People who believe they’ve suffered age or weight discrimination actually have poorer health than victims of racism and sexism. In contrast, perceived discrimination related to race, sex, ancestry and sexual orientation was largely unrelated to health declines in older adults. [s]The Huffington Post[/s] reports that the research, from the [b]Florida State University College of Medicine[/b], grew out of a study measuring changes in health over a four-year period. ‘Our previous research showed that perceived discrimination based on body weight was associated with risk of obesity. We wanted to see whether this association extended to other health indicators and types of discrimination,’ said lead author Dr Angelina Sutin. ‘What we found was unexpected and striking.’ The report notes that the only exception was loneliness, which was the most widespread health repercussion of discrimination among older adults.
[link url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/08/age-discrimination-health_n_5290543.html?utm_hp_ref=health-news&ir=Health+News]Full report in The Huffington Post[/link]
[link url=http://www.ajgponline.org/article/S1064-7481(14)00094-3/abstract]American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry abstract[/link]