Optimism and Religiosity Can Diminish Future Care Planning in Late Life

• In Event: 178 - Section on Aging and the Life Course Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 02. Caregiving and End of Life

Abstract

Although many older adults fear loss of autonomy in late life, relatively few make plans for their future care. Given the benefits of future care planning (FCP), it is important to understand factors that facilitate or hamper FCP in late life. Our study explored racial, demographic, and dispositional influences on thinking about and engagement in FCP among 409 urban community dwelling older adults (Mean age=78.47; SD=5.88). Logistic regression estimates suggest that racial, demographic, and dispositional characteristics not only play a role in who thinks about FCP, but also who executes FCP. In terms of executing FCP, blacks had significantly lower odds of FCP (β=0.36, p<.05) when compared to whites. However, after the inclusion of education, disability status, optimism, and religiosity, the estimate for blacks becomes statistically insignificant suggesting the potential role of these variables in producing racial differences in FCP. We also found significantly higher odds of thinking and executing FCP among older adults who had at least a high school education. Moreover, our estimates indicate that an increase in the level of optimism leads to a decrease in the odds of FCP with similar results for religiosity and pessimism. Our findings highlight that some generally positive resources (optimism, marriage, religiosity) may serve as barriers to FCP for black and white community dwelling older adults. We discuss the value of interventions to promote FCP among older adults.

Authors

• Eva Kahana, Case Western Reserve University

• Boaz Kahana

• Tirth Raj Bhatta, University of Nevada Las Vegas

• Kaitlyn Barnes Langendoerfer, Case Western Reserve University

• Nirmala Lekhak, Case Western Reserve University