Leader: Francesco Pagnini (Unicatt); Other collaborator(s): Diletta Barbiani
Psychological factors such as cognitive flexibility, mindfulness, engagement, and perceived control can significantly impact psychological and physical well-being of older adults. In this task, the predictive role of these and other psychological factors on healthy ageing trajectories will be assessed. Moreover, psychological and psychosocial interventions, specifically developed for this project and based on the scientific background of the research team, will be tested as promising strategies to promote psychological and physical well-being.
Brief description of the activities and of the intermediate results
The repeated measures study has been approved by the local Ethics Committee. We have issued a call for recruiting agencies to recruit the proper sample. Three agencies have responded to this call, and the selection is proceeding. As soon as the selection process terminates, the approved protocol will be applied, and data will be collected. This activity shares common methods across tasks 6.1, 6.2, and 6.4. Furthermore, a policy paper about the importance of ageing stereotypes and their management in the social environment has been submitted to the consortium. The intervention study, dealing with the application of an open-label placebo treatment for older adults, has been submitted to the local Ethics Committee, and has currently received a request for minor revisions. We plan to start implementing the experimental study by June. Three scientific articles are under review by scientific journals. All key personnel have been recruited, including a senior and a junior postdoc.
Repeated-measures survey. The first wave of the repeated-measures online survey was conducted and completed between July and August 2024, with a sample of 2000 participants. The sample was representative of the Italian elderly population in terms of gender, age groups, geographical origin and educational level. The same sample will be surveyed again after six months in order to grasp a comprehensive picture of the predictive relationships between the different constructs that were taken into account (i.e., well-being/quality of life; personal resources and cognitive strategies; physical activity and related psychosocial factors; autonomy in daily life; perceived social support; use of technology; psychopathological morbidity). A reliability analysis of the scales used is being performed, as well as a descriptive and correlational analysis of the various constructs considered. After the second survey wave, the results of the two surveys will be compared using advanced statistical analyses. Regression and mediation models will be used to examine the relationships between predictor variables (e.g. demographic factors, health indicators) and outcome variables (e.g. measures of well-being, resource utilization) over time. Longitudinal regression models will shed light on how changes in predictor variables are related to changes in outcome variables, providing a dynamic understanding of the factors influencing older people's well-being.
Scientific papers. We have received an invitation to contribute to a Chapter entitled “Digital Interventions for Older Adults” to be published by Springer Nature in the Volume “Telepsychotherapy and Mental Health Services”. The volume will be published by the end of 2024. We have submitted a Perspective article entitled “Investigating the link between aging stereotypes and aging trajectories” in which we put forward a conceptual model to explore plausible pathways through which aging stereotypes may influence aging trajectories. The manuscript is currently under editorial consideration.
Intervention study. Our intervention study is aimed at exploring whether a placebo disguised as a multivitamin supplement can positively influence well-being and cognitive and physical outcomes in a sample of older adults aged over 65. Importantly, since classic placebos involve deception, we also tested whether similar effects could be achieved through an ‘open-label’ placebo paradigm, which side-steps the ethical issue due to deception by honestly describing placebos as inert substances. We have currently tested 60 older adults and will report preliminary results at the Age-IT Conference held at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan, on October 18 2024. We expect this study to be completed by December 2024.