Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T18:48:22.323Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cultural differences in the association between subjective age and health: evidence from the Israeli component of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE-Israel)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2020

Yoav S. Bergman Open the ORCID record for Yoav S. Bergman [Opens in a new window]  and
Amit Shrira
Yoav S. Bergman*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Social Work, Ashkelon Academic College, Ashkelon, Israel
Amit Shrira
Affiliation:
Interdisciplinary Department of Social Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Research has demonstrated that holding a young subjective age (i.e. feeling younger than one's chronological age) has been associated with various positive aspects of physical and psychological health. However, little is known about how such associations differ between cultural sub-groups within a given society. Accordingly, the current study focused on the Israeli component of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE-Israel) and aimed to explore the moderating role of culture on the association between subjective age and objective physical health, subjective physical health and psychological health. Data were collected from 1,793 respondents, who were classified into three groups: veteran Israeli Jews, immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Israeli Arab citizens. Age ranged from 50 to 105 (mean = 69.65, standard deviation = 9.49). All participants rated their subjective age and filled out scales examining six dimensions covering psychological health, as well as objective and subjective physical health. Across all examined dimensions, an older subjective age was associated with unfavourable health outcomes. For the majority of health dimensions, the subjective age–health links were most prominent among Israeli Arabs. Results are discussed from both a general societal standpoint (i.e. group differences in access to health services), as well as from the individual's specific role in his or her culture and society.

Keywords

subjective ageSHARE-Israelcross-cultural differencesphysical healthpsychological health
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 32 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andersen-Ranberg, K, Petersen, I, Frederiksen, H, Mackenbach, JP and Christensen, K (2009) Cross-national differences in grip strength among 50+ year-old Europeans: results from the SHARE study. European Journal of Aging 6, 227–236.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ayalon, L, Palgi, Y, Avidor, S and Bodner, E (2016) Accelerated increase and decrease in subjective age as a function of changes in loneliness and objective social indicators over a four-year period: results from the health and retirement study. Aging and Mental Health 20, 743–751.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Azaiza, F and Brodsky, J (1997) Changes in the Arab world and development of services for the Arab elderly in Israel during the last decade. Journal of Gerontological Social Work 27, 37–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balicer, RD, Shadmi, E, Lieberman, N, Greenberg-Dotan, S, Goldfracht, M, Jana, L, Cohen, AD, Regev-Rosenberg, S and Jacobson, O (2011) Reducing health disparities: strategy planning and implementation in Israel's largest health care organization. Health Services Research 46, 1281–1299.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barak, B (2009) Age identity: a cross-cultural global approach. International Journal of Behavioral Development 33, 2–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baron-Epel, O, Garty, N and Green, MS (2007) Inequalities in use of health services among Jews and Arabs in Israel. Health Services Research 42, 1008–1019.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Benyamini, Y, Blumstein, T, Boyko, V and Lerner-Geva, L (2008) Cultural and educational disparities in the use of primary and preventive health care services among midlife women in Israel. Women's Health Issues 18, 257–266.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Börsch-Supan, A (2019) Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) Wave 6. Release version 7.0.0. SHARE-ERIC (Data-set). doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w6.700.Google Scholar
Börsch-Supan, A, Brand, M, Hunkler, C, Kneip, T, Korbmacher, J, Malter, F, Schaan, B, Stuck, S and Zuber, S (2013) Data resource profile: the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). International Journal of Epidemiology 42, 992–1001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourhis, RV and Dayan, J (2004) Acculturation orientations towards Israeli Arabs and Jewish immigrants in Israel. International Journal of Psychology 39, 118–131.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chernichovsky, D and Anson, J (2005) The Jewish–Arab divide in life expectancy in Israel. Economics and Human Biology 3, 123–137.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Choi, NG and DiNitto, DM (2014) Felt age and cognitive-affective depressive symptoms in late life. Aging & Mental Health 18, 833–837.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Darlington, R and Hayes, A (2017) Regression Analysis and Linear Models: Concepts, Application, and Implementation. New York, NY: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Diehl, M, Wahl, HW, Barrett, AE, Brothers, AF, Miche, M, Montepare, JM, Westerhof, GJ and Wurm, S (2014) Awareness of aging: theoretical considerations on an emerging concept. Developmental Review 34, 93–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gabrian, M, Dutt, AJ and Wahl, HW (2017) Subjective time perceptions and aging well: a review of concepts and empirical research – a mini-review. Gerontology 63, 350–358.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gelfand, MJ, Raver, JL, Nishii, L, Leslie, LM, Lun, J, Lim, BC, Duan, L, Almaliach, A, Ang, S, Arnadottir, J, Aycan, Z, Boehnke, K, Powski, P, Cabecinhas, C, Chan, D, Chhokar, J, D'Amato, A, Ferrer, M, Fischlmayr, IC, Fischer, R, Fulop, M, Georgas, J, Kashima, ES, Kashima, Y, Kim, K, Lempereur, A, Marquez, P, Othman, R, Overlaet, B, Panagiotopoulou, P, Peltzer, K, Perez-Florizno, LR, Ponomarenko, L, Realo, A, Schei, V, Schmitt, M, Smith, PB, Soomro, N, Szabo, E, Taveesin, N, Toyama, M, Van de Vliert, E, Vohra, N, Ward, C, and Yamaguchi, S (2011) Differences between tight and loose cultures: a 33-nation study. Science 332, 1100–1104.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gross, R, Brammli-Greenberg, S and Remennick, L (2001) Self-rated health status and health care utilization among immigrant and non-immigrant Israeli Jewish women. Women & Health 34, 53–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hayes, AF (2018) Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A Regression-based Approach. New York, NY: Guilford.Google Scholar
Hayes, AF and Montoya, AK (2017) A tutorial on testing, visualizing, and probing an interaction involving a multicategorical variable in linear regression analysis. Communication Methods and Measures 11, 1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hess, TM, O'Brien, EL, Voss, P, Kornadt, AE, Rothermund, K, Fung, HH and Popham, LE (2017) Context influences on the relationship between views of aging and subjective age: the moderating role of culture and domain of functioning. Psychology and Aging 32, 419–431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horenczyk, G and Bergman, YS (2016) Acculturation in Israel: complex patterns and the question of multiculturalism. In Sam, DL and Berry, JW (eds), The Cambridge Handbook of Acculturation Psychology, 2nd Edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 294–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyde, M, Wiggins, RD, Higgs, P and Blane, DB (2003) A measure of quality of life in early old age: the theory, development and properties of a needs satisfaction model (CASP-19). Aging & Mental Health 7, 186–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jung, S, Cham, H, Siedlecki, KL and Jopp, DS (in press) Measurement invariance and developmental trajectories of multidimensional self-perceptions of aging in middle-aged and older adults. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences. Available online. doi:10.1093/geronb/gbz099.Google Scholar
Kastenbaum, R, Derbin, V, Sabatini, P and Artt, S (1972) ‘The ages of me’: toward personal and interpersonal definitions of functional aging. Aging and Human Development 3, 197–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, S, Downs, TD, Cash, HR and Grotz, RC (1970) Progress in development of the index of ADL. The Gerontologist 10, 20–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keyes, CL and Westerhof, GJ (2012) Chronological and subjective age differences in flourishing mental health and major depressive episode. Aging & Mental Health 16, 67–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Khalaila, R and Litwin, H (2012) Modernisation and filial piety among traditional family care-givers: a study of Arab-Israelis in cultural transition. Ageing & Society 32, 769–789.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khvorostianov, N and Remennick, L (2015) Immigration and generational solidarity: elderly Soviet immigrants and their adult children in Israel. Journal of Intergenerational Relationships 13, 34–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kornadt, AE and Rothermund, K (2015) Views on aging: domain-specific approaches and implications for developmental regulation. In Diehl, M and Werner-Wahl, H (eds), Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics. New York, NY: Springer, pp. 121–144.Google Scholar
Kotter-Grühn, D, Neupert, SD and Stephan, Y (2015) Feeling old today? Daily health, stressors, and affect explain day-to-day variability in subjective age. Psychology & Health 30, 1470–1485.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kotter-Grühn, D, Kornadt, AE and Stephan, Y (2016) Looking beyond chronological age: current knowledge and future directions in the study of subjective age. Gerontology 62, 86–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kwak, S, Kim, H, Chey, J and Youm, Y (2018) Feeling how old I am: subjective age is associated with estimated brain age. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 10, 168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lahav, Y, Avidor, S, Stein, JY, Zhou, X and Solomon, Z (2020) Telomere length and depression among ex-prisoners of war: the role of subjective age. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 75, 21–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lawton, MP and Brody, EM (1969) Assessment of older people: self-maintaining and instrumental activities of daily living. The Gerontologist 9, 179–186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levy, B (2009) Stereotype embodiment: a psychosocial approach to aging. Current Directions in Psychological Science 18, 332–336.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Litwin, H (1995) The social networks of elderly immigrants: an analytic typology. Journal of Aging Studies 9, 155–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Litwin, H (2009) Social networks and well-being: a comparison of older people in Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean countries. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 65B, 599–608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowenstein, A and Katz, R (2000) Rural Arab families coping with caregiving. Marriage & Family Review 30, 179–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marquet, M, Chasteen, AL, Plaks, JE and Balasubramaniam, L (2019) Understanding the mechanisms underlying the effects of negative age stereotypes and perceived age discrimination on older adults’ well-being. Aging & Mental Health 23, 1666–1673.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Netz, Y, Goldsmith, R, Shimony, T, Ben-Moshe, Y and Zeev, A (2011) Adherence to physical activity recommendations in older adults: an Israeli national survey. Journal of Aging and Physical Activity 19, 30–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prince, MJ, Reischies, F, Beekman, AT, Fuhrer, R, Jonker, C, Kivela, SL, Lawlor, BA, Lobo, A, Magnusson, H, Fichter, M, Van Oyen, H, Roelands, M, Skoog, I, Turrina, C and Copeland, JRM (1999) Development of the EURO-D scale – a European Union initiative to compare symptoms of depression in 14 European centres. British Journal of Psychiatry 174, 330–338.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pruchno, RA, Wilson-Genderson, M and Cartwright, F (2010) A two-factor model of successful aging. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 65B, 671–679.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Remennick, LI and Ottenstein-Eisen, N (1998) Reaction of new Soviet immigrants to primary health care services in Israel. International Journal of Health Services 28, 555–574.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shnoor, Y and Be'er, S (2019) The 65+ Population in Israel: Statistical Abstract 2018. Jerusalem: JDC-Brookdale. (In Hebrew)Google Scholar
Shrira, A, Bodner, E and Palgi, Y (2014) The interactive effect of subjective age and subjective distance-to-death on psychological distress of older adults. Aging & Mental Health 18, 1066–1070.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shrira, A, Palgi, Y, Hoffman, Y, Avidor, S, Bodner, E, Ben-Ezra, M and Bensimon, M (2018) Subjective age as a moderator in the reciprocal effects between posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and self-rated physical functioning. Frontiers in Psychology 9, 1746.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shuval, JT (1990) Health in Israel: patterns of equality and inequality. Social Science & Medicine 31, 291–303.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spuling, SM, Miche, M, Wurm, S and Wahl, HW (2013) Exploring the causal interplay of subjective age and health dimensions in the second half of life. Zeitschrift für Gesundheitspsychologie 21, 5–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephan, Y, Caudroit, J, Jaconelli, A and Terracciano, A (2014) Subjective age and cognitive functioning: a 10-year prospective study. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 22, 1180–1187.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stephan, Y, Sutin, AR and Terracciano, A (2015) How old do you feel? The role of age discrimination and biological aging in subjective age. PLOS ONE 10, e0119293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephan, Y, Sutin, AR and Terracciano, A (2018) Determinants and implications of subjective age across adulthood and old age. In Ryff, C and Kreuger, RF (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Integrative Health Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 87–96.Google Scholar
Westerhof, GJ and Barrett, AE (2005) Age identity and subjective well-being: a comparison of the United States and Germany. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 60B, S129–S136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westerhof, GJ, Miche, M, Brothers, AF, Barrett, AE, Diehl, M, Montepare, JM, Wahl, HW and Wurm, S (2014) The influence of subjective aging on health and longevity: a meta-analysis of longitudinal data. Psychology and Aging 29, 793–802.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wurm, S, Diehl, M, Kornadt, AE, Westerhof, GJ and Wahl, HW (2017) How do views on aging affect health outcomes in adulthood and late life? Explanations for an established connection. Developmental Review 46, 27–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: File

Bergman and Shrira supplementary material

Bergman and Shrira supplementary material

Download Bergman and Shrira supplementary material(File)
File 19.2 KB