Seniors with a positive attitude about aging are more likely to pick up
the pace, findings show.
‘Thinking old’ may make the elderly shuffle
Study suggests stereotypes affect how people function
http://www.msnbc.com/news/330191.asp
ASSOCIATED PRESS -- Nov. 1, 1999 — Subconsciously feeding healthy
elderly people positive images of aging — words like “wise” and “astute”
instead of downers like “senile” or “diseased” — was all it took to pick
up their walking pace, says a study that suggests stereotypes about
getting old can significantly affect how people function.
HOW WELL older people walk can predict their future health and
independence. Falls are a huge health problem that many older people
fear, and doctors recommend exercise programs for even the very elderly
to strengthen muscles important for walking and balance.
But the new study, published Tuesday in the Journal of the
American Geriatrics Society, suggests the mind also may play a powerful
role, and bleak expectations of aging may unduly influence even healthy
people to walk slowly and wobbly.
“The effects are pretty profound,” said lead researcher Jeffrey
Hausdorff, a gerontologist at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center who invented thin, electronic shoe soles that precisely measure
gait.
“It means we need to think about trying to reduce the stereotypes
of aging,” he added. “We concentrate a lot on physical function and
things related to that. This shows other aspects of aging are also
important.”
Doctors have long explored the mind’s role in medicine. Take the
“placebo effect,” where some ill patients get better if they think the
sugar pills they swallow are really drugs. Also, psychological studies
suggest subconscious messages can influence perceptions.
That’s where stereotypes enter. Harvard University graduate
student Becca Levy conducted experiments that found negative stereotypes
of aging worsened people’s memory and self-confidence, while positive
stereotypes improved them. But, she wondered, would those stereotypes
also affect physical function?
Walking is a good test. Walking speed declines with age, and the
elderly often shuffle because of poor balance. So Levy and Hausdorff
tested 47 men and women, ages 63 to 82, who walked without a cane or
walker.
First, participants walked a hallway almost the length of a
football field as researchers recorded their speed and “swing time,” the
time a foot spends off the ground.
Then they played a brief computer game. On half the computers,
positive words — such as “wise,” “astute” or “accomplished” — flashed on
the screens just long enough to register subconsciously. Negative
words — such as “senile,” “dependent” and “diseased” — flashed to the
other half.
Then they walked that long hallway again. This time, the
positively influenced people walked 9 percent faster — improvement
similar to some exercises. “Swing time” also increased, meaning they
shuffled a little less.
Maybe positive stereotypes “change their mood or self-confidence
and that impacts their behavior,” theorized Levy, now an assistant
professor at Yale University.
Walking didn’t change for the negatively influenced people, who
presumably already were exposed to society’s negative aging stereotypes,
she said.
Nobody knows how long the positive effects last, or if positive
thinking also could help patients with arthritis, PARKINSON'S or other
gait-altering diseases, said Hausdorff, who is continuing the research.
The finding “is an interesting one, and it makes sense in the
context of ... the multiple factors that play a role in balance
problems,” said geriatric specialist Chhanda Dutta of the National
Institutes of Health.
Why do the elderly have problems walking? Hausdorff explains with
a demonstration: Strap 10-pound weights to each ankle, simulating how
heavy a muscle-wasted leg is to lift, and don a pair of taped-over
glasses to simulate bad eyesight. A youthful stride immediately turns to
a tentative shuffle; the feet even turn in a way that skews balance.
There are good ways to avoid falls, Dutta said:
Muscle-strengthening exercises that even 90-year-olds can do, adjusting
medications that can skew balance, proper eye care and clearing clutter
from walking paths.
But one study that found tai chi improves the elderly’s balance
also concluded the exercise provides “a better self-awareness,
self-perception of their body.” Dutta said that finding fits with the
new study’s emphasis on positive thinking.
© 1999 Associated Press.
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Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
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