Journal
PSYCHOLOGY & HEALTH
Volume 20, Issue 5, Pages 553-564Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/14768320500066381
Keywords
self-perceptions of aging; age beliefs; respiratory mortality; cause-specific mortality
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Although there is growing evidence that psychological factors affect an individual's susceptibility to respiratory illnesses, psychological predictors of respiratory mortality have received little attention. This study investigated whether an age-specific psychological factor, older individuals' beliefs about their own aging, predicted the likelihood of their dying from respiratory causes (ICD-9: 460-519). The sample was composed of 620 individuals, aged 50-87 years at baseline, who participated in a longitudinal study with six waves. Our research found that individuals with higher baseline positive self-perceptions of aging were significantly less likely to die of respiratory causes over the next 23 years, after controlling for age, ftinctional health, gender, loneliness, marital status, self-rated health, and socioeconomic status (hazard ratio=0.695, p<0.005). This is the first study to link individual beliefs about aging to cause-specific mortality. Future research is warranted to further elucidate the relationship between self-perceptions of aging and resistance to respiratory mortality.
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