Shanice Beerepoot, Suzanne W. M. Luesken, Martijn Huisman, and Dorly J. H. Deeg (2022). Enjoyment of Sexuality and Longevity in Late Midlife and Older Adults: The Longitudinal Ageing Study Amsterdam. https://doi.org/10.1177/07334648221078852
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Article
Enjoyment of Sexuality and Longevity in Late Midlife and Older Adults: The Longitudinal Ageing Study Amsterdam
Sexual well-being refers to the evaluation of one’s sexuality. We examined the association of enjoyment of sexuality with longevity and the moderating role of perceived importance of sexuality in this association. In the population-based Longitudinal Ageing Study Amsterdam, the survival of initially 55–84-year-olds was followed during 27 years. Complete data were available for 1042 participants (45.3%). Analyses were adjusted for health-related and psychosocial covariates. 60% of the participants experienced their sexuality as enjoyable and 44% as important. Enjoyment of sexuality was weakly, positively associated with longevity (B[CI] = 0.29[-0.004;0.58]). Perceived importance modified this association: only in those who perceived sexuality as important, the association between enjoyment and longevity was statistically significant (B[CI] = 0.78[0.29;1.27]). Positive affect, functional limitations, emotional loneliness, self-rated health, sense of mastery and alcohol consumption accounted for 35% of the latter association. Interventions may target older adults who perceive sexuality as important but not enjoyable.
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Article
Variaties in zorggebruik bij verschillende typen Amsterdamse ouderen
Deelrapport in het kader van de voorstudie “Vernieuwing van gezondheidszorg voor kwetsbare ouderen” , gefinancierd door de Stichting Preventie, Vroegdiagnostiek en e-Health.
Publicaties van deze werkgroep zijn hier te vinden.
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Article
Late-life depression symptom dimensions and cognitive functioning
Depression often co-occurs in late-life in the context of declining cognitive functions, but it is not clear whether specific depression symptom dimensions are differentially associated with cognitive abilities.
This study suggests suggest differential associations between late-life depression dimensions and cognitive abilities in old age, and point towards potential etiological mechanisms that may underline these associations. These findings carry implications for the prognosis of cognitive outcomes in depressed older adults.Late-life depression symptom dimensions and cognitive functioning in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam(LASA) Brailean, A., Comijs, H. C., Aartsen, M. J., Prince, M., Prina, A. M., Beekman, A. J. & Huisman, M., 2016, In : Journal of Affective Disorders. 201, p. 171-178
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Article
Impact of loneliness and depression on mortality
Loneliness is highly prevalent among older people, has serious health consequences and is an important predictor of mortality. Loneliness and depression may unfavourably interact with each other over time but data on this topic are scarce. The results of this study show that loneliness and depression are important predictors of early death in older adults. Severe depression has a strong association with excess mortality in older men who were lonely, indicating a lethal combination in this group.
Holwerda, T. J., van Tilburg, T. G., Deeg, D. J. H., Schutter, N., Van, R., Dekker, J., ... Schoevers, R. A. (2016). Impact of loneliness and depression on mortality: Results from the Longitudinal Ageing Study Amsterdam. The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science, 209(2), 127-134.
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Article
Cohort differences in cognitive aging in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam
This study aims to examine cohort differences in cognitive performance and rates of change in episodic memory, processing speed, inductive reasoning, and general cognitive performance and to investigate whether these cohort effects may be accounted for by education attainment.
METHOD: The first cohort (N = 705) was born between 1920 and 1930, whereas the second cohort (N = 646) was born between 1931 and 1941. Both birth cohorts were aged 65 to 75 years at baseline and were followed up 3 and 6 years later. Data were analyzed using linear mixed models.
RESULTS: The later born cohort had better general cognitive performance, inductive reasoning, and processing speed at baseline, but cohort differences in inductive reasoning and general cognitive performance disappeared after adjusting for education. The later born cohort showed steeper decline in processing speed. Memory decline was steeper in the earlier born cohort but only from Time 1 to Time 3 when the same memory test was administered. Education did not account for cohort differences in cognitive decline.
DISCUSSION: The later born cohort showed better initial performance in certain cognitive abilities, but no better preservation of cognitive abilities overtime compared with the earlier born cohort. These findings carry implications for healthy cognitive aging.
Brailean, A., Huisman, M., Prince, M., Prina, A. M., Deeg, D. J. H., & Comijs, H. (2016). Cohort differences in cognitive aging in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. Journals of Gerontology. Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbw129 -
Article
Adverse effects of frailty on social functioning in older adults
This study investigated the effects of frailty on social functioning in older adults.
•Frail older adults have a smaller network size and higher levels of loneliness.
•Frailty is associated with an increase in loneliness over 3 years of follow-up.
•Social vulnerability of physical frail older adults should be taken into account in the care for this population.Read the article here.Hoogendijk, E. O., Suanet, B., Dent, E., Deeg, D. J. H., & Aartsen, M. J. (2016). Adverse effects of frailty on social functioning in older adults: Results from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. Maturitas, 83(1), 45-50. -
Article
Development and validation of a frailty index in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam
Frailty is a state of increased vulnerability to adverse outcomes. The frailty index (FI), defined by the deficit accumulation approach, is a sensitive instrument to measure levels of frailty, and therefore important for longitudinal studies of aging. The key characteristics of the LASA–FI are found to be in line with findings from previous FI studies in population-based samples of older people. The LASA–FI score was associated with mortality and may serve as an internal and external reference value.
Hoogendijk, E. O., Theou, O., Rockwood, K., Onwuteaka-Philipsen, B. D., Deeg, D. J. H., & Huisman, M. (2017). Development and validation of a frailty index in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. Aging - Clinical and Experimental Research, 29(5), 927-933.
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Article
Perceived constraints in late midlife
Life span psychological and life course sociological perspectives have long acknowledged the role of historical and sociocultural contexts for individuals’ functioning and development. Secular increases favoring older adults in later born cohorts are widely documented for fluid cognitive performance and well-being. However, less is known about secular trends in further key resources of psychosocial functioning, such as perceptions of constraints, and how these are driven by and associated with well-established and probably interrelated secular trends in several individual difference characteristics, including sociodemographic, religiosity, physical health, cognitive, and social variables.
DOI (behind a paywall): https://doi.org/10.1037/pag0000276 -
Article
The Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam
This article provides an update of the design of the LASA study and its methods, on the basis of recent developments. We describe additional data collections, such as additional nine-monthly measurements in-between the regular three-yearly waves that have been conducted among the oldest old during 2016–2019, and the inclusion of a cohort of older Turkish and Moroccan migrants.
The Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) is a prospective cohort study of older adults in the Netherlands, initially based on a nationally representative sample of people aged 55–84 years. The study has been ongoing since 1992, and focuses on the determinants, trajectories and consequences of physical, cognitive, emotional and social functioning. Strengths of the LASA study include its multidisciplinary character, the availability of over 25 years of follow-up, and the cohort-sequential design that allows investigations of longitudinal changes, cohort diferences and time trends in functioning. The fndings from LASA have been reported in over 600 publications so far (see www.lasa-vu.nl).
Hoogendijk, E. O., Deeg, D. J. H., de Breij, S., Klokgieters, S. S., Kok, A. A. L., Stringa, N., Huisman, M. (2019). The Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam: cohort update 2019 and additional data collections. European Journal of Epidemiology.
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Article
Sex differences in physical performance by age, educational level, ethnic groups and birth cohort
Older women perform consistently poorer on physical performance tests compared to men. Risk groups for this “female disadvantage” in physical performance and it’s development over successive birth cohorts are unknown. This is important information for preventive strategies aimed to enhance healthy aging in all older women. This study aims to longitudinal investigate whether there are risk groups for a more apparent female disadvantage and study its trend over successive birth cohorts.
Sialino, L. D., Schaap, L. A., van Oostrom, S. H., Nooyens, A. C. J., Picavet, H. S. J., Twisk, J. W. R., Verschuren, W. M. M., Visser, M. & Wijnhoven, H. A. H.,Sex differences in physical performance by age, educational level, ethnic groups and birth cohort: The Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam 2019, In : PLoS ONE. 14, 12, p. e0226342 e0226342.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226342
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Article
Associations between Safety from Crime, Cycling, and Obesity in a Dutch Elderly Population
This study provided indications of the negative association between cycling and crime rates in low socio-economic status neighbourhoods. Interventions aiming to increase physical activity or to prevent obesity in older people may
consider aiming at increasing bicycle use in lower socio-economic status neighbourhoods, but such interventions should consider neighbourhood safety issues.Kremers, S.P.J., De Bruijn, G.J., Visscher, T.L.S., Deeg, D.J.H., Thomése, G.C.F., Visser, M., Van Mechelen, W., Brug, J. (2012). Associations between Safety from Crime, Cycling, and Obesity in a Dutch Elderly Population: Results from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. Journal of Environmental and Public Health,article ID 127857, 1-6
Link here.
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Article
The physical, mental, and social impact of COPD in a population-based sample
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with substantial health impact that may already become apparent in early disease. This study aims to examine the features of subjects with COPD in a Dutch population-based sample and compare their physical status, mental status, and social status to non-COPD subjects. This study made use of Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) data. Demographics, clinical characteristics, self-reported diseases, post-bronchodilator spirometry, physical,
mental, and social status were assessed.A number of 810 subjects (50.5% male, mean age 60.5 ± 2.9 years) were included. Subjects with COPD (n = 68, mean FEV1 67.6 [IQR 60.4–80.4] %.) had a slower walking speed than non-COPD subjects, p = 0.033. When compared to non-COPD subjects, COPD subjects gave a lower rating on their health (physical subscale of SF-12: 15 [IQR 16.0–19.0] vs. 18 [IQR 11.0–17.0] points) and life (EQ5D VAS: 75 [IQR 70.0–90.0] vs. 80 points [IQR 65.0–85.5]) surveys. COPD subjects also had a more impaired disease-specific health status (CAT: 9.5 ± 5.9 vs. 6.7 ± 5.2, respectively), were less likely to have a partner (69% vs. 84%, respectively) and received emotional support less often (24% vs. 36%, respectively) compared to non-COPD subjects (All comparisons p < 0.001). In a population-based sample, subjects with COPD had a reduced physical performance, a more impaired disease-specific health status and were more socially deprived compared to non-COPD subjects. These impairments need to be taken into consideration when setting up a management program for patients with mild COPD.
Franssen, F. M. E., Smid, D. E., Deeg, D. J. H., Huisman, M., Poppelaars, J., Wouters, E. F. M., & Spruit, M. A. (2018). The physical, mental, and social impact of COPD in a population-based sample: results from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. npj Primary Care Respiratory Medicine, 28, 1-6. [30].