Which category of lifetime adversity accelerates physical impairment among Israeli older adults?

Amit Shrira (), Yuval Palgi, Ehud Bodner and Dov Shmotkin
Additional contact information
Amit Shrira: Bar-Ilan University
Yuval Palgi: University of Haifa
Ehud Bodner: Bar-Ilan University
Dov Shmotkin: Tel Aviv University

European Journal of Ageing, 2016, vol. 13, issue 4, No 5, 323-334

Abstract: Abstract Preliminary evidence suggests that exposure to lifetime cumulative adversity is related to faster increase in physical impairment with time, especially when depressive symptoms are present. Nevertheless, it is still unclear whether different adversity categories accelerate impairment. The current study capitalized on the unique accounts of adversity available in the Israeli component of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE-Israel) by focusing on different categories of adversity, while accounting for their interaction with depressive symptoms in predicting trajectories of physical impairment (i.e., chronic medical conditions and disability). Data of 1665 participants (mean age = 63.08, SD = 10.04 at Wave 1) were drawn from the first three waves of SHARE-Israel. Respondents reported exposure to bereavement (e.g., experiencing the death of a spouse), war and terrorism (e.g., being wounded in terrorist attack), and victimization (e.g., being a victim of abuse or assault). Other measures assessed depressive symptoms, chronic medical conditions, and disability. Growth-curve models showed that bereavement and exposure to war and terrorism were related to specific measures of physical impairment. Moreover, three-way interactions showed that clinical level of depressive symptoms coupled with exposure to either bereavement or war and terrorism predicted a faster increase in chronic medical conditions and disability. The findings offer a differentiated outlook on the effect of adversity on age-related increase in physical impairment. Practitioners should consider that older adults previously exposed to bereavement, war and terrorism are at risk for a hastened physical decline, especially when they suffer from depressive symptoms.

Keywords: Lifetime adversity; Depressive symptoms; Chronic medical conditions; Disability; SHARE-Israel; Growth-curve models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10433-016-0366-3 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:eujoag:v:13:y:2016:i:4:d:10.1007_s10433-016-0366-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer ... iences/journal/10433

DOI: 10.1007/s10433-016-0366-3

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Ageing is currently edited by Marja Aartsen, Susanne Iwarsson and Prof. Dr. Matthias Kliegel

More articles in European Journal of Ageing from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().