Psychology study to shed light on anxiety in elderly

Health professionals working with older people will soon have a new tool to assess anxiety and its causes in older adults.

Margaret Sandham, a Doctor of Clinical Psychology student at Massey's School of Psychology in Auckland, is looking for people aged between 60 and 75 to respond to a questionnaire on their everyday experiences of worry.  The information from the study will be used to construct an age-appropriate questionnaire she hopes will be used by doctors, psychologists and other health professionals to help them accurately assess anxiety and its causes in older adults.

Ms Sandham  says that because most anxiety research has been done on young to middle-aged people, the important differences in life experiences of older adults are likely to be overlooked.  

“Younger people may be more concerned about work-related issues, while older people may worry about their health - a reflection of natural developmental changes that come with ageing”, she says.

Often the willingness to acknowledge or discuss anxiety is difficult for the older generation who grew up before psychology and its jargon entered mainstream life and who are perhaps afraid and suspicious of language related to mental health, she says.

“But if anxiety about doing day-to-day activities becomes habitual and inhibits people from socialising and living normally, it is important they can get help,” Ms Sandham says.  “What people need to realise is that feelings of anxiety are normal for all of us, and that anxiety is so treatable.”

By constructing a questionnaire specifically addressing older people's needs in language they can relate to, health practitioners will be better placed to recognise anxiety symptoms and  help their clients. 

“It is important that psychologists understand all levels of worry, so that they can identify when it becomes problematic”, says Ms Sandham.  “My research seeks participants who may not see themselves as being anxious, but might have some concerns from time to time.”

The first stage of the study will see 200 people answering a questionnaire about their experiences and how they perceive anxiety in their friends and acquaintances.

Experiences as a registered nurse at Mercy, Greenlane, and Auckland hospitals brought Ms Sandham into contact with elderly patients. She says her conversations sparked her interest in the mental well-being of older people whose needs and experiences are, at times, ignored or misunderstood.