UW-Madison research at the 18th Annual Colloquium on Aging

The 18th Annual Colloquium on Aging, to take place at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center in Madison on Wednesday, Oct. 18, will feature the work of a number of University of Wisconsin–Madison scientists. Much of the research is based on the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS), a long-term study of a sample of more than 10,000 men and women who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957.

Census reports predict that people ages 65 and over will represent 20 percent of the American population by 2030 — up from the current 12.4 percent — pointing to the need for a greater focus on health issues in later life. Here is a preview of some of the significant research projects being presented at the conference:

Religion prompts older adults to quit smoking: Based on statistics about the health habits of older adults from the WLS, a UW–Madison researcher has found that frequency of religious attendance is associated with earlier cessation of smoking. Individuals who attended religious services once a week quit, on average, about three and a half years earlier than those who never attended services in a model controlling for personality and socioeconomic factors.

Hanna Grol-Prokopczyk, of the Department of Sociology, focused on respondents to WLS who provided information about their smoking behavior in both the 1992 and the 2004 waves of the WLS. Of the group who smoked in 1992, 43.5 percent had quit smoking by 2004, while the remaining 56.5 percent were still smoking.

In examining socioeconomic factors, personal and family health experiences, retirement, personality, attitudes toward masculinity, sociability and religiousness, Grol-Prokopczyk found that a commitment to religion had one of the most significant correlations with the cessation of smoking.

Respondents who agreed that “The Bible is God’s word and everything happened or will happen exactly as it says” had more than 40 percent greater odds of quitting between 1992 and 2004, even when controlling for socioeconomic status and personality characteristics. For women, regularly seeking comfort through religious services also appeared to increase odds of cessation by 55 percent.

With further study, Grol-Prokopczyk hopes to focus on identifying casual mechanisms and understanding why religion aids the termination of the behavior. The practical applications, says Grol-Prokopczyk, are many. “Health professionals could partner with religious institutions to help smokers quit, or cessation programs could try to mimic the supportive environment of religious communities to aid their participants in kicking the habit.”

Five foundations that allow the body to self-heal: David Rakel, assistant professor in the School of Medicine and Public Health, will present about health as a dynamic process involving genetics, nutrition, environment, emotions and spirituality, but ultimately resting on one’s conscious choice to live a healthy life. How one decides to live one’s life can affect the hormones and neurotransmitters that are released within the body.

Rakel will give recommendations about how to maximize one’s health in each of the given categories. Genetically, one cannot alter one’s biological code, but “human choice through intention can create an environment that turns certain genes on and off,” says Rakel. He advocates stress management through forgiveness and a calmer perception of taxing events, establishing a spiritual connection that gives life meaning and purpose, the consumption of natural foods and exercise to maintain a healthy body and mind.

“All symptoms have emotion as a component, although the link is not always causal,” says Rakel. “The mind and body are one, and when one changes, it affects the other.”

Older adults: Less sex, more satisfaction: Based on statistics from the WLS, a UW–Madison scientist has determined that both men and women, as they aged, reported that their sexual relationship was physically pleasurable and emotionally satisfying.

John Delamater, a professor in the Department of Sociology, subscribes to a “biopsychosocial perspective,” where biology, psychology and social behaviors “each influence sexual behavior.” Employing this perspective, Delamater devised a model using WLS data to examine the general health, specific illnesses, medications, physical and emotional satisfaction, mental distress, education, gender and marital status of the participants of the study, and the connection of each factor to the frequency and satisfaction of sexual activity perceived by those individuals.

Physical ability, marital satisfaction and mental distress each had a correlation with the frequency of sexual activity, while illnesses and medications seemingly had no effect. Most surprising, says Delamater, was that gender and education had little visible effect on satisfaction or frequency of sexual activity in this older age group, contrary to typical patterns exhibited in younger generations, where both factors play large roles in the behavior.