What does feeling younger or older than one's chronological age mean to men and women? Qualitative and quantitative findings from the PROTECT study

OBJECTIVE: We explored which factors are associated with subjective age (SA), i.e. feeling younger, the same as, or older than one's chronological age, and whether these factors differ between men and women and between two age sub-groups. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study using qualitative and quantitative data for 1457 individuals (mean age= 67.2 years). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Participants reported how old they feel they are and provided comments in relation to their SA judgments. RESULTS: By using content analysis participants' comments were assigned to 13 categories, grouped into three higher-order categories (antecedents of age-related thoughts, mental processes, and issues when measuring subjective age). SA may result from the interaction between factors that increase or decrease age-related thoughts and mental processes that individuals use to interpret age-related changes. Chi-squared tests show that individuals reporting an older SA are more likely to experience significant negative changes and to engage in negative age-related thoughts than individuals reporting an age-congruent SA or a younger SA. Women experience a more negative SA and more age-salient events than men. CONCLUSION: Individuals reporting an older SA may benefit from interventions promoting adaptation to negative age-related changes. There is the need to eradicate negative societal views of older women.