Older People Cope Better With Illness

Main Category: Seniors / Aging
Also Included In: Stroke
Article Date: 19 Jul 2007 - 1:00 PDT

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People over the age of 65 cope better with a stroke as they see this as a consequence of getting older.

This is the finding of Mrs Camilla Dyer of NHS Highland and the University of Edinburgh who presented her findings on Thursday 5 July, at the Annual Conference for Psychology Specialists Working with Older People (PSIGE) - part of The British Psychological Society - at the University of Nottingham.

The research aimed to further examine the findings of earlier studies that suggested a stroke is a family crisis and negatively affects 'family functioning'.

28 Stroke patients, aged 65 and over, and members of their family were compared to a control group of 28 older people without strokes and members of their family. Both were questioned regarding their family functioning, perceived quality of life, perceived social support and current mood.

Group comparisons revealed that participants from both the stroke and control groups reported healthy family functioning, good social support and low levels of anxiety and depression. The results suggest that previous research, which reported negative impact of a stroke on family functioning, is not necessarily found if the person with the stroke is over 65 years of age.

The findings also suggested that younger people who had experienced stroke reported a lower perceived quality of life than older people who had not had a stroke.

Mrs Dyer said: "People associate increased physical illness with ageing. The findings demonstrate that having a stroke might fit in with older people's expectations of what could happen. This expectation might lead older people to view their stroke as a consequence of growing old. Rather than this expectation having a negative impact on people's lives, it might actually act as a coping mechanism for dealing with the illnesses and losses that people are faced with in later life.

"Therefore older people may cope better than younger people with the effects of a stroke. This finding that older people may show strength and resilience in coping with physical illness is both an interesting and a positive one."

British Psychological Society

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