeaning messages about aging\u2014faced higher health risks on all four measures. Exposure was more common among people from socially and economically disadvantaged groups. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve written at length about <\/span>how ageism harms our health<\/span><\/a> and called for a national anti-ageism campaign to raise awareness of age-based stereotypes and the damage they do. First author of this new study Julie Ober Allen, of the University of Oklahoma, Norman, concurs. Her findings, she writes, suggest that \u201canti-ageism efforts could be a strategy for promoting older adult health and well-being.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

So does the World Health Organization, which launched its superb <\/span>Global Campaign to Combat Ageism<\/span><\/a> in 2021 with the goal of increasing healthspan along with lifespan. We\u2019ve got that terrific model and we\u2019ve got a growing body of solid, scientific evidence. Let\u2019s make it happen.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ageism affects how our minds and bodies function, and not in a good way. We\u2019ve known that for a while, thanks in large part to the work of Yale\u2019s Becca Levy, PhD, whose groundbreaking work, Breaking the Age Code: How…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Ageism Affects Us, Both Physically and Mentally<\/span> ›<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

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