The study of cognitive change across a life span, both in pathological and healthy samples, has been heavily influenced by developments in cognitive psychology as a theoretical paradigm, neuropsychology and other bio-medical fields; this alongside the increase in new longitudinal and cohort designs, complemented in the last decades by the evaluation of experimental interventions. Here, a review of aging databases was conducted, looking for the most relevant studies carried out on cognitive functioning in healthy older adults. The aim was to review not only longitudinal, cross-sectional or cohort studies, but also by intervention program evaluations. The most important studies, searching for long-term patterns of stability and change of cognitive measures across a life span and in old age, have shown a great range of inter-individual variability in cognitive functioning changes attributed to age. Furthermore, intellectual functioning in healthy individuals seems to decline rather late in life, if ever, as shown in longitudinal studies where age-related decline of cognitive functioning occurs later in life than indicated by cross-sectional studies. The longitudinal evidence and experimental trials have shown the benefits of aerobic physical exercise and an intellectually engaged lifestyle, suggesting that bio-psycho-socioenvironmental factors concurrently with age predict or determine both positive or negative change or stability in cognition in later life.

Paternalism vs. Autonomy: Are They Alternative Types of Formal Care?

Introduction: Paternalism, assuming control of aged care, is a widespread orientation in older adults care. Paternalistic attitudes and practices are commonly understood as a threat to the freedom and autonomy of a person, making patients more dependent. Therefore, the reduction of these attitudes and behaviors is a primary goal for any older adult health and social care situation. The aim of this preliminary study is to develop a behavioral intervention to decrease paternalistic behaviors in formal caregivers and to increase those care behaviors which promote autonomy at post-intervention (1 week) and at follow-up (14 weeks). Methods: A sample of 118 professional caregiver volunteers working in day care centers and nursing homes were assigned to quasi-experimental (N=47) and control (N=71) conditions. The intervention consisted of 3 weekly group sessions. Individual and contextual measures were collected: 1) the primary outcome variable was the type of care (paternalistic versus autonomist) measured through the self-report Paternalist/Autonomist Care Assessment (PACA); 2) A 10-item caregiver self-register of paternalistic behaviors was carried out, 3) Finally, in order to assess the potential effects on observed behavior both in caregiver and older adult functioning at a contextual level, the five institutions were assessed through the SERA-RS. Results: Compared with the control group, caregivers in the behavioral intervention group displayed significantly lower paternalistic appraisals at posttest and follow-up. Regarding the intervention group, caregivers at posttest and follow-up showed significantly greater occurrence of autonomist behaviors being promoted and lower paternalistic appraisal. The results regarding the effect on the institutions showed better personnel performance and older adult functioning. Conclusion: Caregivers who followed the intervention learned to better identify older adult needs; although we did not find significant differences in autonomy occurrence compared with the control group, a behavioral intervention may promote more autonomist environments and, therefore, better personnel and older adult functioning.

Aim: The study aims to examine whether characteristics of patients with Acquired Brain Injury–ABI (time elapsed since injury, level of dependence and behavioral problems) and resilience factors of the caregiver predicted caregiver well-being (quality of life, anxiety,depression and positive aspects of caregiving). Methods: 78 voluntary family caregivers (75.6% female) of patients with ABI completed the Barthel Index, Head Behavior Injury Scale, Questionnaire of Resilience in Caregivers of Acquired Brain Injury, WHOQOL-BREF, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale,and Positive Aspects of Caregiving Scale. Correlation analysis and stepwise regression were carried out. Results: Time elapsed since injury showed a negative relationship with positive aspects of caregiving. On the other hand, care-recipients’ behavioral problems showed significant associations with all caregiver variables: negatively with quality of life and positive aspects of caregiving, and positively with anxiety and depression. Regarding resilience, we found a positive relationship with quality of life and positive aspects of caregiving, and a negative association with anxiety and depression, showing better predictive power with depression. Conclusions: We confirm the relevance of developing multidisciplinary caregiver intervention programmes focused on positive ways to handle care-recipients’ behavioral problems and developing positive coping skills, such as positive reinterpretation, acceptance and seeking social support, that may optimize caregiver resilience.

The aim of the study is to determine the association between Behavioral Lifestyles (regular physical activity, healthy diet, sleeping, and weight control) and longevity in the elderly. A search strategy was conducted in the PsycInfo, Medline, PubMed, Web of Science (WoS), and Scopus databases. The primary outcome was mortality/survival. Four variables (mean of participant's age at the baseline of the study, follow-up years of the study, gender, and year of publication) were analyzed to evaluate the role of potential moderators. Ninety-three articles, totaling more than 2,800,000 people, were included in the meta-analysis. We found that the lifestyles analyzed predict greater survival. Specifically, doing regular physical activity, engaging in leisure activities, sleeping 7–8 h a day, and staying outside the BMI ranges considered as underweight or obesity are habits that each separately has a greater probability associated with survival after a period of several years.

A growing body of literature acknowledges the association between negative stereotypes and individual components of active aging, but very few studies have tested this association, at both individual and population levels. The Stereotypes Content Model (SCM) states that the cultural aging stereotyping of higher warmth than competence (called paternalistic or ambivalent prejudice) is universal. Our aims in this study are to test the extent to which the universality of this stereotype is confirmed in European Countries as well as how far "positive", "negative" or "ambivalent" views towards older people, and other negative attitudes such as prejudice and behaviours such as discrimination, predict active aging assessed both at individual and population levels. We have analyzed data from the European Social Survey-2008 (ESS-2008), containing SCM stereotypical and other appraisal items (such as direct prejudice and perceived discrimination) about adults aged over-70 from 29 European countries. First, SCM cultural stereotypes about older adults (“friendly”, “competent”, and “ambivalent”) were calculated; secondly, after developing a typology of countries based on their “negative”, “ambivalent” and “positive” views about older adults, the universality of cultural stereotypes was tested; thirdly, taking into consideration ESS data of those older persons (over 70s) who self-reported indicators of active aging (health, happiness, satisfaction and social participation), multilevel analyses were performed, taking our inter-individual measure of active aging as dependent variable and our stereotypical classification (positive/negative/ambivalent), direct prejudice and perceived discrimination as predictors; finally, relationships between stereotypical and appraisal items on older adults were examined at population level with country data from Active Aging Indexes. Our results show cultural stereotypes about older people (more friendly than competent) are widespread in most European countries, and negative cultural views of older adults are negatively associated with active aging both at individual and population level, supporting that negative cultural views of older adults could be considered as a threat to active aging.