Fuller-Iglesias, H., Smith, J., & Antonucci, T.C. (2009). Theories of aging from a life-course
and life-span perspective. Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 29, 3-25.

http://nmhrc.com/excerpts/Annual%20Review%20of%20Gerontology%20and%20Geriatrics,%20Volume%2029,%202009%20Life-Course%20Perspectives%20on%20Late%20Life%20Health%20Inequalities.pdf

Life-course and life-span theoretical perspectives have important implications for gerontological studies. Both frameworks address patterns of change over time that inform our understanding of the process of aging.

Bronwynne C. Evans, Neva Crogan, Michael Belyea and David Coon. (2009).
Utility of the Life Course Perspective in Research with Mexican American Caregivers of Older Adults. J Transcult Nurs 2009 20: 5. DOI: 10.1177/1043659608325847

Research on caregiving of elders in Mexican American families is urgently needed. We know little about family caregivers, family transitions in relation to the caregiving role, reciprocal impact of caregivers and care recipients on one another, adaptive strategies, positive benefits of caregiving (caregiver gain), specific caregiving burdens, or supportive interventions for family caregiving. Theory derivation using the concepts and structure of life course perspective provides a way to fill the knowledge gaps concerning Mexican American caregiving families, taking into account their ethnic status as an important Hispanic subgroup and the unique cultural and contextual factors that mark their caregiving experiences.

Hurst, L., Stafford, M., Cooper, R., Hardy, R., Richards, M., & Kuh, D. (2013). Lifetime Socioeconomic Inequalities in Physical and Cognitive Aging. American Journal Of Public Health, 103(9), 1641-1648. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2013.301240

We examined the relationship between childhood and adult socioeconomic position (SEP) and objectively assessed, later-life functioning. Methods. We used the Medical Research Council's National Survey of Health and Development data to examine performance at 60 to 64 years (obtained in 2006-2011) for a representative UK sample. We compared 9 physical and cognitive performance measures (forced expiratory volume, forced vital capacity, handgrip strength, chair rise time, standing balance time, timed get up and go speed, verbal memory score, processing speed, and simple reaction time) over the SEP distribution. Results. Each performance measure was socially graded. Those at the top of the childhood SEP distribution had between 7% and 20% better performance than those at the bottom. Inequalities generally persisted after adjustment for adult SEP. When we combined the 9 performance measures, the relative difference was 66% (95% confidence interval = 53%, 78%). Conclusions. Public health practice should monitor and target inequalities in functional performance, as well as risk of disease and death. Effective strategies will need to affect the social determinants of health in early life to influence inequalities into old age.

Heather E. Dillaway and Mary Byrnes
Journal of Applied Gerontology December 2009 vol. 28 no. 6 702-722

Reconsidering Successful Aging: A Call for Renewed and Expanded Academic Critiques and Conceptualizations

Many scholars now critique successful aging terminology. Nonetheless, there is incomplete analysis of the political motivations behind the development of and/or effects of widespread use of these terms. This article suggests that analysis of the people who developed the terms and the settings within which they work parallels an analysis of the terms themselves and illustrates the continuing negative perception of aging. This study fleshes out a more thorough critique of the sociopolitical contexts surrounding the successful aging paradigm so that it can help renew and expand existing critiques. The authors conclude that researchers need to be wary of adopting successful aging terminology without considering and expanding their understanding of the political motivations and results that accompanies it. New, expanded conceptualizations of successful aging are needed so that socially minded researchers and practitioners of gerontology do not contribute to ageism and discrimination against older adults.

Meredith Troutman Flood, Mary A. Nies, and Dong-Chul Seo

Successful Aging: Selected Indicators in a Southern Sample

Home Health Care Management Practice February 2010 vol. 22 no. 2 111-115

Given the increasing population of older adults in the United States, it is important to identify indicators of successful aging and the interrelationships among these variables to develop interventions to promote successful aging. This article reports an analysis of indicators of successful aging in a group of older adults from North and South Carolina. Risk factors that may make it harder for older adults to age successfully are identified. The relationships between chronic disease and indicators of successful aging are examined, and potential ideas for interventions to enhance successful aging are discussed.

Amanda Grenier and Jill Hanley

Older Women and 'Frailty' : Aged, Gendered and Embodied Resistance

Current Sociology 2007 55: 211

The concept of ‘frailty’, as used within public health and social services, represents a powerful practice where cultural constructions, the global economic rationale of cost restriction and the biomedical focus on ageing collide as inscriptions on the bodies of older women. This article draws on complex forms of resistance witnessed within three separate studies: narrative interviews on ‘frailty’, semi-structured interviews and participant observation in community organizations with older women in Montreal and Boston. Findings reveal how older women exercise resistance in complex ways, both consciously subverting and coopting the notion of ‘frailty’ on an individual and collective level. Such resistance demonstrates the tensions between undermining dominant notions of ageing, and fulfilling prescribed gendered and age-based assumptions about older women and their bodies. The intersections and forms of older women’s resistance challenge social constructs, social expectations and what is recognized as resistance.

Miner-Rubino, Kathi, Winter, David G., Stewart, Abigail J. (2004). Gender, Social Class, and the Subjective Experience of Aging: Self-Perceived Personality Change From Early Adulthood to Late Midlife. Pers Soc Psychol Bull, 30, 1599-1610.

This study explored the applicability of previous research (obtained with groups of college-educated women) about the subjective experience of aging in midlife to men and less-educated people. Two-hundred fifty-nine men and women who graduated from a public high school in 1955-1957 retrospectively assessed their feelings of identity certainty, confident power, generativity, and concern about aging for their 60s, 40s, and 20s. Participants reported higher levels of identity certainty, confident power, and concern about aging at each age, and a leveling off of generativity in their 60s. There were some gender and social class differences. Although men and women recalled the same trajectory of these feelings, men reported higher levels of identity certainty and confident power across age. Non-college-educated men recalled the highest levels of concern about aging across age. We discuss how these findings add to our understanding of the experience of aging in these domains.

Vincent, John A.

Ageing Contested: Anti-ageing Science and the Cultural Construction of Old Age
Sociology, Aug 2006; vol. 40: pp. 681-698

Recent developments in the fundamental science of biological ageing have raised the possibility of extending the human lifespan. This article examines contests within bio-gerontology as to the nature of ageing, identifies the methods through which old age is constructed by reference to particular kinds of knowledge and thus considers the impact of the culture of science on the contemporary meaning of old age. Definitions of ageing and death that focus on biological failure lead to a cultural construction of old age whereby diversity across the life course is devalued.

Hayflick, Leonard

When Does Aging Begin?
Research on Aging, Mar 1984; vol. 6: pp. 99-103

The lack of a precise definition for biological aging precludes a definitive answer to when the phenomenon begins. Since longevity is a determinant process, aging begins when longevity assurance genes cease to be expressed.

Arline T. Geronimus & Margaret T. Hicken & Jay A. Pearson & Sarah J. Seashols &Kelly L. Brown & Tracey Dawson Cruz.  (2010). Do US Black Women Experience Stress-Related Accelerated Biological Aging? A Novel Theory and First Population-Based Test
of Black-White Differences in Telomere Length. Hum Nat, 21, 19–38.
DOI 10.1007/s12110-010-9078-0

We hypothesize that black women experience accelerated biological aging in response to repeated or prolonged adaptation to subjective and objective stressors. Drawing on stress physiology and ethnographic, social science, and public health literature, we lay out the rationale for this hypothesis. We also perform a first population-based test of its plausibility, focusing on telomere length, a biomeasure of aging that may be shortened by stressors. Analyzing data from the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN), we estimate that at ages 49–55, black women are 7.5 years biologically “older” than white women. Indicators of perceived stress and poverty account for 27% of this difference. Data limitations preclude assessing objective stressors and also result in imprecise estimates, limiting our ability to draw firm inferences. Further investigation of black-white differences in telomere length using large-population-based samples of broad age range and with detailed measures of environmental stressors is merited.

Céline Lafontaine. (2009). Regenerative Medicine’s Immortal Body: From the Fight against Ageing to the Extension of Longevity. Body Society, 15(4), 53-71.

From organ transplants to genetic therapies by way of the manufacture of replacement tissue, regenerative medicine incarnates a biomedical reasoning that is unique to contemporary society. As a re-engineering of the body, regenerative medicine is the most accomplished manifestation of contemporary biopolitics: it concretely announces the emergence of what sociologist Karin Knorr Cetina calls the ‘culture of life’, in which individual existence is symbolically assimilated to biological conditions. This article will examine the symbolic and ethical issues of regenerative medicine, notably regarding representations of the ageing body. In doing so, it will place this new branch of biomedical research back into the context from which it emerged, with the goal of grasping the social and cultural suppositions on which regenerative medicine is based. The growing number of elderly people in Western societies is one such central element. This article therefore intends to demonstrate how regenerative medicine is rooted in the modern biomedical deconstruction of death, which underlies the contemporary technoscientific fantasy of indefinitely extending longevity.

William L. Randall

The Narrative Complexity of Our Past : In Praise of Memory's Sins

Theory Psychology 2010 20: 147

In the course of normal aging, memory suffers losses in effectiveness, which, for many, spark anxiety about the onset of dementia. Against the background of Daniel Schacter’s (2001) overview of “the seven sins of memory,” this paper proposes that the line between “normal” and “dementing” is less definite than we may think. Indeed, when the narrative complexity of memory—i.e., autobiographical memory—is taken into account, such sins are not merely necessary evils but outright advantages, essential to the capacity of memory to equip us with a sense of self that is capable of coping with the challenges of later life, if not vital to the development of “wisdom.” As an incipiently literary work, the text of memory is characterized by an assortment of inadequacies-cum-qualities which, like Schacter’s “sins,” enable it to carry out its all-important mission: namely, sponginess, impulsiveness, and blurriness; tangledness, backwardness, and deceptiveness; compressibleness, moodiness, and malleableness.

Hertzog, C., Kramer, A. F., Wilson, R. S., & Lindenberger, U. (2008). Enrichment Effects on Adult Cognitive Development: Can the Functional Capacity of Older Adults Be Preserved and Enhanced?. Psychological Science In The Public Interest 2008 9:1-65
In this monograph, we ask whether various kinds of intellectual, physical, and social activities produce cognitive enrichment effects—that is, whether they improve cognitive performance at different points of the adult life span, with a particular emphasis on old age. We begin with a theoretical framework that emphasizes the potential of behavior to influence levels of cognitive functioning. According to this framework, the undeniable presence of age-related decline in cognition does not invalidate the view that behavior can enhance cognitive functioning. Instead, the course of normal aging shapes a zone of possible functioning, which reflects person-specific endowments and age-related constraints.

Coughlin, Joseph F., Pope, James E., Leedle, Ben R., Jr.

Old Age, New Technology, and Future Innovations in Disease Management and Home Health Care
Home Health Care Management Practice, Apr 2006; vol. 18: pp. 196-207

The nation's nearly 80 million baby boomers are about to enter their peak years of chronic disease and are set to become an unprecedented driver of health care costs. New technology, however, promises to enable a transformation in the delivery of care, putting patients at the center of care systems that engage and empower them and their families, directly connecting patients to care-givers, and personalizing services in response to patients' unique needs, preferences, and values. Such care systems also offer the promise of strengthening an understaffed, underresourced home health care industry. Leveraging technology, disease management (DM), and home health have the opportunity to work together to more efficiently and effectively meet the needs of a rapidly aging society through better coordinated care that reduces avoidable hospital readmissions and other adverse events. This is achieved by positively affecting such things as home safety (e.g., falls), medication adherence, nutrition, and heart failure.

Danzhen You, Danan Gu and Zeng Yi

Familial Transmission of Human Longevity Among the Oldest-Old in China

Journal of Applied Gerontology 2010 29: 308

This paper investigates the relationship between longevity of parents and exceptional longevity (survival to age 80 or older) of offspring, using data from the first three waves of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. We apply the Fixed-Attributes Dynamics method and logistic regression models to the data. Results of both methods show that the familial transmission of longevity exists at very old ages, and the transmission is same-sex linked between parents and offspring; that is, there is a strong father-son resemblance of longevity and a strong mother-daughter resemblance of longevity, but a non-significant or weak association of longevity between father and daughter or between mother and son.

Werntoft, Elisabet, Hallberg, Ingalill R, Edberg, Anna-Karin

Older People's Reasoning About Age-Related Prioritization in Health Care
Nursing Ethics, May 2007; vol. 14: pp. 399-412

The aim of this study was to describe the reasoning of people aged 60 years and over about prioritization in health care with regard to age and willingness to pay. Healthy people (n = 300) and people receiving continuous care and services (n = 146) who were between 60 and 101 years old were interviewed about their views on prioritization in health care. The transcribed interviews were analysed using manifest and latent qualitative content analysis. The participants' reasoning on prioritization embraced eight categories: feeling secure and confident in the health care system; being old means low priority; prioritization causes worries; using underhand means in order to be prioritized; prioritization as a necessity; being averse to anyone having precedence over others; having doubts about the distribution of resources; and buying treatment requires wealth.

Dey, Ian, Fraser, Neil

Age-Based Rationing in the Allocation of Health Care
J Aging Health, Nov 2000; vol. 12: pp. 511-537

Objectives:This article seeks to review debates about age-based rationing in health care. Methods:The article identifies four different levels (or types) of decisionmaking in health resource allocation--societal, strategic, programmatic, and clinical-- and assesses how the issues of rationing vary in relation to each level. Results:The article concludes that rationing is least defensible at the clinical level, where it is also most covert. The role of rationing at other levels is more defensible when based on grounds of cost-effectiveness rather than equity. The article emphasizes the importance of fairness in health allocation and suggests that efficiency criteria need to be considered in that context. Discussion:The article suggests that rationing is most problematic where it is least overt. This raises further questions about how rationing can be made more explicit at different levels of decision making.

Mary Simms

Opening the Black Box of Rationing Care in Later Life : The Case of `Community Care' in Britain

J Aging Health 2003 15: 713

Research on the rationing of care to older patients in Britain and America typically focuses on acute care here I consider `chronic care'as illustrated by `community care' in Britain. Adopting a critical sociological approach to dependency and to the construction of `later life,'I argue that chronic care users constitute a class, and that clinical need has played a pivotal role in its development. As this reflects the allocative rationing of care I call into question, the claim made by the current British government that need can provide a benchmark of age justice.

Stuckey, Jon C.

Faith, Aging, and Dementia: Experiences of Christian, Jewish, and Non-Religious Spousal Caregivers and Older Adults
Dementia, Oct 2003; vol. 2: pp. 337-352

Research consistently documents positive relationships among religion, spirituality, and outcomes related to well-being. The purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which spousal dementia caregivers and other older adults rely on religion and spirituality as coping resources. A total of 52 Christian, Jewish, and non-religious dementia caregivers - as well as matched comparison groups of non-caregivers - were interviewed. Qualitative data analysis yielded both common themes among the three religious groups as well as themes of distinction. The findings suggest that the search for meaning and purpose during stressful life events knows no religious or spiritual borders. Even among the non-religious and non-spiritual, purpose and meaning were found in other areas, including in caring for others, in friendships, or simply in the aesthetic joys of life.

Jordan I. Kosberg, Allan V. Kaufman, Louis D. Burgio, James D. Leeper and Fei Sun

Family Caregiving to Those With Dementia in Rural Alabama : Racial Similarities and Differences

J Aging Health 2007 19: 3

This study explored differences and similarities in the experiences of African American and White family caregivers of dementia patients living in rural Alabama. This cross-sectional survey used a caregiving stress model to investigate the interrelationships between caregiving burden, mediators, and outcomes. Random-digit-dialing telephone interviews were used to obtain data on a probability sample of 74 non-Hispanic White and 67 African American caregivers. White caregivers were more likely to be married and older, used acceptance and humor as coping styles, and had fewer financial problems. African American caregivers gave more hours of care, used religion and denial as coping styles, and were less burdened. The authors have developed a methodology for obtaining a representative sample of African American and White rural caregivers. Further investigations are needed of the interactions between urban/rural location and ethnic/racial backgrounds of dementia caregivers for heuristic and applied reasons.

Chan, A., Malhotra, C., Malhotra, R., Rush, A., & Østbye, T. (2013). Health Impacts of Caregiving for Older Adults With Functional Limitations: Results From the Singapore Survey on Informal Caregiving. Journal Of Aging & Health, 25(6), 998-1012. doi:10.1177/0898264313494801

To estimate the health impact, in terms of depression, self-rated health, and health services utilization, of providing care to older adults (75+) requiring human assistance in at least one activity of daily living (ADL) limitation. Method: Data from 1,077 caregivers and 318 noncaregivers, interviewed in the Singapore Survey on Informal Caregiving, was used to examine differences in depressive symptoms, self-rated health, and number of outpatient visits in the last 1 month between caregivers and noncaregivers. Multivariate models for the outcomes, adjusting for characteristics of the caregiver/noncaregiver and care-recipient/potential care recipient, were run. Results: Caregivers were more depressed, had poorer self-rated health, and had a higher rate of outpatient visits in the past month compared to noncaregivers. Discussion: The study indicates the need for support services to family caregivers of older adults with ADL limitations.

Filippo, Sylvia Marie San, Reiboldt, Wendy, White, Barbara, Hails, Judy

Perceptions of Elderly Self-Neglect: A Look at Culture and Cohort
Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, Mar 2007; vol. 35: pp. 215-231

Abuse and neglect are issues of concern that face the elderly population. This study investigated differences in perception of self-neglect behaviors among four cohort and four cultural groups. Data were collected from students, staff, and faculty at a large state university, attendees at multiple senior centers, and people attending cultural fairs in Southern California. Using this convenience sample of 494 participants, age 18 years or older, researchers identified factors influencing self-neglect perceptions in the culture and cohort models. Significant variables identified in both models are: having a daily caloric intake of fewer than 1,000 calories, avoiding friends and social events, drinking three to four alcoholic drinks at social occasions, and working part-time. It is important for professionals working with self-neglecting elders to understand differences in perception by culture and cohort. Agreement on a definition of self-neglect is a step toward better addressing self-neglect in the elderly community.

Strasser, Sheryl M., Fulmer, Terry

The Clinical Presentation of Elder Neglect: What We Know and What We Can Do
Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, Jan 2007; vol. 12: pp. 340-349

Elder neglect (EN), one of the most prevalent forms of elder mistreatment, has clear mental health implications that may play a crucial role in the detection and intervention of EN. Increased awareness of the clinical and psychological manifestations of EN, as well as understanding recommended assessment and interventional strategies, may help psychiatric nurses who may be on the frontline of EN identification prevent the escalation of neglect into more severe cases of elder abuse.

Merranda R. Marin and Charles H. Huber

Mexican American Elderly: Self-Reported Anxiety and the Mediating Influence of Family Protective Factors

The Family Journal 2011 19: 63

This article describes the results of research study that investigated the relationship between life satisfaction and three primary protective factors—la adaptabilidad, la sabiduría, and pariente—that contribute to family resilience for Mexican American elderly who are experiencing self-reported anxiety. A sample of 135 Mexican Americans aged 65 and older were administered measures to assess self-reported anxiety, life satisfaction, and the three protective factors. Of these, 60 met the cutoff criteria for high anxiety and either high or low life satisfaction and were included in the final analyses. A significant positive relationship was found between higher perceptions of the protective factors la sabiduría and pariente and high life satisfaction. No significant relationship was found between la adaptabilidad and life satisfaction. These results provide support for a position asserting that the degree to which elderly Mexican Americans’ perceive their families to possess certain protective qualities may provide a competence-based focus for mediating adaptation in the presence of self-reported anxiety.

Dong X, Simon MA, & Evans DA. (2012). Prevalence of self-neglect across gender, race, and
socioeconomic status: findings from the Chicago Health and Aging Project. Gerontology, 8(3):258-68. doi: 10.1159/000334256.

Self-neglect is the behavior of an elderly person that threatens his/her own health and safety, and it is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. However, the scope of the self-neglect in the community population remains unclear. We examined the prevalence of self-neglect and its specific behaviors of hoarding, hygiene and other environmental hazards in a community-dwelling elderly population.

Virginia L. Seno

Being-With Dying: Authenticity in End-of-Life Encounters

AM J HOSP PALLIAT CARE 2010 27: 377

Families and their dying members have notably unmet needs. This is in large part due to health professionals being unprepared to be authentic (emotionally appropriate, purposive, and responsible) in end-of-life encounters. Martin Heidegger’s interpretive phenomenology informed this study, providing background, structures, language, and metaphors to interpret narratives for patterns of authentic being-with dying among nurses who attend to dying. Semistructured interviews elicited tacit knowledge imbedded in the experiences of those nurses and showed how they comport themselves in end-of-life situations. Patterns emerged in a presence of authentic being-with dying, which assisted persons in their transitions toward a peaceful death. Patterns are explicated in a 5-point framework, which paralleled Heidegger’s structures of authentic being-toward-death.

Farr A. Curlin, Chinyere Nwodim, Jennifer L. Vance,
Marshall H. Chin, and John D. Lantos

To Die, to Sleep: US Physicians’ Religious and Other Objections to Physician-Assisted Suicide, Terminal Sedation, and Withdrawal of Life Support

AM J HOSP PALLIAT CARE April/May 2008 vol. 25 no. 2 112-120

This study analyzes data from a national survey to estimate the proportion of physicians who currently object to physician-assisted suicide (PAS), terminal sedation (TS), and withdrawal of artificial life support (WLS), and to examine associations between such objections and physician ethnicity, religious characteristics, and experience caring for dying patients. Overall, 69% of the US physicians object to PAS, 18% to TS, and 5% to WLS. Highly religious physicians are more likely than those with low religiosity to object to both PAS (84% vs 55%, P < .001) and TS (25% vs 12%, P < .001). Objection to PAS or TS is also associated with being of Asian ethnicity, of Hindu religious affiliation, and having more experience caring for dying patients. These findings suggest that, with respect to morally contested interventions at the end of life, the medical care patients receive will vary based on their physicians' religious characteristics, ethnicity, and experience caring for dying patients.

Calasanti, T. (2010). Gender Relations and Applied Research on Aging. Gerontologist, 50(6), 720-734.

As a concept in gerontology, gender appears as lists of traits learned through socialization when theorized at all. I argue for a framework that theorizes the intersections of relations of gender inequality with those of age. This framework holds that men and women gain resources and bear responsibilities, in relation to one another, by virtue of mundane categorization into naturalized stratified groups. Current research shows that this approach allows explanation of gender differences, which appear in many reports but which usually go untheorized, as responses to social inequality. I illustrate applications to research and practice in relation to three areas of old age experiences: financial security, spousal care work, and health.Throughout, I discuss implications of focusing on inequality to enhance our abilities to engage in effective research, practice, and policy for older people, women and men alike. For instance, an understanding of the gender division of labor and workplace discrimination makes clear that financial status in later life cannot be reduced to individual choices concerning paid labor or retirement planning. And understanding that people orient their behaviors to gender ideals allows us to see that men and women perform spousal care in similar and different ways that require varied responses from practitioners; it also reveals contexts in which men engage in positive health behaviors. Finally, I argue that gerontologists interested in facilitating favorable outcomes for old people should consider research and practice that would disrupt, not reinforce, the bases of gender inequalities in later life.

Jervis, L. L. (2010). Aging, Health, and the Indigenous People of North America. Journal Of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 25(4), 299-301. doi:10.1007/s10823-010-9130-x

The article discusses several manuscripts on Native North American elders that were published within the issue including the elders' views on diabetes, the memory loss issue in the three First Nations communities and the prevalence of chronic diseases among the American Indians in the southern region of the U.S.

Brady, David

Reconsidering the Divergence between Elderly, Child, and Overall Poverty
Research on Aging, Sep 2004; vol. 26: pp. 487-510

This study challenges the conventional wisdom that elderly, child, and overall poverty are divergent. Comparing the official U.S. measure with the Luxembourg Income Study's (LIS) measure, the author shows that the official measure underestimates elderly poverty by a significant amount and child poverty by a lesser amount. Both the elderly and children are much more likely to be poor than the overall population. Analyses of 18 rich Western democracies show that overall and child poverty are very strongly positively correlated, whereas elderly poverty is moderately correlated with those two. Multivariate analyses show some commonalities and some differences in the sources of these three. Two measures of the welfare state significantly reduce overall, elderly, and child poverty. Whereas female labor force participation reduces all three, manufacturing employment, economic performance, and demographic variables only influence one or two of the dependent variables

Quinn, Joseph F.

Social Security Reform: Options for the Future
Journal of Applied Gerontology, Jun 2002; vol. 21: pp. 257-272

Currently anticipated Social Security revenues are inadequate to pay for the benefits promised under the current law. Therefore, some combination of revenue increases and/or benefit decreases or delays is inevitable. This article describes the demographic changes behind these long-run fiscal problems and discusses the types of Social Security reform plans that have been proposed--from modest changes in the parameters of the current system to radical reform through privatization. The article reviews the goals of Social Security and discusses the pros and cons of significant privatization. The author concludes that privatization is definitely not required to save Social Security (much more traditional approaches can do that) and that we should be very careful about radically changing a program that is so important to the economic well-being of the majority of older Americans and that has been so successful and popular for more than 60 years.

Larry Polivka

Neoliberalism and Postmodern Cultures of Aging

Journal of Applied Gerontology 2011 30: 173

Chuck Longino and this author began writing together about the benefits and risks of a postmodern perspective on the aging experience more than 9 years ago. Chuck Longino and this author contrasted a progressive strand of postmodernism based on the blended values of individual empowerment and collective responsibility for economic security with a neoliberal strand based on individualism and the free market as the ultimate arbiter of value, arguing that neoliberal postmodernism threatened the economic and psychological security of older people. Here the author summarizes the previous arguments by Chuck Longino and himself, then comment on events that have occurred since their last published collaboration, especially the collapse of the neoliberal economic model.

SEIPEL, M. O. (2013). Social Security: Strengthen Not Dismantle. Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare, 40(3), 69-84.

Social Security has benefited more than 55 million people. It has lifted about 14 million seniors and 6 million more people out of poverty without adding a penny to the federal budget. Social Security is increasingly becoming an important source of income for many people. Despite the projected shortfall, the program will continue to meet its obligations for the next two decades, and with minor adjustments, it can be on solid footing for the next 75 years. Cutting the benefits or privatizing may not be the best approach. This paper discusses the structure and function of Social Security and what can be done to strengthen the program.

Polivka, L., & Baozhen, L. (2013). The Future of Retirement Security Around the Globe. Generations, 37(1), 39-45.

The article discusses the challenges that pension and health care systems in many countries across the globe are facing in 2013 and will face in the future as a result of a rapidly increasing older population and slow economic growth. Retirement security policies seen in many countries, including the U.S., China and Brazil, are examined. In the article the authors offer their opinions on strategies which may improve the economic security and health of older people across the globe in the future.

Smith, Deborah B., Moen, Phyllis

Retirement Satisfaction for Retirees and their Spouses: Do Gender and the Retirement Decision-Making Process Matter?
Journal of Family Issues, Mar 2004; vol. 25: pp. 262-285

This study investigates factors related to retirees' and their spouses' individual and joint retirement satisfaction using decision-making theory and a life course perspective. The sample includes 421 retired respondents (ages 50 to 72) and spouses from the Cornell Retirement and Well-Being Study. Although 77% of retirees report retirement satisfaction, only 67% of their spouses are satisfied; even fewer couples (59%) report joint satisfaction. Multivariate logistic regression analyses reveal that retirees' and spouses' individual and joint reports of retirement satisfaction are related to perceptions of spousal influence on the retirement decision, with effects varying by gender. Those couples most likely to report being satisfied with retirement, individually and jointly, are retired wives and their husbands where wives reported that their husbands were not influential in their retirement decision. The results underscore the importance of regarding retirement as gendered and as both an individual- and a couple-level experience.

Blekesaune, Morten, Solem, Per Erik

Working Conditions and Early Retirement: A Prospective Study of Retirement Behavior
Research on Aging, Jan 2005; vol. 27: pp. 3-30

This article investigates the impact of working conditions on individual retirement for 270 occupations. It combines survey data for estimates of job strains, census data for occupations, and income and social insurance/security data, for the transition from work to retirement for 19,114 Norwegian employees between the ages of 60 and 67. Retirement was identified by a drop in work-related income and studied both jointly and separately for disability and nondisability retirement, including four types of disability. Data were analyzed using logistic regression (competing risk) "duration" models. Findings indicate that disability retirement is related to physical job strains. Among men, both pathways of early retirement are related to low autonomy in job tasks. Furthermore, psychological job stress may reduce nondisability retirement. The findings are discussed in relation to (1) the prospect of reducing early retirement by changing working conditions and (2) who will gain from certain changes in pension systems.

Richard W. Johnson

Phased Retirement and Workplace Flexibility for Older Adults : Opportunities
and Challenges

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 2011 638: 68

Phased retirement programs that allow older workers to reduce their hours and responsibilities and pursue more flexible work schedules could satisfy both the employee’s desire for flexibility and the employer’s need to maintain an experienced workforce. However, few employers have established formal programs, because they often complicate the provision of other benefits and might violate antidiscrimination rules. For example, federal laws limit retirement plan distributions to employees who are still working for the plan sponsor, which discourages phased retirement because few older workers can afford to reduce their work hours unless they can receive at least some retirement benefits. Many employers do not provide fringe benefits to part-time employees, and making exceptions for older workers could violate antidiscrimination rules. Federal laws requiring that benefits provided through tax-qualified plans be evenly distributed between highly compensated and lower-paid employees also complicate formal phased retirement programs. Reforming these policies could promote phased retirement.

Tan, E. J., Tanner, E. K., Seeman, T. E., Xue, Q., Rebok, G. W., Frick, K. D., & ... Fried, L. P. (2010). Marketing Public Health Through Older Adult Volunteering: Experience Corps as a Social Marketing Intervention. American Journal Of Public Health, 100(4), 727-734.

We present a social marketing conceptual framework for Experience Corps Baltimore City (EC) in which the desired health outcome is not the promoted product or behavior. We also demonstrate the feasibility of a social marketing-based recruitment campaign for the first year of the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial (BECT), a randomized, controlled trial of the health benefits of EC participation for older adults. Methods. We recruited older adults from the Baltimore, MD, area. Participants randomized to the intervention were placed in public schools in volunteer roles designed to increase healthy behaviors. We examined the effectiveness of a recruitment message that appealed to generativity (i.e., to make a difference for the next generation), rather than potential health benefits. Results. Among the 155 participants recruited in the first year of the BECT, the average age was 69 years; 87% were women and 85% were African American. Participants reported primarily generative motives as their reason for interest in the BECT. Conclusions. Public health interventions embedded in civic engagement have the potential to engage older adults who might not respond to a direct appeal to improve their health

Rachel Pruchno. (2012). Not Your Mother’s Old Age: Baby Boomers at Age 65. The Gerontologist, 52 (2): 149-152. doi: 10.1093/geront/gns038

Nearly 79 million people now living in the United States were born between 1946 and 1964 (Haaga, 2002). In 2011, the first of the Baby Boom cohort reached age 65, and for the next 17 years, close to 10,000 people a day will celebrate their 65th birthday. The generation raised according to Dr. Spock, the generation whose motto once was “trust no one over 30,” now find themselves knock-ing at Medicare’s door. Baby Boomers redefined each stage of life as they experienced it, modifying fashion design and hair length as well as key societal institutions. They questioned the underlying values and attitudes of society. They influenced education, music, race relations, sex roles, and child rearing. They are about to change what we know about old age.

Carolyn E. Adams-Price, Joshua J. Turner, & Shane T. Warren. (2013). Comparing the Future Concerns of Early Wave Baby Boomers With the Concerns of Young-Old Adults. Journal of Applied Gerontology.
Using data from a statewide needs assessment survey, this study examines and compares the self-reported future concerns of two age groups in Mississippi: Early wave Baby Boomers (age 55 to 64; n = 383) and the young-old (age 65 to 75; n = 349). Items under analysis focus on issues related to future concerns surrounding financial resources, health, and employment. Results from multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) indicate that Early wave Baby Boomers have higher levels of future concern than the young-old group in all three areas. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that the financial and employment concerns of the Baby Boomers were higher than the concerns of the older group even after subjective well-being and income were taken into account. However, age differences in health concerns disappeared after controlling for current health and well-being. These findings suggest that the financial concerns of the Baby Boomers extend to the whole cohort and not just to the most financially stressed.

Tingjian Yan, Merril Silverstein and Kathleen H. Wilber. (2011).
Does Race/Ethnicity Affect Aging Anxiety in American Baby Boomers?
Research on Aging, 33: 361-378.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether racial/ethnic differences in aging anxiety among American baby boomers stem from socioeconomic resources, knowledge about aging, and/or exposure to older adults. Data were from the Images of Aging Survey conducted in 2004. The analysis included 362 non-Hispanic Whites, 117 African Americans, and 96 Hispanics. Multiple regression models were used. Aging anxiety did not differ between African Americans and non-Hispanic Whites. Hispanics tended to have more aging anxiety than non-Hispanic Whites, but this difference was explained by relatively low socioeconomic status and lack of knowledge of aging among Hispanics. Baby boomers who were older, less healthy, less educated, and poorer had more aging anxiety than their counterparts, as did those with less knowledge about aging and less contact with older adults. To reduce aging anxiety, public interventions are needed that promote accurate perceptions about aging and increase opportunities for interacting with older adults.

Mathew Joseph, Deborah F. Spake, and Dana Moffett Godwin

Aging consumers and drug marketing: Senior citizens ’ views on DTC advertising, the medicare prescription drug programme and pharmaceutical retailing

Journal of Medical Marketing (2008) 8, 221 – 228.

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising in the United States has dramatically increased as pharmaceutical companies have benefited from targeting consumers with messages about prescription medications. This study examines DTC advertising from the perspective of senior citizens, the group that uses the most prescription drugs per capita, and reveals their views on DTC advertising, the Medicare prescription drug insurance programme and pharmaceutical retailing. The findings are compared to a prior study of adult consumers and reveal that the elderly are less aware of pharmaceutical advertising, but are similar to adult consumers on their opinions of DTC advertisements. Implications for public policy and pharmaceutical retailing are discussed.