Healthy Ageing Across Multiple Timescales

Sophie Potter (Heriot-Watt University)

An important strand of healthy ageing research focuses on (1) estimating the impact of physical health on well-being in adulthood and old age, and (2) identifying factors that mitigate this impact. However, the vast majority of this research only provides a snapshot of healthy ageing, with evidence based on longitudinal methods where key variables are sampled once per year. This is limiting because we cope with and experience health and well-being in everyday life. My research focuses on the use of micro- longitudinal methods in healthy ageing research. In this talk, I will discuss key findings from several of my own studies on the impact of age-related health challenges across years (Potter et al., 2020), days (Potter et al., 2022a; Potter et al. in press; Potter et al., in press), and moments (Potter et al., 2022b; Potter et al., 2023). This will include an overview of factors found to exacerbate or mitigate this impact, from individual difference characteristics (i.e., personality traits) to wider socio-contextual factors (e.g., social connection, the COVID-19 pandemic) and childhood experiences (e.g., emotional abuse).

In-person: Lumsden Suite (Edinburgh Business School), Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh; Online: click ‘Join via MS Teams’.