The feminization of old age justifies a separate chapter on gender differences despite the fact that they are mentioned in almost every chapter, particularly in the last chapter of this book. The aim of the present chapter is to describe in which biopsychosocial variables – physical, functional, and mental health, personality, and social integration – men and women differ. As a summary statement of the empirical data base in this chapter, we can conclude the following: Gender differences found in the domains examined are small and there are few age differences (from ages 70 to over 100) within the noted gender differences. Of the 27 biopsychosocial variables, when considered separately, 14 show significant gender differences and 4 a significant age-by-gender interaction effect. Most of these differences are in the health domain. When adding the five sociodemographic variables and regarding all variables conjointly, we can correctly classify 78% of the men and 83% of the women. In this context the most significant variables are marital and educational status, physical health, and hearing – that is, not being married and having less education, as well as suffering from a musculoskeletal disease, and having good hearing significantly increase the likelihood of being an old woman. We close the chapter with the question of whether the fact of feminization of old age is rendering a discussion about gender differences in old age obsolete.

This chapter provides a brief overview of the main research topics, applied methods, and basic results of the Internal Medicine and Geriatrics Unit of the Berlin Aging Study (BASE). It focuses on (a) physical illnesses, (b) medication and related risks, and (c) functional incapabilites with regard to performanceoriented functional limitations and need for help with Activities of Daily Living (ADL). Profiles of functioning in each domain are presented from various perspectives. Particular emphasis lies on the recognition of potential determinants of morbidity in old age, exemplified by the atherosclerosis risk profile, and on the analysis of qualitative aspects of medication (over-, under-, and inappropriate medication). Finally, based on a recently proposed model of the disablement process in old age, these domains are considered from an integrated (systemic) perspective of health in old age with functional capacity at its center.

The results show a high degree of morbidity, but also indicate many modifiable risk factors for illness and disability, opening new vistas of prevention and therapy in old and very old age.

The aim of this chapter is to describe the number, nature, and functions of social relationships in old age. The consequences of widowhood, childlessness, and institutionalization on the social relationships and loneliness of elderly people are also examined. The findings are based on the accounts of the Berlin Aging Study (BASE) participants and reveal that it is incorrect to assume that the social integration of older adults is marked by a lack of role in society, or that social relationships remain unchanged in quality and quantity into very old age.

There is a high degree of childlessness among those aged 85 years and older, but this can primarily be interpreted as a cohort effect. Although the loss of relatives from one's own generation is a common occurrence in very old age, the experience of being a great-grandparent also gains in importance. No uniform age differences can be found where nonrelatives are concerned either; whereas the number of friends decreases with age, the proportion of old people who include other nonrelatives in their social network remains relatively constant. The social network of widows and widowers has a structure similar to that of married people. However, the childless have smaller networks than parents, and the institutionalized have smaller networks than those living in private households. Married people feel lonely less frequently, whereas the institutionalized and the childless do so more often. […]

In this chapter we discuss those characteristics of the participants in the Berlin Aging Study which can be attributed to their belonging to different birth cohorts. We ask whether general trends in societal development can be discerned by examining the educational achievement, employment and occupational careers, family formation, and health impairments of three cohort groups (born 1887–1900, 1901–10, and 1911–22). We further investigate the differential effects of historical events and periods, in particular the two world wars and the Great Depression, and examine how these effects are still perceptible in old age. We would like to highlight two of the many descriptive findings. First, the younger cohorts did not have more successful career paths than the older ones. Although the younger men and women had a better education, they were hit harder by historical events, and ended their careers on the same level as the older cohorts. Second, we invalidate the myth of the “golden age” where large families cared for the oldest cohorts. In fact, older cohorts more often remained single, had less children, and were at a higher risk of losing their children at an early age.

In the first-occasion Intensive Protocol of the Berlin Aging Study (N = 516), a psychometric battery of 14 cognitive tests was used to assess individual differences in five intellectual abilities: reasoning, memory, and perceptual speed from the mechanic (broad fluid) domain, and knowledge and fluency from the pragmatic (broad crystallized) domain. In addition, the Enhanced Cued Recall (ECR) test was administered in the context of a separate neuropsychological examination to identify dementia-specific cognitive impairments in cue utilization and learning potential. The overall pattern of results points to sizable and highly intercorrelated age-based losses in various aspects of presumably brain-related functioning, including sensory functions such as vision and hearing. Intellectual abilities had negative linear relations to age, with more pronounced age-based reductions in mechanic than pragmatic abilities. Ability intercorrelations formed a highly positive manifold, and did not follow the mechanic-pragmatic distinction. Gender differences were small in size, and did not interact with age. Indicators of sensory and sensorimotor functioning were strongly related to intellectual functioning, accounting for 59% of the total reliable variance in general intelligence. Even for knowledge, sociobiographical indicators were less closely linked to intellectual functioning than the sensory-sensorimotor variables, and accounted for 24% of the variance in general intelligence. With respect to potentials, results obtained with the ECR test demonstrate that the ability to learn from experience is preserved in normal cognitive aging across the entire age range studied, but severely impaired in individuals with dementia.

In this chapter we focus on the construction of a model of everyday competence, differentiating between a basic level of competence (BaCo), defined mainly by self-care related activities, and an expanded level of competence (ExCo), reflecting mostly discretionary or optional activities such as leisure, social, and instrumental activities of daily living. Since BaCo encompasses highly automatized and routinized activities that are necessary for survival, it is thought to be predicted foremost by health-related resources. In contrast, ExCo encompasses activities that are based on individual preferences, skills, motivations, and interests, and therefore should be more dependent on psychosocial resources. To test this model, a multidimensional or multivariable assessment of the two components and their predictors is necessary. The Berlin Aging Study (BASE) provides such a context. The findings support the model: A total of 91% of the reliable variance in ExCo and 86% in BaCo can be explained by the predictors. Furthermore, all age-related variance in everyday competence is accounted for by these health-related and psychosocial predictors. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Each of the 516 participants in the Berlin Aging Study (BASE) has a unique biography and his or her own way of dealing with the positive and negative aspects of old age. At the same time, subgroups in BASE have also had some “objectively” common experiences. Cohorts have lived through the same historical events and changes in German society and, in old age, subgroups of individuals often have an apparently similar status with regard to some life domains (e.g., marital or financial status). This chapter aims to provide an initial sense of the diverse life trajectories in the biographies of BASE participants that arise from the interplay between common and unique life experiences. Three men and three women were selected for deeper consideration in this chapter because of their above- or below-average status on objective life conditions or because they represented statistically normative cases.

This chapter describes the psychological and psychosocial status of the participants of the Berlin Aging Study (BASE). In the first section, we outline age trends in three domains: intelligence, self and personality, and social relationships. In the domain of intelligence, negative age differences between 70 and 103 years were substantial (representing a 1.8 SD difference in performance level and 35% of the interindividual variance) and were closely associated with indicators of biological deterioration. In contrast, age-related differences in personality, self-related beliefs, and social relationships were fewer and considerably smaller (approximately 0.5 SD). At a general level, these domains seemed to be less affected by age-related decline than is true for intellectual functioning. Closer examination, however, revealed that age differences on aspects of self, personality, and social relationships were all in a less-than-desirable direction. In advanced old age, individuals may be pushed to the limits of their adaptive psychological capacity.

A further question considered in the chapter concerns the overall systemic nature of psychological functioning in old age. Cluster analysis was used to identify nine subgroups of older individuals with different patterns of functioning across the three psychological domains. Four of these groups reflected various patterns of desirable functioning (47% of the sample), and five, less desirable functioning (53%). The relative risk of membership in the less desirable profile subgroups was 2.5 times larger for the very old (85–103 years) than for people between the ages of 70 and 84 years, and 1.3 times larger for women than for men. […]

In epidemiological investigations, one common but rarely analyzed threat to generalizability is sample selectivity or nonrandom sample attrition. In this chapter, we describe our approach to the study of selectivity and provide indepth analyses of the magnitude of sample selectivity in the Berlin Aging Study. Of all individuals eligible for participation (the verified parent sample, N = 1,908), 27% reached the highest level of participation (the Intensive Protocol, N = 516). With respect to levels of performance, projection of selectivity observed on lower levels of participation onto Intensive Protocol constructs indicates that the Intensive Protocol sample was, indeed, positively selected on medical, social, and psychological dimensions. However, the magnitude of observed selectivity effects did not exceed 0.5 standard deviations for any construct. In addition, variances and covariance relations observed in the Intensive Protocol sample were not markedly different from those found at lower levels of participation. We conclude that the degree of selectivity in BASE fell within the usual range and did not result in a decrease of sample heterogeneity. Given the magnitude of sample attrition and the high mean age of the sample, this is a satisfactory result.