About the research
The researchers aimed to highlight the role of culture in shaping health across adults aging in different sociopolitical contexts.
Focusing on an intriguing difference in beliefs about personal control found between older adults in England and the United States, the researchers used national data from the two countries to examine the extent to which cross-national differences in disability vary according to different levels of control.
They argue that these cross-national differences are partly a function of differences in lifetime psychological conditioning across two nations with different state protection systems.
The findings show that disability is more prevalent in the US than in England. Yet, older Americans overwhelmingly report a high sense of personal control (a strong tendency to believe that events in their lives are a result of their own behaviour), whereas older Britons tend to interpret events as the result of luck, chance or fate (also called fate control or fatalism). This higher sense of perceived control among older Americans reduces their self-reported difficulty with daily life activities among those with mild or average impairment, attenuating the cross-national differences.
The researchers conclude that differences in the role of the state may result in differences in the sense of control between older adults in the United States and Britain, which has implications for the management of disability among those experiencing physical limitations.
Methodology
In both surveys, the researchers used data collected with the physical performance measures (timed walk), perceived control was measured in the leave-behind survey.
Using gait speed from the timed walk as an objective performance-based measure of physical function, they then used Poisson regression to model the relationship between physical function and self-reported difficulty with activities of daily living. Statistical interaction terms were used to test the modifying effects of personal control on the relationship between objective physical function and self-reported disability.
Publications
This study was published as Aging in a cultural context: cross-national differences in disability and the moderating role of personal control among older adults in the United States and England, The Journals of Gerontology Series B, April 2011.