{"id":2089,"date":"2019-12-10T07:33:03","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T13:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/?p=2089"},"modified":"2019-10-29T09:43:25","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T14:43:25","slug":"definitive-evidence-that-anti-ageism-interventions-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/2019\/12\/10\/definitive-evidence-that-anti-ageism-interventions-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Definitive evidence that anti-ageism interventions work"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Image by Steve Buissinne<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Resposted with Permission from This Chair Rocks.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve known for a while that ageism\u2014negative beliefs and stereotypes about aging\u2014make us\u00a0vulnerable to disease and decline<\/a>, and also that\u00a0the opposite is true<\/a>. People with fact- rather than fear-based attitudes towards aging walk faster, heal quicker, live longer, and are less\u00a0likely to get Alzheimer\u2019s<\/a>\u2014even if they\u2019re genetically predisposed to the disease.<\/p>\n

Until recently, though, we didn\u2019t know much about whether strategies to reduce ageism actually worked. That changed on June 21, when a report published in the\u00a0<\/a>American Journal of Public Health<\/a><\/em>\u00a0showed for the first time that \u201cit is possible to reduce ageist attitudes, prejudices and stereotypes.\u201d Boom! The results are far more definitive than a single study. Scientists at Cornell University conducted a \u201csystematic review and meta-analysis\u201d \u00a0of 63 studies conducted over the past forty years with a total of 6,124 participants. After evaluating three types of interventions designed to curb ageism, they found that the most successful\u00a0 programs encourage intergenerational contact and educate people about the facts of aging.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most surprising thing was\u00a0how well some of these programs seemed to work<\/a>,\u201d observed co-author Karl Pillemer, professor of human development at Cornell and gerontology in medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. \u201cThe findings really suggest that these interventions had a very strong effect<\/a>\u00a0on outcomes, attitudes and knowledge\u201d about aging, concurred study author David Burnes, an assistant professor of social work at the University of Toronto.<\/p>\n

Not only that, experts agree that these kinds of interventions shouldn\u2019t cost much money and are easy to implement. Possibilities include after-school mentoring or tutoring programs; college classes on aging and age bias; and activities that involve all ages, like a community garden or putting on a play or organizing around a shared cause.<\/p>\n

Author and activist\u00a0Ashton Applewhite<\/b>\u00a0has\u00a0been recognized by the\u00a0New York Times, the\u00a0New Yorker, National Public Radio, and the American Society on Aging as an expert on ageism. She blogs at\u00a0This Chair Rocks<\/a>,\u00a0speaks widely at venues that have ranged from the United Nations to the\u00a0TED mainstage<\/a>,\u00a0has written for\u00a0Harper\u2019s, the\u00a0Guardian, and the\u00a0New York Times,\u00a0and\u00a0is\u00a0the voice of\u00a0Yo, Is This Ageist?<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0The author of\u00a0This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism<\/b><\/a>, Ashton is a leading spokesperson for a movement to mobilize against discrimination on the basis of age.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Resposted with Permission from This Chair Rocks. We\u2019ve known for a while that ageism\u2014negative beliefs and stereotypes about aging\u2014make us\u00a0vulnerable to disease and decline, and also that\u00a0the opposite is true. People with fact- rather than fear-based attitudes towards aging walk faster, heal quicker, live longer, and are less\u00a0likely to get Alzheimer\u2019s\u2014even if they\u2019re genetically predisposed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2095,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2095"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2089"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2095,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2089\/revisions\/2095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ccf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}