What allows older people to feel in control?

FRIDAY, February 8, 2019 (HealthDay News) – What determines the degree of control older people feel about their lives? A new search offers answers.

"We have found that sleep, mood, and stress are all important factors in determining the sense of control and in determining whether older people feel they can do what they want," he said. said Shevaun Neupert, co-author of the study. She is a professor of psychology at North Carolina State University.

"This result is important because when older people begin to lose their sense of autonomy, this can lead to behavioral changes that negatively affect their health and well-being," Neupert explained in a press release. emanating from a university.

The results could help guide efforts to improve people's sense of control, the researchers suggested.

For this study, the investigators badyzed data from 205 people aged 60 to 94, who provided information on a wide range of psychological variables over a period of eight days and over a three-week period.

The researchers wanted to determine which of these variables, if any, affected two "control" beliefs: the feeling of a person that she can do the things she wants to do; and the feeling that they control their own lives.

Several authors had a significant effect on both beliefs, report authors of the study.

"We know that people can do some things to improve their mood and sleep, and while sleep and mood are things most people think are important, this study highlights a very specific reason for their importance, "added Neupert.

"When people think that they have little or no control in their lives, they can stop doing certain things in life that are important to their health – because they think it does not happen. does not matter, "she said.

According to the first author of the study, Shenghao Zhang, the researchers also found that "being in a good mood makes people feel better about their skills and control, while being bad mood made people feel worse with these things. " Zhang is a PhD student at North Carolina State University.

"Finally, we found that one – day stressful events had an adverse effect on the individual 's subsequent control beliefs.These findings suggest that the adverse effects of stressful events may last longer than usual. a day, "said Zhang. "It would be interesting to carry out additional work to determine how long the effects of stress have a resonance with respect to the beliefs of control."

The study was recently published in the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences.

More information

The US National Institute on Aging is more interested in sleep.