Julia K Wolff

• PhD
• Universität Greifswald

In Germany, a substantial reform of emergency care is strictly recommended. Regulation of patient flows into the ambulatory and stationary sectors remains a major issue. In the OPTINOFA project funded by Innovationsfunds, a new triage system was developed for a structured primary evaluation of both urgency and care level of emergency cases. OPTINOF...

Im zweiten Teil der Evaluation der Kinder-Richtlinie (Uheft-eva, vgl. KJA 01/24, S. 5 ff.) wurde die Nutzung, Verständlichkeit und Nützlichkeit des Untersuchungshefts für Kinder (Gelbes Heft) untersucht. Nachfolgend werden ausgewählte Ergebnisse aus Sicht von Kinder- und Jugendärztinnen und -ärzten (KJÄ) sowie von Eltern zum Vorliegen des Gelben He...

Ziel der Früherkennungsuntersuchungen U1–U9 ist es, Hinweise auf Krankheiten und Entwicklungsverzögerungen frühzeitig festzustellen und eine geeignete weiterführende Diagnostik und Therapie einzuleiten. Inhalt, Art und Umfang der Früherkennungsuntersuchungen legt der Gemeinsame Bundesausschuss (G-BA) in der Kinder-Richtlinie fest (§ 26 Abs. 2 SGB V...

Fear of falling might result in overprotection by one's social environment. In turn, feeling dependent could increase fear of falling. However, the association between fear of falling and perceived overprotection and its temporal order is unknown. This longitudinal study explores this potential mutual longitudinal association. This study presents s...

Background: Mental and neurological disorders cause a large proportion of morbidity burden and require adequate health care structures. However, deficits in the German health care system like long waiting times for access to specialized care and a lack of coordination between health care providers lead to suboptimal quality of care and elevated hea...

BACKGROUND Mental and neurological disorders cause a large proportion of morbidity burden and require adequate health care structures. However, deficits in the German health care system like long waiting times for access to specialized care and a lack of coordination between health care providers lead to suboptimal quality of care and elevated heal...

Zusammenfassung Für pflegebedürftige Menschen mit besonderen Versorgungsbedarfen birgt die Pflegeberatung nach § 7a SGB XI im Sinne eines Case Managements viele Potenziale, da die Versorgungs- und damit auch Beratungsbedarfe in der Regel sehr komplex sind. Für die zwei Zielgruppen pflegebedürftige Kinder und Jugendliche und pflegebedürftige Mensche...

Objectives: For most populations, implementation intentions (IIs) facilitate physical activity (PA). However, for older adults, previous studies found mixed evidence for the effectiveness of this behaviour change technique. To examine which characteristics of IIs predict successful enactment, the content of older participants' IIs formed within a...

Objectives: How susceptible older adults’ affect is to fluctuations in health (i.e., health sensitivity) indicates how well they adapt to everyday health challenges. Theory and evidence are inconsistent as to whether older adults are more or less health sensitive than younger adults. The role of health burden as correlate and outcome of health sens...

A number of longitudinal studies have pointed to the long-term impact of different views on aging (VoA) on health in later life, whereas the reverse relationship has rarely been examined. Serious cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction or stroke are life-threatening events which might in turn lead to changes in VoA. The present longitud...

Objectives: Long-term volunteering has been associated with better physical, mental, and cognitive health in correlational studies. Few studies, however, have examined the longitudinal benefits of volunteering with randomized experimental designs (e.g., intervention studies). Even fewer studies have examined whether such benefits can be shown after...

Several studies have demonstrated beneficial effects of views on aging (VoA) on health, while the reverse relationship is seldom in focus. Serious health events (e.g., myocardial infarction) are life-threatening and remind individuals of the finitude of life possibly changing their VoA. The present study investigates the effect of cardiovascular ev...

Background and objectives: Volunteering has consistently been associated with better mental, physical, and cognitive health in older adulthood. However, the volunteering rate of older adults in Hong Kong is much lower than in Western countries. Few studies have examined whether interventions can be effective in motivating older adults to volunteer...

Objectives: Negative self-perceptions of aging (SPA) have been shown to result in lower levels of preventive behavior, health, and longevity. This study focuses on the understudied SPA effects on healthy eating across the life span. Moreover, it aims to provide longitudinal evidence of the psychological mechanisms behind this relationship. Method:...

Die Nachsorge von Patienten nach Nierentransplantation findet in den Transplantationszentren und bei den niedergelassenen Nephrologen und Kindernephrologen statt. Eine flächendeckende sektorenübergreifende Versorgungsstruktur für nierentransplantierte Patienten existiert bis heute in Deutschland nicht. Somit ist die Versorgung dieser Patientengrupp...

Background Volunteering could be a win-win opportunity for older adults: Links between volunteering and societal improvements as well as older adults’ own health and longevity are found in several observational studies. RCTs to increase volunteering in older adults are however sparse, leaving the question of causality unanswered. This study protoco...

Objective: Longitudinal studies have consistently shown beneficial effects of positive self-perceptions of ageing (SPA) on health. However, SPA are more often negative than positive, particularly in older adults. For this reason, the present study tested the effectiveness of an intervention to promote more positive SPA in the context of an exercis...

Background Most psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence cause impairment in academic performance. Early interventions in school are thought to reduce the burden of disorder and prevent chronicity of disorder, while a delay in reachable help may result in more severe symptoms upon first time presentation, often then causing upon first-tim...

Recent studies point to social change of age stereotypes and their increasing negativity during the last decades. This has recently been described as paradox because of improved living situations of older adults. However, self-perceptions of aging (SPA) do not need to follow the same trend as age stereotypes, in particular in older adults. This stu...

Volunteering is consistently found to be positively associated with mental, physical, and cognitive health in older adulthood. However, the volunteering participation rate of older adults in Hong Kong is much lower than in western countries, such as U.S. and Australia. Few studies have examined whether interventions would be effective in motivating...

The term multiple diseases is often used interchangeably with multimorbidity and usually refers to two or more chronic diseases. The term comorbidity also refers to multiple diseases but more strongly emphasizes that one or several diseases co-occur with one primary disease. It reflects one important facet of a multidimensional health concept and c...

Wie Menschen ihr eigenes Älterwerden erleben ist neben objektiven Lebensbedingungen wie der Gesundheit, dem Einkommen oder den Haushalts- und Familienstrukturen ein wichtiger Aspekt zur Beschreibung der Lebenssituation von Menschen in der zweiten Lebenshälfte. Individuelle Altersbilder umfassen Vorstellungen, die eine Person vom Alter als Lebenspha...

Der demografische und soziale Wandel führt zu weitreichenden Veränderungen in Deutschland. Eine ‚Gesellschaft des langen Lebens‘, wie sie sich in Deutschland in den letzten Jahrzehnten entwickelt hat, ist ein großer Erfolg. Seit Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts erleben immer mehr Menschen ein höheres und sogar sehr hohes Lebensalter.

Gesundheit ist ein mehrdimensionales Konzept (vgl. Kapitel 8), das nicht nur die körperliche, funktionale und psychische Gesundheit umfasst, sondern auch die subjektive Gesundheitsbewertung berücksichtigt (WHO 2002). Die subjektive Gesundheitsbewertung, das heißt, wie Menschen sich gesundheitlich fühlen und ihre Krankheit(en) und Einschränkungen ei...

Im vorliegenden Buch werden empirische Analysen und Befunde in einer großen thematischen Bandbreite präsentiert: Es geht um Einkommen und Vermögen, um Erwerbsarbeit und den Übergang in den Ruhestand, um Beziehungen innerhalb der Familie, um soziale Netzwerke, um freiwilliges Engagement und Freizeitaktivitäten, um die Wohnsituation und die nachbarsc...

Soziale Beziehungsnetzwerke sind eine zentrale Voraussetzung für Zufriedenheit, Sicherheit und persönliches Wachstum (Baumeister & Leary 1995). Sie erfüllen nicht nur grundlegende Bedürfnisse nach Zugehörigkeit und Wertschätzung, sondern sind auch Quelle für Unterstützung, Wissen und neue Perspektiven sowie für positive Erlebnisse im Rahmen gemeins...

Ein gutes Leben im Alter wird durch viele Faktoren, wie Gesundheit, materielle Lage oder Wohnsituation bestimmt. Ein wichtiger Bestandteil eines guten Lebens ist auch das subjektive Wohlbefinden, also wie es einer Person geht und wie sie sich fühlt.

Mit zunehmendem Alter spielt die Aufrechterhaltung einer guten Gesundheit nicht nur für das Wohlbefinden oder für persönliche Aktivitäten (vgl. Kapitel 11 und 17) eine bedeutende Rolle, sondern auch für die gesellschaftliche Teilhabe, wie das ehrenamtliche Engagement oder die Erwerbstätigkeit (vgl. Kapitel 3 und 5). Gute Gesundheit umfasst dabei ni...

Background and objectives: The importance of self-perceptions of aging (SPA) for health and longevity is well documented. Comparably little is known about factors that contribute to SPA. Besides individual factors, the context a person lives in may shape SPA. Research has so far focused on country-level differences in age stereotypes, indicating t...

Objective: Although health generally deteriorates with advancing age, how older adults evaluate their health status (i.e., their self-rated health, SRH) remains rather positive. So far, however, little is known about how SRH in old age may change in the face of an abrupt health decline. Because change/stability in SRH may reflect not only change/s...

Background Follow-up care after kidney transplantation is performed in transplant centers as well as in local nephrologist’s practices in Germany. However, organized integrated care of these different sectors of the German health care system is missing. This organizational deficit as well as non-adherence of kidney recipients and longterm cardiovas...

Numerous studies have found social inequality in health in older ages. Furthermore, a low socio-economic status also indicates limited access to resources for coping with health impairments. Thus, older adults of with a low socio-economic status may show more negative reactions to health problems across a variety of indicators of successful aging....

Views on aging (VoA) are known as important resource for health in old age. Few studies have investigated contextual factors influencing VoA. Cross-cultural studies suggest: individuals in countries with rapid demographic change (DC) have more negative VoA. The contact hypothesis, however, postulates that individuals living in regional contexts wit...

With increasing age, people develop more negative views on aging (VoA) which has been shown to result in lower levels of exercise and functional health. We investigated whether VoA were associated with eating behavior in different age groups and tested underlying mechanisms. One-year longitudinal data of the Konstanz Life Study with three assessmen...

Whether the increasing life expectancy in countries experiencing population aging is accompanied by compression or expansion of morbidity is an ongoing debate. The current study investigates one important factor in this debate: the development of health status in subsequent generations. Data from four cross-sectional samples aged 40–85 of the Germa...

Previous studies have shown impressively the preponderance of negative views on aging (VoA), in particular in older adults. On the contrary, portrayals of older people in the media have become more positive and individuals born later are healthier in old age compared to those born earlier. Thus, VoA may have changed to the positive in Germany betwe...

Findings on the impressive impact of individual views of aging and old age (VoA) on health and longevity call for a better understanding of these views. Previous studies have examined VoA as well as preparation for age-related changes mainly on the individual level without broadening the perspective to contextual influences. In contrast and based o...

According to Bandura’s social-cognitive theory, perceptions of somatic and affective barriers are sources of self-efficacy. This longitudinal study compares general indicators of health barriers with measures of perceived somatic and affective barriers to predict self-efficacy and accelerometer-assessed physical activity in a subsample of n = 153 (...

This study investigates the relation between age stereotypes and perceived age discrimination. Existing evidence for such a relation is notoriously ambiguous with regard to its direction—age stereotypes can predict (perceived) discrimination, but experiencing discrimination may also change views on ageing—which is why we used a dataset with two wav...

Background: Previous studies point to a potential relationship between self-perceptions of aging (SPA) and cognitive performance. However, most of these studies are limited by their experimental design. Previous longitudinal studies looked solely at memory as an outcome variable without examining the directionality of effects. The present study exa...

Das vorliegende Buch zum Deutschen Alterssurvey (DEAS) stellt mit einem breiten Themenspektrum dar, dass die Lebensphase Alter vielfältig ist und sich wandelt: Ältere Menschen sind heute aktiver als vor 20 Jahren. Sie sind länger erwerbstätig, engagieren sich häufiger ehrenamtlich, sie treiben mehr Sport und sind mehrheitlich sozial gut eingebunden...

Prospective memory (PM) is the ability to remember to perform an intended action in the future and is necessary for regular physical activity (PA). For older adults with declining PM, planning strategies may help them to act upon their intentions. This study investigates PM as a moderator in a mediation process: intention predicting PA via planning...

Objective: A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted to evaluate a three-hour face-to-face physical activity intervention in community-dwelling older German adults with four groups: The intervention group (IG) received behaviour change techniques (BCTs) based on the HAPA plus a views-on-ageing component to increase physical activity (PA)....

Retaining perceptions of autonomy is a key component of successful aging. Perceived autonomy refers to the capacity to make and enact self-directed decisions. These perceptions are often threatened in older adults with multiple illnesses, when functional limitations resulting from these illnesses impede the enactment of self-directed decisions. Reg...

Objectives: Large longitudinal studies show that negative self-perceptions of aging can be detrimental for health outcomes. However, negative self-perceptions of aging (i.e., associating aging with physical losses) might be adaptive because they prepare individuals for serious health events (SHEs), resulting in short-term positive effects as oppos...

Objective: Positive self-perceptions of ageing are associated with better health; however, little is known about the potentially underlying mechanisms. The present longitudinal study examines whether the relationship between self-perceptions of ageing and self-rated health is mediated by physical activity in older adults with multiple chronic cond...

Volunteering is presumed to confer health benefits, but interventions to encourage older adults to volunteer are sparse. Therefore, a randomized controlled trial with 280 community-dwelling older German adults was conducted to test the effects of a theory-based social-cognitive intervention against a passive waiting-list control group and an active...

Objectives: Associations between social support and health are studied since decades. Yet, little is known about how they vary by state versus trait aspects of support and by adult age. At trait and state level, the current study investigates direct associations between social support and health and whether support buffers the daily negative affec...

Self-perceptions of aging, important indicators of successful aging, are closely linked to health. Previous research has mainly examined the role of individual factors on self-perceptions of aging, but health is partly dependent on contextual factors such as primary care supply. This study therefore examined whether the impact of diseases on self-p...

Objective: The effects of self-efficacy beliefs on physical activity are well documented, but much less is known about the origins of self-efficacy beliefs. This article proposes scales to assess the sources of self-efficacy for physical activity aims and to comparatively test their predictive power for physical activity via self-efficacy over tim...

Objective: Physical activity is a key factor for healthy ageing, yet many older people lead a sedentary lifestyle. Traditional physical activity interventions do not consider the specific needs and views of older adults. As views on ageing are known to be related to health behaviours, the current study evaluates the effectiveness of prompting posi...

Abstract Objective. Previous research on illness perceptions has focused on single illnesses, but most adults over 65 suffer from multiple illnesses (multimorbidity). This study tests three competing operationalisations of multiple illness perceptions in predicting physical functioning and adherence: (1) main effects and interactions model, (2) pea...

Recent studies have provided considerable evidence on long-term effects of self-perceptions of aging (SPA) on indicators of successful aging such as health or life satisfaction. To date, little is known about the mechanisms underlying these effects. This study therefore examined whether negative SPA impair the use of self-regulation strategies that...

Reports an error in "Health is health is health? Age differences in intraindividual variability and in within-person versus between-person factor structures of self-reported health complaints" by Julia K. Wolff, Annette Brose, Martin Lövdén, Clemens Tesch-Römer, Ulman Lindenberger and Florian Schmiedek (Psychology and Aging, 2012[Dec], Vol 27[4], 8...

Health motives are motivational dispositions towards health. They are implicitly inherent in most health behaviour theories, yet rarely studied. We examined the role of health motives in health behaviour self-regulation (physical activity), particularly in the mediation of intention effects on behaviour via planning in an at-risk population with hi...

The variability of health complaints within individuals across time has rarely been studied, and the question whether between- and within-person factor structures of health-related variables are equivalent has not been tested so far. We examined self-reported health complaints in 101 younger (20-31 years) and 103 older adults (65-80 years) over a p...

Objective: Although health behavior theories assume a role of the context in health behavior self-regulation, this role is often weakly specified and rarely examined. The two studies in this article test whether properties of the environment (districts) affect if and how health-related cognitions are translated into physical activity. Methods: M...

Werden in sozialwissenschaftlichen Studien Veränderungsprozesse untersucht, zum Beispiel in der Entwicklungspsychologie, den Erziehungswissenschaften oder in der Soziologie des Lebenslaufes, so interessiert man sich in der Regel sowohl für allgemeine, mittlere Veränderungsverläufe als auch für interindividuelle Unterschiede beziehungsweise Abweichu...