Predicting the Trajectories of Perceived Pain Intensity in Southern Community-Dwelling Older Adults: The Role of Religiousness.

This study focuses on the identification of multiple latent trajectories of pain intensity, and it examines how religiousness is related to different classes of pain trajectory. Participants were 720 community-dwelling older adults who were interviewed at four time points over a 3-year period. Overall, intensity of pain decreased over 3 years.

Predicting the trajectories of depressive symptoms among southern community-dwelling older adults: the role of religiosity.

Background: This study examined the effects of religiosity on the trajectories of depressive symptoms in a sample of community-dwelling older adults over a four-year period in a Southern state in the U.S.

Methods: Data from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Study of Aging were analyzed using a hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) method.

Typologies of religiousness/spirituality: implications for health and well-being.

The purpose of this study was to develop empirically based typologies of religiousness/spirituality (R/S) and to determine whether the typologies were related to health and well-being. The study used a nationally representative sample of adults (N=1,431). Using latent profile analysis, typologies were derived based on religious service attendance, prayer, positive religious coping, and daily spiritual experiences.

Transportation Difficulty of Black and White Rural Older Adults.

The purpose of this study was to understand self-reported transportation difficulty among rural older adults. We used data from the UAB Study of Aging (255 Black and 259 White), community-dwelling participants residing in rural areas. We examined the relationship of predisposing characteristics, enabling resources, and measures of need for care with self-reports of transportation difficulty.

Predictors of physical functioning trajectories among Chinese oldest old adults: rural and urban differences.

This article examined the differences between rural/urban older adults in their trajectories of activities of daily living (ADL) over a 4-year period. The sample included 2,490 community dwelling older adults who completed three waves (1998, 2000, and 2002) of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. Among them, 63.

Religiousness and Longitudinal Trajectories in Elders' Functional Status.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of religiousness on the trajectories of difficulties with activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental ADLs (IADLs) in community-dwelling older adults over a three-year period. Seven waves of data from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Study of Aging were analyzed using a hierarchical linear modeling method. The study was based on the 784 participants who completed interviews every six months between December 1999 and February 2004.

Functional limitations and religious service attendance among African American and white older adults.

Church attendance is associated with improved health and well-being among older adults, but older adults with functional limitations may have difficulty attending church services. This article examines differences in the association between functional limitations and church attendance in a sample of 987 elderly African American and white individuals. African American and white elderly people without limitations attended church at virtually the same rate (69 percent).

Death anxiety and religiosity among Lithuanian health and social service professionals.

This study examined the applicability of the Multidimensional Fear of Death Scale (MFODS; J.W.Hoetler, 1979a) in Lithuania, a culture where death anxiety has not been studied previously.