A life course built for two: Acting,aging, and soap operas

Due to their longevity, daytime soap operas provide a rich entertainment text through which to examine representations of, and experiences of, age and aging. Our exploratory, qualitative project explores how veteran soap actors make sense of their own aging process alongside that of their characters’, and how soaps serve as an unexpected cultural resource for negotiating the varied meanings of aging. Drawing on original interview data with soap actors (n = 11) and other industry experts (n = 4), original survey data with long-term viewers (n = 34), and secondary data as reported in the entertainment and popular presses, we examine actors’ use of fictional narratives to make meaning of their progression through the life course. Our analysis is situated at the intersections of gerontology, media studies, and the sociology of work.     

Acting age in the context of health: Middle-aged working-class men talking about bodies and aging

This article focuses on the intersections of age, gender and class in interpretations of the aging and situational identity work of middle-aged working-class men. Empirically the article is based on interview data (4 focus groups and 9 personal interviews with 40+ men) in which Finnish paper-mill workers are interviewed about health. Based on the theoretical implications of intersectionality, the article provides an empirical analysis of how age-based cultural hierarchies and distinctions are used flexibly in the process of self-identification and how categorizations of age and conceptualizations of aging are tightly interwoven with gender and class. The analyses show that the middle-aged interviewees base their interpretations of the aging self on negotiating their position between the age categories of the ‘young’ and ‘old’. Both these groups are labeled with rather negative characteristics regarding the irresponsibility for health among the young and impaired functional ability of the old, which conflicts with the working-class expectations regarding masculine identity. The findings suggest that studying how people ‘do age’ requires consideration of the respects in which aging is an age-specific and gendered process shaped by class-based values, ideals and practices.     

Housing for the aging population

Based on the concept of ‘aging in place,’ design of houses in the past years are explored. Design features in the built environment become barriers for aging people with functional limitations. Initially, houses were designed according to the required needs of the user with the physical limitations. Later, adaptable house design was introduced that allows the house to meet the specific needs of the user, while maintaining the appearance of the house until more obvious accessibility features are needed. Today, ‘design for all’ is recognised as a tool for ensuring physical accessibility for aging people. The holistic perspective embedded in the universal design theory should be systematically and consistently developed during the design process.     

Voluntarism as a mediator of the experience of growing old in evolving rural spaces and changing rural places

This paper examines voluntarism as a response to the challenges faced by people growing old in rural communities that are themselves being transformed in fundamental ways, both socially and demographically. Informed by evolving theorisations within the rural aging and geographies of voluntarism literatures, we outline the key processes in space and consequent impacts in place that have affected the experience of growing old in rural communities. We identify the changes in service systems that have led to concerns about ‘vulnerable people in vulnerable places’ and explore this idea in regional contexts ranging from the agricultural heartland to the resource hinterland of Canada. We argue that a distinction needs to be made between the impacts of long and short cycles of change flowing across rural space and attention paid to voluntarism as a critical process at the intersection of broad shifts in service and settlement systems and particular changes in rural communities. Specifically, we suggest that the ‘local dynamics of voluntarism’ involving the activities of voluntary organisations, community groups and individual volunteers in particular communities can be understood, at once, as a ‘barometer of change’, a ‘mechanism of adjustment’ and a ‘space of resistance’, and we draw on recent case studies of rural voluntarism to illustrate this three-part distinction. In considering the transformative potential of voluntarism for the experience of aging in place, our findings suggest that public discourse, as reflected in media coverage, tends to romanticise voluntarism at the expense of a more nuanced and critical appreciation of its importance to the future of aging rural communities and their elderly residents. The research raises timely questions about academic-versus-popular conceptions of aging in evolving rural spaces and changing rural places.     

Competency Requirements for Policy Gerontologists

"Policy gerontologists" are professionals knowledgeable about both public policy and aging. Through a survey of potential employers about the education of these specialists, the authors examined what is desired in terms of knowledge base, skill proficiencies, and behavioral characteristics. Although a solid knowledge of aging policies and the policymaking process are considered essential for policy gerontologists, respondents suggested that communication and political skills as well as the ability to take initiative and to follow through were also essential.     

Competency requirements for policy gerontologists: what are the essentials?

"Policy gerontologists" are professionals knowledgeable about both public policy and aging. Through a survey of potential employers about the education of these specialists, the authors examined what is desired in terms of knowledge base, skill proficiencies, and behavioral characteristics. Although a solid knowledge of aging policies and the policymaking process are considered essential for policy gerontologists, respondents suggested that communication and political skills as well as the ability to take initiative and to follow through were also essential.     

The Sandwich Generation: Dependency, Proximity, and Task Assistance Needs of Parents

This study was designed to determine the extent of sandwiched families and the impact of dependency and proximity to task assistance provided to parent(s). Data were collected in Idaho, Oregon, Utah, and Michigan from a random sample of 40–65-year-old respondents. Fifteen percent are sandwiched between needs of aging parents and financially dependent children. Respondents are much more likely to be providing assistance to mothers than fathers. Parents are most likely to live near, but not necessarily with, the respondent. Spouses and partners' parents, however, are likely to live farther away. Task assistance provided most often to aging parent(s) includes help with transportation and shopping; financial assistance was reported least often. Income of respondent and dependency and proximity of parents are significantly related to providing assistance to parents. This study offers a unique glimpse at the relationships between personal characteristics, dependency, proximity, and task assistance issues as they pertain to the sandwich generation.     

Perceptions and Use of Gerotechnology: Implications for Aging in Place

ABSTRACT

Understanding perceptions and use of gerotechnology is crucial to optimize design, application, and education strategies that may reduce caregiver burden, extend healthy aging in place, and minimize demands on the health care system. A pilot project was conducted to explore attitudes, opinions, and preferences of older adults concerning the use of technology to support and extend their ability to “aging in place.” Four major themes emerged as important for older adults to age in place: safety and independence, social interaction, use of technology in the past, and the desire for support. Based on the literature in gerotechnology and the pilot study findings, we present a conceptual model that integrates gerotechnology into the life span theory of control (Heckhausen & Schulz, 1995 Heckhausen, J. and Schulz, R. 1995. A life-span theory of control. Psychological Review, 102(2): 284–304. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Schulz & Heckhausen, 1996 Schulz, R. and Heckhausen, J. 1996. A life span model of successful aging. American Psychologist, 51(7): 702–714. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and the concept of aging in place.     

Acting your age? Sports science and the ageing body

The medicalisation of aging and old age constructs ageing as first and foremost a biomedical event and as a process of inevitable decline. In sports science and sports medicine the functional decrements normally associated with ageing are being addressed. There is evidence reported in the scientific literature suggesting that certain exercise interventions can ‘reduc[e] or prevent[…] functional declines linked to secondary aging’ [Goggin, N.L., and Morrow, J.R. Jr. (2001). "Physical Activity Behaviors of Older Adults." Journal of Aging and Physical Activity 9, 58–66.].However a sociological critique is necessary. Whilst sports science seeks to position itself as a key player in the fight against ageing, it also opens the potential for the reconstruction of the ageing body as fit. However the evidence that exercise can fundamentally reshape older bodies is equivocal. A new frame is proposed which divorces exercise from anti-ageing purposes and uses the science of exercise to enable older people to recover a sense of physical competence as a creative pursuit in its own right.     

Aging at the interface of stem cell renewal, apoptosis, senescence, and cancer

The aging-related research field has focused on the detection of genetic factors that affect the aging process, but more recently scientists have started to shift their attention to novel and more integrative ways of studying cellular and organismal function. Such approaches allow them to uncover and explore unexpected patterns and themes, resulting in a more comprehensive knowledge of the complex regulatory pathways and networks involved in aging and age-related diseases. Eventually, this knowledge will lead to a systems-level understanding of aging. The third "Functional Genomics of Aging" conference held in Palermo, Italy, in March/April 2006 highlighted some of the more exciting work in this area.     

Experiences from Pagan women: A closer look at croning rituals

In this qualitative study I explore how Pagan women conceptualize aging, more specifically social aging, through the ritual process of being a Pagan and becoming a Crone. The central question of this research revolves around how older women who identify as Pagan experience, understand, and conceptualize their social aging and their role as aging women in American society. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data and explore the meaning of aging for women identifying as Pagan. Major emergent themes within the data demonstrate that the croning ritual, a central aspect of Paganism, affirms these women in their process of aging. These women, through the ritual of croning, are able to understand their aging as celebration, maintain a positive sense of self while aging, and reclaim visibility as aging women. These women were able to embed their experiences of aging within a unique and specific cultural framework, a spiritual and foundational framework cultivating a spiritual connection with nature.     

Aging as intracohort differentiation: Accentuation,the Matthew effect,and the life course

Recent contributions of sociologists and others have brought a new awareness and new theoretical understanding of the extent to which human aging and life-course patterns are shaped by social conditions and influenced by social change. Yet the potential of many social processes to account for individual aging patterns remains untapped, because research and theory have focused heavily upon comparisons between cohorts rather than the internal differentiation of cohorts. This paper shows that focusing upon intracohort differentiation over the life course leads to a mobilization of sociological findings whose age-related implications have not been exploited. Using the phenomenon of aged heterogeneity as an illustrative case, it is suggested that intracohort differentiation—operating through macro-level, organizational, and micro-level processes—can explain significant phenomena of aging previously neglected by theory, or else assumed to be psychological in origin. These processes specify Merton's Matthew effect. Implications for biological aging and for research are briefly discussed.     

Using yeast to discover the fountain of youth

The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has long served as a model organism for the study of basic cellular processes. Its short generation time, well-established molecular genetics, and fully sequenced genome have made this organism a favorite of researchers in diverse fields. Much of the information obtained has been shown to apply to higher eukaryotes, including humans. Recently, researchers have begun using yeast to tackle one of the outstanding questions in science: How and why do organisms age? The identification of individual genes in yeast that can affect the aging process itself has elevated this single-celled fungus to full contender status in the aging field. In this Perspective, we present two fundamentally different measures of aging in yeast: replicative life-span and stationary phase survival (chronological life-span). We describe the benefits and limitations of each and present models that attempt to explain these "aging" phenomena. Finally, we present compelling evidence that the use of yeast as a model system will ultimately prove beneficial to the study of human aging.     

Oxidative mutagenesis, mismatch repair, and aging

A PubMed search for the term "oxidative stress" yields over 29,000 articles published on the subject over the past 10 years; more than 2000 of these articles also include the term "aging" in their title or abstract. Many theories of aging predict causal roles for oxidative stress in the myriad of pathological changes that occur as a function of age, including an increasing propensity to develop cancer. A possible link between aging and cancer is the induction and accumulation of somatic mutations caused by oxidative stress. This Review focuses on small mutational events that are induced by oxidative stress and the role of mismatch repair (MMR) in preventing their formation. It also discusses a possible inhibitory effect of oxidative stress on MMR. We speculate that a synergistic interaction between oxidative damage to DNA and reduced MMR levels will, in part, account for an accumulation of small mutational events, and hence cancer, with aging.     

Age and social gradients in the intensity of aging males' symptoms in Poland

Background. We performed the study in order to describe the age-related changes and social gradients in the intensity of aging males' symptoms in healthy men in Poland.

Methods. We examined 405 men aged 32–79, healthy inhabitants of Poland. Severity of aging males' symptoms was assessed using the Polish version of AMS scale. The social position was expressed using their educational level, commonly accepted as a reliable and specific index of social status in Poland.

Results. Male aging in Poland was accompanied by an increase in the intensity of all groups of evaluated symptoms (psychological, sexual and somato-vegetative symptoms, respectively: r = 0.36, r = 0.72, r = 0.59, all p < 0.0001). The results of ANOVA revealed the independent effects of both age and social status on the intensity of psychological symptoms (F = 17.89, p < 0.0001 and F = 9.51, p < 0.0001 for age and educational level, respectively), sexual (F = 114.70, p < 0.0001 and F = 5.90, p < 0.01), and somato-vegetative symptoms (F = 52.86, p < 0.0001 and F = 3.85, p < 0.05). The better the education of Polish men, the less intense the aging males' symptoms, irrespective of their age.

Conclusions. Age and social position constitute major determinants of the intensity of aging males' symptoms in Poland.     

How an aging society affects the economic costs of inactivity in Germany: empirical evidence and projections

Background

Aging societies represent a major challenge for health care systems all over the world. As older people tend to be more physically inactive, economic costs of inactivity are likely to increase notably. The present study aims to investigate this relationship between an aging society and economic costs of inactivity using the example of Germany.

Methods

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, this study applied the comparative risk assessment method developed by the WHO to estimate the direct costs of inactivity for the period 2001–2013 differentiated by gender-specific age-groups (15–29; 30–44; 45–64; 65+). Based on population statistics predicting the aging of the German population for the years 2014–2060, this research projects the development of future costs of inactivity and potential effects of interventions promoting physical activity among the German population.

Results

The results reveal an increase in the level of physical activity during the observed period (2001–2013) which compensated the negative effect of aging and resulted in a decline of inactivity costs. The projections for the years 2014–2060 indicate a constant increase in direct per capita costs until 2060 because of an aging society. Scenarios indicating how a short-term reduction of physical inactivity impacts costs of inactivity reveal the crucial role of the oldest age-group in this context.

Conclusion

The findings indicate that the aging of the German population demands further actions and initiatives to promote physical activity, especially for the oldest age-group.

     

Conversing about aging and practice

Using four open-ended questions, individual conversations were conducted with 20 professionals from 10 fields of practice in aging. Professionals were over 60 years of age, had worked in the field at least 10 years, and personally considered themselves elders. This project found that they were aware of their personal aging process, were knowledgeable about resources, had considered their values, beliefs, and interests, and had developed an “aging plan” that would optimize a meaningful and enjoyable quality of life. They generally viewed themselves positively, had a strong sense of identity, accepted the changes that come with aging, and maintained an active and engaged lifestyle. They understood the commonalities of aging, but also respected and valued the uniqueness of each individual’s experiences. Aging had significantly affected their professional practice as well, primarily by increasing empathy, sensitivity, understanding, and patience, as well as through greater awareness and special attention to meaningful communication with clients and patients. Their personal aging awareness had a generally positive effect on professional practice. Practitioners’ thoughts and experiences with their own aging can both serve as a model for the general public and be utilized to programs to assist seniors in remaining vital members of society     

Medicalizing the optimal: Anti-aging medicine and the quandary of intervention

The emergence of anti-aging medicine over the past two decades has posed tremendous challenges for traditional categories that define the relationship between aging and biomedicine. The frameworks of nature and disease have been critical in marking how biomedicine can and should intervene. Anti-aging advocates posit that because aging is a predictable, biological universal, it is natural and can therefore be understandable. Moreover, proponents accept and perpetuate the pervasive construction that aging is a painful decline. Here, its undesirability coupled with its knowability render the process of aging ameliorable. Thus, anti-aging advocates argue that aging is natural, not a disease, but should nonetheless serve as a site of intervention. Situating the optimization of the aging process as their primary goal, many anti-aging advocates assert that it is more emblematic of human nature to liberate the body from its perceived biological constraints than it is natural to age.