Successful Aging: The Relationship Between Expectations Regarding Aging, Health-Promoting Behaviors, and Subjective Health Status

Abstract

As our population ages, there will be an increasing number of individuals affected by dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Individuals are being encouraged to use health-promoting resources and to participate in a healthy lifestyle to promote physical and mental health while aging. The present study examined how expectations regarding aging and lifestyle habits relate to successful aging outcomes in older adults. We collected data from 18 older adults with mild AD (13 men, 5 women) and 143 older adults without AD (96 women, 47 men) who ranged in age from 60 to 96 years old, with a mean age of 74.6 years old. All participants completed a background information form, the Expectations Regarding Aging (ERA-38) survey, the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II (HPLP-II), and the RAND Medical Outcomes Study Survey Short-Form (RAND-36). Expectations were a significant predictor of engagement in health-promoting behaviors, with more positive expectations being associated with more engagement in health-promoting behaviors (HPLP-II total score), but engagement in health-promoting behaviors did not mediate the relationship between expectations and health outcomes. Expectations were also a significant predictor of engagement in physical activity (HPLP-II Physical Activity subscale score), as well as physical functioning (RAND-36 Physical Functioning subscale score), with more positive expectations being associated with more engagement in physical activity and better physical functioning. Physical activity partially mediated the relationship between expectations regarding aging and self-reported physical functioning, with the predictors accounting for 29.2% of the variance in physical functioning.