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Your Subjective Age Is More Important Than Your Actual Age, Study Finds
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While the aging process is a universal phenomenon, people perceive and experience one's aging considerably differently. Subjective age (SA), referring to how individuals experience themselves as younger or older than their actual age, has been highlighted as an important predictor of late-life health outcomes. However, it is unclear whether and how SA is associated with the neurobiological process of aging. In this study, 68 healthy older adults underwent a SA survey and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. T1-weighted brain images of open-access datasets were utilized to construct a model for age prediction. We utilized both voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and age-prediction modeling techniques to explore whether the three groups of SA (i.e., feels younger, same, or older than actual age) differed in their regional gray matter (GM) volumes, and predicted brain age. The results showed that elderly individuals who perceived themselves as younger than their real age showed not only larger GM volume in the inferior frontal gyrus and the superior temporal gyrus, but also younger predicted brain age. Our findings suggest that subjective experience of aging is closely related to the process of brain aging and underscores the neurobiological mechanisms of SA as an important marker of late-life neurocognitive health.
The present study examined time-related change in felt age, physical age, and satisfaction with aging in old age and covariates
of this change. Using 6-year-longitudinal data from the Berlin Aging Study (age range = 70–104 years), we found that individuals'
felt age remained on average about 13 years below their actual age over time, whereas they reported a decreasing discrepancy
between physical and actual age and a decrease in aging satisfaction over time. After we controlled for level differences,
a differential pattern of individual differences in change appeared for the three dimensions: Age contributed to a greater
decline in aging satisfaction but an increase in the discrepancy of felt age. A higher number of illnesses at baseline attenuated
change in felt age discrepancy. Future research on change of self-perceptions of aging will provide insight into mechanisms
of resilience of the aging self in later life.
Objective:
Subjective age is a biopsychosocial marker of aging associated with a range of outcomes in old age. In the domain of cognition, feeling older than one's chronological age is related to lower cognitive performance and steeper cognitive decline among older adults. The present study examines whether an older subjective age is associated with the risk of incident cognitive impairment and dementia.
Method:
Participants were 5,748 individuals aged 65 years and older drawn from the Health and Retirement Study. Measures of subjective age, cognition, and covariates were obtained at baseline, and follow-up cognition was assessed over a 2- to 4-year period. Only participants without cognitive impairment were included at baseline. At follow-up, participants were classified into one of the three categories: normal functioning, cognitive impairment without dementia (CIND), and dementia.
Results:
An older subjective age at baseline was associated with higher likelihood of CIND (odds ratio [OR] = 1.18; 1.09-1.28) and dementia (OR = 1.29; 1.02-1.63) at follow-up, controlling for chronological age, other demographic factors, and baseline cognition. Physical inactivity and depressive symptoms partly accounted for these associations.
Conclusion:
An older subjective age is a marker of individuals' risk of subsequent cognitive impairment and dementia.