Development and validation of a scale to assess the belief that 'age causes illness'

Objectives: Self-directed ageism is the application of stereotypic age-related beliefs to oneself, and is known to negatively impact health-related motivation (Levy, 2003; 2022). This study focused on the specific self-directed stereotype that 'age causes illness' and aimed to develop and test a multi-item measure to assess this implicit, limiting belief.

Methods and measures: Survey data was collected from N = 347 adults in southeastern Idaho (ages 45-65 years old, 60% female). A variety of measures were used to assess the discriminant, convergent and predictive validity of the Age Causes Illness scale including: socio-demographics (age, sex, education), psychosocial resources (personality, optimism, social support, depressive symptoms), health/aging expectations, and indicators of physical health.

Results: The seven-item Age Causes Illness scale is reliable and shows an expected pattern of discriminant and convergent correlations with relevant socio-demographic, psychosocial, and aging-related measures. The belief that 'age causes illness,' as assessed with this new scale, is related to both objective and subjective indicators of physical health.

Conclusions: The Age Causes Illness scale is a brief screening tool, potentially applicable in behavioral health settings as an initial step toward discussion of the implicit, and often unchallenged, belief that age alone determines the onset, progression, and offset of illness.