Caregiving Trajectories and Unmet Care Needs in Later Life.

Background And Objectives: The evolution of care networks accompanying older adults' changing care needs-and implications for unmet care needs-are not well described.

Research Design And Methods: Using group-based trajectory models, we identify 4 incident care need patterns ("care need trajectory groups") for 1,038 older adults in the 2012-2018 National Health and Aging Trends Study and 5 caregiving patterns ("caregiving trajectory groups") and a transient group among their 4,106 caregivers. We model associations between care need/caregiving trajectory groups and the rate of (approximating the proportion of rounds with) unmet care needs.

Dementia Prevalence, Incidence, and Mortality Trends Among U.S. Adults Ages 72 and Older, 2011-2021.

Background: U.S.-focused studies have reported decreasing dementia prevalence in recent decades, but have not yet focused on the implications of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic for trends.

Exposure to childhood maltreatment predicts adult physiological dysregulation, particularly inflammation.

Although a growing literature describes the effects of negative childhood experiences on biological outcomes, it is difficult to compare results across studies because of differences in measures of childhood experiences, biological markers, sample characteristics, and included covariates. To ensure comparability across its analyses, this study used a single national survey of adults in the United States-the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study-to examine comprehensively the association between adverse childhood experiences, operationalized as childhood maltreatment (CM), and biological markers of risk for poor health and to assess whether these associations differ by type of maltreatment, sex, or race. The sample included 1254, mostly White (78%), adults aged 34-86 years (mean age 57 years), 57% of whom were female.

Work as Overload or Enhancement for Family Caregivers of Older Adults: Assessment of Experienced Well-Being Over the Day.

Objective: This study examines work and care patterns and their association with experienced well-being over the course of the day and tests a moderating effect of gender.

Background: Many family and unpaid caregivers to older adults face dual responsibilities of work and caregiving. Yet little is known about how working caregivers sequence responsibilities through the day and their implications for well-being.

The Strength of Parent-Adult Child Ties in Biological Families and Stepfamilies: Evidence From Time Diaries From Older Adults.

We examine older partnered parents' time spent with adult children in biological and step families, treating time together as an indication of relationship strength. Using a unique national sample of U.S.

A day in the life of caregivers to older adults with and without dementia: Comparisons of care time and emotional health.

Introduction: How care-related time and emotional health over the day differ for those assisting older adults with and without dementia is unclear.

Methods: Using 2134 time diaries from the National Study of Caregiving, we compared emotional health and care time for caregivers of older adults with and without dementia.

Results: Caregivers to older adults with dementia experienced worse (higher scores) on a composite measure of negative emotional health (4.

Incident Care Trajectories for Older Adults With and Without Dementia.

Objective: Despite cross-sectional evidence that persons living with dementia receive disproportionate hours of care, studies of how care intensity progresses over time and differs for those living with and without dementia have been lacking.

Method: We used the 2011-2018 National Health and Aging Trends Study to estimate growth mixture models to identify incident care hour trajectories ("classes") among older adults (N = 1,780).

Results: We identified 4 incident care hour classes: "Low, stable," "High, increasing," "24/7 then high, stable," and "Low then resolved.

Change in Mobility: Consistency of Estimates and Predictors Across Studies of Older Adults.

Objectives: This study compares estimates and determinants of within-individual changes in mobility across surveys of older U.S. adults.

Do Family Relationships Buffer the Impact of Disability on Older Adults' Daily Mood? An Exploration of Gender and Marital Status Differences.

Objective: We evaluate whether non-spousal family support and strain moderate the effect of disability on two daily emotions (happiness and frustration) among older adults, and whether these patterns differ by gender among married persons, and by marital status among women.

Background: Stress buffering perspectives predict that harmful effects of stress on well-being are buffered by family support, whereas stress proliferation models suggest these effects are intensified by family strain. The extent to which family relationships moderate associations between stress and well-being may vary on the basis of gender and marital status, as non-spousal family ties are considered especially salient for women and those without a romantic partner.

Late life disability and experienced wellbeing: Are economic resources a buffer?

Background: Disablement has been linked to compromised wellbeing in later life, but whether material resources buffer these negative effects is unclear.

Objective: Drawing upon conceptual models of stress and coping, we analyze experienced wellbeing data from time diary interviews with adults ages 60 and older. We expect that experienced wellbeing will be influenced by each stage of the disablement process and that higher income and wealth will buffer the negative effects of disability on experienced wellbeing.

Time Use and Experienced Wellbeing of Older Caregivers: A Sequence Analysis.

Background And Objectives: The diminished wellbeing of caregivers is well documented, but studies typically draw upon coarse measures of time use and thus provide limited understanding of the role of specific care activities in the daily lives of care providers. This study uses time diary data to explore whether there are signature care patterns throughout the day and whether these care patterns have implications for caregivers' experienced wellbeing.

Research Design And Methods: Using a national sample of 511 time diaries from older caregivers in the Disability and Use of Time supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we examine minutes of care provided on the prior day, overall and for four broad care categories (household, personal care, transportation, and visiting), and patterns of care over the day, the latter based on sequence and cluster analysis.

Disability and Activity-related Emotion in Later Life: Are Effects Buffered by Intimate Relationship Support and Strain?

We use daily diary data from the Disability and Use of Time supplement to the 2013 Panel Study of Income Dynamics ( n = 1,162) to evaluate (1) the extent to which marital/partner support and strain moderate the effects of disability on five activity-related emotions (happiness, calm, sadness, frustration, worry) and overall negative and positive emotion among older married, cohabiting, and dating persons and (2) whether such patterns differ significantly by gender. Marital support buffers against negative emotions and increases feelings of calm among severely impaired women. By contrast, support intensifies negative emotions and decreases feelings of calm among severely impaired men.

The short-term stability of life satisfaction judgments.

Life satisfaction judgments are thought to reflect people's overall evaluation of the quality of their lives as a whole. Because the circumstances of these lives typically do not change very quickly, life satisfaction judgments should be relatively stable over time. However, some evidence suggests that these judgments can be easily manipulated, which leads to low stability even over very short intervals.

Aging, mobility impairments and subjective wellbeing.

Background: Wellbeing is often described as U-shaped over the life course, suggesting an apparent paradox that wellbeing remains high at older ages despite increases in impairments.

Objective/hypotheses: We explore associations among age, lower body impairments-one of the most common late-life impairments-and three measures of wellbeing: life satisfaction, emotional wellbeing and somatic wellbeing. We hypothesize that age effects are positive, become stronger once lower body impairments are controlled, and are concentrated among those who have maintained their mobility.

Impairment Severity and Evaluative and Experienced Well-being Among Older Adults: Assessing the Role of Daily Activities.

Background And Objectives: Physical impairments affect a substantial number of older adults in the United States, with rates increasing with advancing age. Impairment is linked with compromised well-being, although the reasons are not fully understood. We explore the extent to which linkages between impairment severity and well-being are accounted for by older adults' daily activities.

Physiological Dysregulation, Frailty, and Risk of Mortality Among Older Adults.

This study examines whether frailty is associated with mortality independently of physiological dysregulation (PD) and, if so, which is the more accurate predictor of survival. Data come from the Social Environment and Biomarkers of Aging Study. We use Cox proportional hazard models to test the associations between PD, frailty, and 4- to 5-year survival.

Psychological and cognitive determinants of mortality: Evidence from a nationally representative sample followed over thirty-five years.

Growing evidence suggests that psychological factors, such as conscientiousness and anger, as well as cognitive ability are related to mortality. Less is known about 1) the relative importance of each of these factors in predicting mortality, 2) through what social, economic, and behavioral mechanisms these factors influence mortality, and 3) how these processes unfold over long periods of time in nationally-representative samples. We use 35 years (1972-2007) of data from men (ages 20-40) in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), a nationally representative sample in the United States, and discrete time event history analysis (n = 27,373 person-years) to examine the importance of measures of follow-through (a dimension of conscientiousness), anger, and cognitive ability in predicting mortality.

Marital Quality and Negative Experienced Well-Being: An Assessment of Actor and Partner Effects Among Older Married Persons.

Objectives: We evaluate (a) associations between marital quality (emotional support, strain, and overall appraisal) and three negative aspects of experienced well-being (frustration, sadness, and worry) among older husbands and wives and (b) the relative importance of own versus spouse's marital quality assessments for understanding experienced well-being in later life.

Method: Data are from the 2009 Disability and Use of Time daily diary supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (N = 722). We estimate actor-partner interdependence models, using seemingly unrelated regression.

Happy Marriage, Happy Life? Marital Quality and Subjective Well-Being in Later Life.

The authors examined associations between marital quality and both general life satisfaction and experienced (momentary) well-being among older husbands and wives, the relative importance of own versus spouse's marital appraisals for well-being, and the extent to which the association between own marital appraisals and well-being is moderated by spouse's appraisals. Data are from the 2009 Disability and Use of Time daily diary supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics ( = 722). One's own marital satisfaction is a sizable and significant correlate of life satisfaction and momentary happiness; associations do not differ significantly by gender.

Cohort Profile: The Social Environment and Biomarkers of Aging Study (SEBAS) in Taiwan.

The Social Environment and Biomarkers of Aging Study (SEBAS) is a nationally representative longitudinal survey of Taiwanese middle-aged and older adults. It adds the collection of biomarkers and performance assessments to the Taiwan Longitudinal Study of Aging (TLSA), a nationally representative study of adults aged 60 and over, including the institutionalized population. The TLSA began in 1989, with follow-ups approximately every 3 years; younger refresher cohorts were added in 1996 and 2003.

Does Time Fly When You Are Having Fun? A Day Reconstruction Method Analysis.

Duration-based measures of happiness from retrospectively constructed daily diaries are gaining in popularity in population-based studies of the hedonic experience. Yet experimental evidence suggests that perceptions of duration - how long an event lasts - are influenced by individuals' emotional experiences during the event. An important remaining question is whether observational measures of duration outside the laboratory setting, where the events under study are engaged in voluntarily, may be similarly affected, and if so, for which emotions are duration biases a potential concern.

Socioeconomic status and biological markers of health: an examination of adults in the United States and Taiwan.

Objective: The study documents whether socioeconomic status (SES) differentials in biological risk are more widely observed and larger in the United States than Taiwan.

Method: Data come from the Social Environment and Biomarkers of Aging Study in Taiwan and the Midlife in the United States study. We use regression analyses to test whether four summary measures of biological risk are significantly related to categorical measures of education, income, and subjective social status among four country-sex-specific subgroups.

Interviewer and Respondent Interactions and Quality Assessments in a Time Diary Study.

Systematic investigations of the cognitive challenges in completing time diaries and measures of quality for such interviews have been lacking. To fill this gap, we analyze respondent and interviewer behaviors and interviewer-provided observations about diary quality for a computer-assisted telephone-administered time diary supplement to the U.S.

Is spousal caregiving associated with enhanced well-being? New evidence from the panel study of income dynamics.

Objectives: We explore whether spousal caregiving is associated with enhanced well-being for older husbands and wives.

Method: We use time diary data from the 2009 Panel Study of Income Dynamics and Disability and Use of Time supplement. We measure experienced well-being as ratings of happiness and frustration during activities recalled for the previous day.

Reliability and validity of self-care and mobility accommodations measures in the National Health and Aging Trends Study.

Purpose Of The Study: Comprehensive measures of disability accommodations have been lacking in national health and aging studies. This article introduces measures of accommodations developed for the National Health and Aging Trends Study, evaluates their reliability, and explores the validity and reliability of hierarchical classification schemes derived from these measures.

Design And Methods: We examined test-retest reliability for questions about assistive device use, doing activities less often, and getting help from another person with both percentage agreement and kappa (N = 111).