P02.121. Psychological outcomes of a mind body program for successful aging

Purpose

The biopsychosocial model of successful aging is aimed at developing a sense of well-being, high self-assessed quality of life, and a sense of personal fulfillment even in the context of illness and disability. The purpose of this study was to explore key outcomes of a new Successful Aging Mind Body program. We hypothesized the program would increase self-efficacy, which would lead to improved feelings of well-being.

Methods

Sixteen patients completed assessments. The average age of participants was 75 (range: 66-91). The program consisted of weekly 90-minute sessions for nine weeks. Topics included a range of psychological and physical exercises including mindfulness and relaxation training. For measures, we used the Coping Self-Efficacy Scale (CSES) and Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale (PGCMS). We performed paired t-tests on pre/post data, and used the Wilcoxon signed rank test for the conservative validation.

Results

We found that both the CSES and PGCMS increased among completers of the Successful Aging intervention (pre- to post-intervention change: CSES, 27.6±26.6, p=0.001; PGCMS 1.3±2.6, p=0.06), although the change for PGCMS was not quite significant. In addition, we found a moderate correlation between the pre- to post-intervention changes in CSES and PGCMS (r=0.4, p=0.14), although the association was not significant. The CSES change pre-post was still significant (p<.05) after a sensitivity analysis.

Conclusion

We found significant changes in self-efficacy after the intervention and an increase in morale with a trend towards significance. A moderate correlation was found between CSES and PGCMS, but the correlation was not significant. These results support the hypothesis that participants can develop greater self-efficacy as a result of a mind body program for successful aging. Future research is needed to explore the relationship between self-efficacy and objective health outcomes.