CHATTIER WITH FRIENDS: OLDER ADULTS’ DAILY SOCIAL CONTACT AND CONVERSATION

Abstract Studies suggest conversation improves cognitive skills among older adults. While contact with family members is common in late life, contact with friends and acquaintances is relatively less frequent. Yet, we know little about how often older adults engage in conversation when they have contact with different social partners. This study used data from the Daily Experiences and Well-being Study to investigate how older adults talk with different social partners on a daily basis. Participants (N = 303) completed an initial interview about their social partners and reported on their contact with each social partner in ecological momentary assessments every 3 hours across 5 to 6 days. Participants also wore Electronically Activated Recorders (EAR), which captured snippets of their daily conversation. Findings revealed that contact with family members (e.g., spouse, children, siblings) occurred most often, with less frequent contact with other social partners (e.g., acquaintances, neighbors), and then friends. Multilevel models also revealed that participants talked more (i.e., saying more words in each 30-second snippet and had a greater proportion of snippets when they talked) when they had contact with their friends than when they had contact with family members or other social partners. Results from these multiple methods suggest that daily contact with friends could potentially encourage conversation that may facilitate cognitive functioning among older adults.

Aerobic training improves cognitive and brain outcomes across different populations and neurocognitive disorders of aging, including mild subcortical ischemic vascular cognitive impairment (SIVCI).However, little is known of the underlying mechanisms through which aerobic training exerts its beneficial effects on the brain.Recently, S100 calcium-binding protein B (S100B) has been proposed as a possible mediator of aerobic training.At low levels, S100B is neurotrophic but at higher levels it is neurotoxic.Elevated levels of S100B have been associated with decreased performance on measures of global cognitive function.Thus, we conducted a secondary analysis of data collected from the proof-of-concept single-blind randomized controlled trial (NCT01027858) in older adults with mild SIVCI to determine whether the beneficial effects of 6-months, thrice weekly, moderate intensity aerobic training on cognitive performance is related to changes in S100B levels.In a subsample of 45 participants, blood samples were collected both before and after trial completion.Global cognitive function was assessed using Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE).At trial completion, aerobic training decreased circulating levels of S100B compared with usual care plus education (F(1,41) = 6.673, p = 0.013, ηp2 = 0.140; Figure 1).Furthermore, reduced S100B levels were associated with improved global cognitive function in those who received the aerobic exercise intervention (partial r = -0.519,p = 0.023).Together these findings suggest that S100B is a promising target mediating the beneficial effects of moderate-intensity aerobic training on brain health in older adults with mild SIVCI.

ACTIVITY EFFORT, SELF-MANAGEMENT AND INFLAMMATION IN OLDER MEXICAN AMERICANS WITH OSTEOARTHRITIS
Tracie C. We extend our ongoing investigations of the health effects of activity effort among Mexican Americans (MA) with mobility limitations, specifically those with osteoarthritis (OA) (Harrison, 2009).Our previous research linked activity effort with co-morbidity and social participation in women with mobility limitations, finding significant variations between Non-Hispanic White and MA with physical disabilities.This bio-behavioral study takes the next step by examining the relationships between inflammatory measures (TNF-alpha & CRP), Mexican American-specific self-management behaviors (MA-SM), and activity effort (AE) in a sample of MA men and women.Over 5 months, 62 men and women, age 40 to 83, provided survey responses, blood, and saliva for analysis.After ensuring reliability of measures, we used Pearson correlations to provide initial associations.Findings indicated a significant negative correlation between AE and TNF-alpha (-.376, 0.005), which linked behaviors to inflammatory response; and between MA-SM and AE (-.254, 0.05), which linked the self-management to the behavior.These findings provide support for the biological impact of perceived activity effort on inflammation, as well as the positive effects that Mexican American specific self-management activities might have on health.Age-related decline in functional reserve has been described in tongue strength: tongue pressure during swallowing does not change with age, but maximal-effort isometric tongue pressure decreases with age.Healthy persons show a slight increase in pharyngeal swallowing pressure with age, but it is unknown if there is a similar decline in functional reserve.Fifty-six healthy adults (n=38 60 years) underwent pharyngeal high-resolution manometry during effortful and normal-effort thin liquid swallows.Repeated measures ANOVAs were performed on maximum pressures, pharyngeal contractile integral (PCI), pharyngeal pressure gradients, and upper esophageal sphincter minimum pressures.We hypothesized that older individuals would generate a less-robust pressure increase with effortful swallowing than younger individuals.Maximum pressures, PCI, and gradients increase during effortful swallowing (p<0.001),but there was no interaction effect with age, suggesting a lack of age-related functional reserve decline.Older individuals had greater UES minimum pressures than younger individuals in the effortful swallowing task (p=0.03), which may stem from reduced muscular compliance in this area.These findings do not align with those reported in tongue pressures, suggesting that muscle properties and pressure generation may be fundamentally different between the pharynx and the oral tongue.Alternatively, the effortful swallowing task may not elicit maximum contractility of the pharyngeal musculature.The preserved ability to increase pharyngeal pressure during effortful swallowing may support the use of the effortful swallow exercise in older adults with swallowing disorders.

SOCIAL NETWORKS AND SUPPORT CHATTIER WITH FRIENDS: OLDER ADULTS' DAILY SOCIAL CONTACT AND CONVERSATION
Yee To Ng, 1 Meng Huo, 2 and Karen Fingerman 1 , 1.

University of Texas, Austin, Austin, Texas, United States, 2. The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States
Studies suggest conversation improves cognitive skills among older adults.While contact with family members is common in late life, contact with friends and acquaintances is relatively less frequent.Yet, we know little about how often older adults engage in conversation when they have contact with different social partners.This study used data from the Daily Experiences and Well-being Study to investigate how older adults talk with different social partners on a daily basis.Participants (N = 303) completed an initial interview about their social partners and reported on their contact with each social partner in ecological momentary assessments every 3 hours across 5 to 6 days.Participants also wore Electronically Activated Recorders (EAR), which captured snippets of their daily conversation.Findings revealed that contact with family members (e.g., spouse, children, siblings) occurred most often, with less frequent contact with other social partners (e.g., acquaintances, neighbors), and then friends.Multilevel models also revealed that participants talked more (i.e., saying more words in each 30-second snippet and had a greater proportion of snippets when they talked) when they had contact with their friends than when they had contact with family members or other social partners.Results from these multiple methods suggest that daily contact with friends could potentially encourage conversation that may facilitate cognitive functioning among older adults.A growing older adult population living longer provides opportunities for greater age-integration, which includes reducing age-related structural barriers and increasing crossage interactions (Riley & Riley, 2000).While research on the theoretical construct of age-integration is prevalent, empirical evidence of age-integration in older adults' social networks is lacking (Hagestad & Uhlenburg, 2005).This study uses the National Health and Aging Trends Study to quantify and characterize age-integrated social networks in the United States, and to understand the sociodemographic predictors of these age-integrated relationships.Participants' social networks, comprised of respondents' spouses, household members, children, helpers, care recipients, and up to five individuals they share important things with were considered age-integrated if individuals were at least 10 years younger than the respondent.About 96% of respondents reported at least one person 10+ years younger than them.Further, these relationships were coded as familial (i.e., spouse, children, grandchildren, parents, siblings, and other relatives) and non-familial relationships (i.e., other nonrelatives) and analyses predicting age-integrated relationships as a function of sociodemographic characteristics were stratified by relationship type.Weighted multilevel logistic regression analyses suggest that females have lower odds of familial and non-familial age-integration than males; compared to white and married individuals, Black and Hispanic individuals have greater odds of familial and non-familial age-integration; compared to married individuals, separated, divorced, and widowed individuals have greater odds of familial age-integration, and those who were never married have greater odds of non-familial age-integration.This foundational study reveals that sociodemographic factors differentially predict familial and non-familial ageintegrated social networks.

SOCIAL NETWORKS AND NEIGHBORHOOD SATISFACTION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN OLDER ADULTS: AN ATLANTA STUDY OF RELOCATION
Nia Reed 1 , 1. Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States Atlanta was the first major city to offer federally-funded public housing and it is one of the first to demolish it.Unlike other cities undergoing public housing transformation through demolition under Housing for People Everywhere Program (HOPE VI), the Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) targeted senior housing as part of the demolition process.Investigators conducting the Urban Health Initiative (UHI) study collected three waves of data (baseline, 6-month postrelocation, and 24-month post-relocation) from relocated seniors and a comparison group of seniors who aged-in-place.To understand the interactions between public housing residents and varied components of their environments, including social networks and neighborhood satisfaction, I will use place attachment theory to frame my research, as sense of place is rooted within the interplay of community cultural wealth components.I will also use aging-in-place theory, which refers to individuals' ability to grow old in their own homes and communities, while adjusting to needed modifications associated with aging and mobility.Analysis of Covariance will be applied to understand the relationship between social networks, relocation, and neighborhood satisfaction among older adults who age-in-place, compared to those who relocated.
Corinne A. Jones, 1 Melanie Looper, 1 and Timothy McCulloch 2 , 1.The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States, 2. University of Wisconsin -Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States Carly Roman, 1 Christopher Beam, 2 and Elizabeth M. Zelinski 3 , 1. USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, Los Angeles, California, United States, 2. USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles, California, United States, 3. Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States