Correspondence of perceptions about centenarians’ mental health

Abstract

Objectives: The goals of this study were to uncover the criteria by which centenarians, proxy/caregivers, and interviewers rated centenarians’ mental health. Often proxy and interviewer reports are obtained in studies of the oldest-old and become a primary source of information.

Methods: Data were from a population-based sample of mentally competent US centenarians in northern Georgia. The dependent variables were based on alternative reports for the centenarians’ mental or emotional health. Regression analysis was used to predict each source's rating of mental health separately with the same set of variables. These variables included information obtained from the centenarians and proxies about their distal experiences, demographics, and proximal resources including Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE), health, personality, socioeconomic resources, and coping behaviors.

Results: Examination of mean-level differences between sources revealed similarity across mental health ratings. For centenarians and proxies, perceived economic status was a very important predictor of mental health. For centenarians and interviewers, personality (neuroticism and extraversion) was an important common predictor. The interviewer and proxy mental health ratings were strongly associated with MMSE, but that was not the case for centenarians.

Conclusion: Mean-level findings and the comparative regression results provide corroborating evidence that centenarians’ self-reports of mental health are similar based on average ratings and presence of common associations with other raters (i.e., perceived economic status and personality). Implications of differences across rater pairs are discussed as guidance about the comparative value of substitution of proxies as informants for addressing specific influences on mental health.

Keywords:

• extreme old age
• mental health assessment
• quality of life/well-being

Acknowledgements

The Georgia Centenarian Study (Leonard W. Poon, PI) is funded by 1P01-AG17553 from the National Institute on Aging, a collaboration among The University of Georgia, Tulane University Health Sciences Center, Boston University, University of Kentucky, Emory University, Duke University, Wayne State University, Iowa State University and University of Michigan. Authors acknowledge the valuable recruitment and data acquisition effort from M. Burgess, K. Grier, E. Jackson, E. McCarthy, K. Shaw, L. Strong and S. Reynolds, data acquisition team manager; S. Anderson, E. Cassidy, M. Janke, and T. Savla, data management; M. Poon for project fiscal management.

Notes

†For the Georgia Centenarian Study. Additional authors include S.M. Jazwinski, R.C. Green, M. Gearing, W.R. Markesbery, J.L. Woodard, M.A. Johnson, J.S. Tenover, I.C. Siegler, W.L. Rodgers, D.B. Hausman, C. Rott, A. Davey, and J. Arnold.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Leonard W. Poon†

†For the Georgia Centenarian Study. Additional authors include S.M. Jazwinski, R.C. Green, M. Gearing, W.R. Markesbery, J.L. Woodard, M.A. Johnson, J.S. Tenover, I.C. Siegler, W.L. Rodgers, D.B. Hausman, C. Rott, A. Davey, and J. Arnold.