Health sensitivity in the daily lives of younger and older adults: correlates and longer-term change in health

Abstract

Objectives: How susceptible older adults’ affect is to fluctuations in health (i.e., health sensitivity) indicates how well they adapt to everyday health challenges. Theory and evidence are inconsistent as to whether older adults are more or less health sensitive than younger adults. The role of health burden as correlate and outcome of health sensitivity and age differences therein is also unclear. We thus move the study of health sensitivity ahead from longitudinal inquiry to examine age differences, the role of health burden, and long-term implications of daily life health sensitivit

Methods: We use data from COGITO where 101 younger adults (M_age = 25; range = 20–31) and 103 older adults (M_age = 71; range = 65–80) gave daily reports of physical symptoms and positive and negative affect during a ∼100-day micro-longitudinal phase, as well as reports of trait-level health two years before and after.

Results: Extending earlier reports, older age and higher health burden were (independently) associated with lower health sensitivity in positive but not negative affect. Health sensitivity was unrelated to long-term changes in health burden.

Conclusion: We take our findings to indicate successful aging (older adults are not more emotionally vulnerable to health issues) and discuss habituation as a process underlying how age and health burden may reduce health sensitivity.

Keywords:

• affect
• affective reactivity
• physical health
• emotional development
• health sensitivity

Acknowledgements

S. Potter thanks Dr. J. L. D. Brown for feedback on this manuscript and acknowledges the support of The International Max Planck Research School on the Life Course (LIFE).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.