And, don't call me 'Sweetie!'

BY Staff Writer—
According to an article in the New York Times, many elderly not only find it offensive to be addressed as “Sweetie” or ”Dear” by those who are not family members, but it can also have negative health consequences.

The Times article describes it as “elderspeak,” a sweetly belittling form of address that has always ranked older people.

A professor at Yale University who studies the health effects of such messages on elderly people, Becca Levy said, “Those little insults can lead to more negative images of aging. And those who have more negative images of aging have worse functional health over time, including lower rates of survival.”

In a long-term survey of 660 people over age 50 in a small Ohio town, published in 2002, Dr. Levy and her fellow researchers found that those who had positive perceptions of aging lived an average of 7.5 years longer, a bigger increase than that associated with exercising or not smoking. The findings held up even when the researchers controlled for differences in the participants’ health conditions.

In her forthcoming study, Dr. Levy found that older people exposed to negative images of aging, including words like “forgetful,” “feeble” and “shaky,” performed significantly worse on memory and balance tests; in previous experiments, they also showed higher levels of stress.

In another research project, the Times article said, researchers videotaped interactions in a nursing home between 20 residents and staff members. They found that when nurses used phrases like “good girl” or “How are we feeling?” patients were more aggressive and less cooperative or receptive to care. If addressed as infants, some showed their irritation by grimacing, screaming or refusing to do what staff members asked of them.

The researchers, who will publish their findings in The American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias, concluded that elderspeak sent a message that the patient was incompetent and “begins a negative downward spiral for older persons, who react with decreased self-esteem, depression, withdrawal and the assumption of dependent behaviors.”

Kristine Williams, a nurse gerontologist and associate professor at the University of Kansas School of Nursing. said health care workers often thought that using words like “dear” or “sweetie” conveyed that they cared and made them easier to understand. “But they don’t realize the implications,” she said, “that it’s also giving messages to older adults that they’re incompetent.”

(You can read the entire NY Times article by clicking here.)

(Posted October 21, 2008)