Older adults with chronic conditions are at greater risk of negative affect, though few studies have focused on older adults' perspectives on how chronic conditions affect their mental well-being.

The gap

Consensus across the literature

Supporting evidence — 5 representative gaps

• Lifetime adversity predicts depression, anxiety, and cognitive impairment in a nationally representative sample of older adults in the United States (2024) · doi

  OBJECTIVE: Although life stress and adversity are well-known risk factors for mental health problems and cognitive impairment among older adults, limited research has comprehensively examined the impact of both childhood and adulthood adversity on psychiatric and cognitive impairment symptoms over a prolonged period.

  Keywords: adversity cognitive impairment objective life stress well known risk factors mental health problems among older
• Cognitive Impairment, Depressive Symptoms, and Functional Decline in Older People (2002) · doi

  OBJECTIVES: Although cognitive impairment and depressive symptoms are associated with functional decline, it is not understood how these risk factors act together to affect the risk of functional decline.

  Keywords: functional decline risk objectives cognitive impairment depressive symptoms associated understood factors together affect
• Negative Feelings and Help Seeking Among Older Adults With Chronic Conditions (2014) · doi

  Older adults with chronic conditions are at greater risk of negative affect, though few studies have focused on older adults' perspectives on how chronic conditions affect their mental well-being.

  Keywords: older adults chronic conditions affect greater risk negative though focused perspectives mental well
• Targeted Rejection Predicts Hastened Onset of Major Depression (2009) · doi

  Although severe life stress frequently precipitates the onset of major depression, little is known about the basic nature of stressors in this general category of adversity and how exposure to different life events might be related to clinical aspects of the disorder.

  Keywords: life severe stress frequently precipitates onset major depression little known basic nature stressors general category
• The impact of childhood and adulthood stressors on later-life cognitive function: evaluating birth cohort differences (2026) · doi

  Although life course research has shown that childhood stressors can exert long-term effects into older adulthood, few studies have explored alternative ways of measuring stressors across childhood and adulthood, or tested their invariance across birth cohorts.

  Keywords: childhood stressors adulthood across life course exert long term effects older explored alternative ways measuring