Subjective Aging and Incident Cardiovascular Disease

Feeling old, body and soul: The effect of aging body reminders on age identity

Yannick Stephan, Angelina R Sutin, Susanne Wurm, Antonio Terracciano and Amit Shrira

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2021, vol. 76, issue 5, 910-919

Abstract: ObjectivesSubjective aging, including subjective age and self-perceptions of aging (SPA), predicts health-related outcomes in older adults. Despite its association with cardiovascular risk factors, little is known about the association between subjective aging and the incidence of cardiovascular disease. Therefore, the present study examined whether subjective age and SPA are related to the incidence of heart conditions and stroke.MethodsThe sample comprises 10,695 participants aged 50–100 years from the Health and Retirement Study. Subjective age, SPA, demographic factors, and health-related behaviors, body mass index (BMI), hypertension, diabetes, and depressive symptoms were assessed at baseline. Self-reported physician diagnosis of heart conditions and stroke were assessed biennially over up to 9 years of follow-up.ResultsControlling for demographic factors, an older subjective age and more negative SPA were related to a higher risk of incident heart conditions and stroke. Feeling older and holding negative SPA were associated with around 40% higher risk of experiencing heart conditions over time. An older subjective age and negative SPA were related to almost twofold and 30% higher risk of incident stroke, respectively. Health risk behaviors, BMI, hypertension, diabetes, and depressive symptoms accounted for part of the associations between subjective aging and heart diseases and stroke.ConclusionsConsistent with the literature on subjective aging and cardiovascular risk factors, this large prospective study indicates that an older subjective age and negative SPA increase the risk of incident stroke and other cardiovascular diseases.

Keywords: Cardiovascular disease; Self-perceptions of aging; Stroke; Subjective age (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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The Journals of Gerontology: Series B is currently edited by Psychological Sciences - S. Duke Han, PhD and Social Sciences - Jessica A Kelley, PhD, FGSA

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