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Physical and mental decline and yet rather happy? A study of Danes aged 45 and older.

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Date
2015
Authors
Vestergaard, Sonja
Thinggaard, Mikael
Jeune, Bernard
Vaupel, James W
McGue, Matt
Christensen, Kaare
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Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Little is known about whether the feeling of happiness follows the age-related decline in physical and mental functioning. The objective of this study was to analyze differences with age in physical and mental functions and in the feeling of happiness among Danes aged 45 years and older. METHOD: Three Danish population-based surveys including 11,307 participants aged 45+ years, of whom 2411 were in the age group of 90+, were conducted in the period 1995-2001. The participation rate in the three surveys was between 63% and 82% and the same design and the same instrument were used. Self-reported mobility, a cognitive composite score, and a depression symptomatology score including a question about happiness were assessed. T-score metric was used to compare across domains and age groups. RESULTS: Overall, successively older age groups performed worse than the youngest age group (45-49 years), and the estimated linear decline was greater after age 70 than before age 70. For example, when comparing the oldest age group (90+ years) with the youngest, the T-score differences were found to be the largest for the mobility score (men: 40.2, women: 41.4), followed by the cognitive function (men: 22.0, women: 24.9), and the total depression symptomatology score (men: 15.5, women: 17.4). Conversely, the T-score difference in happiness was small (men: 5.6, women: 6.0). CONCLUSION: Despite markedly poorer physical and mental functions with increasing age, in this Danish sample age did not seem to affect happiness to a similarly notable extent, although, in this study, cohort and age effects cannot be disentangled.
Type
Journal article
Subject
aging
cognitive composite score
depression symptomatology
happiness
mobility
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging
Cognition
Cohort Studies
Cross-Sectional Studies
Denmark
Depression
Female
Happiness
Humans
Male
Mental Health
Middle Aged
Motor Activity
Surveys and Questionnaires
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/14672
Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1080/13607863.2014.944089
Publication Info
Vestergaard, Sonja; Thinggaard, Mikael; Jeune, Bernard; Vaupel, James W; McGue, Matt; & Christensen, Kaare (2015). Physical and mental decline and yet rather happy? A study of Danes aged 45 and older. Aging Ment Health, 19(5). pp. 400-408. 10.1080/13607863.2014.944089. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/14672.
This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Scholars@Duke

Vaupel

James Walton Vaupel

Research Professor Emeritus in the Sanford School of Public Policy
This author no longer has a Scholars@Duke profile, so the information shown here reflects their Duke status at the time this item was deposited.
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