Suchergebnisse

SummaryData are presented on a representative sample of legitimate live-born first infants in England, Scotland and Wales. When they are categorized simultaneously by paternal age, maternal age and social class of the father, it is found that:(1) Mean parental age difference (father's age — mother's age) is higher in upper class births than in other births.(2) If a man is younger than his wife, he is probably more likely than otherwise to come from the lower social classes, though this conclusion becomes less secure as the age difference increases in this direction.(3) Mean parental age difference increases with paternal age and decreases with maternal age.(4) For a given paternal age, parental age difference increases with a decline in social class, and for a given maternal age, parental age difference increases with a rise in social class.(5) In general, young parents have smaller mean parental age differences than old parents.If such mating patterns are characteristic of white North Americans one would infer:(1) that the risks of neonatal death and stillbirth previously reported in association with aged paternity are the result of biological rather than sociological phenomena, and(2) that the risks of neonatal death and stillbirth previously reported in association with youthful paternity are the result of sociological rather than biological phenomena.In general, it seems that mean parental age difference is unlikely to be a fruitful clue to the aetiologies of pathological conditions unless there are simultaneous controls on the age of at least one parent and on social class.The question is raised whether age disparity between spouses is associated with childlessness as well as with perinatal death and congenital malformations.

SummaryThat married people have lower death rates than either the unmarried or the widowed has been recognized since the mid-19th century. Marital condition involves diverse and complex selection processes and is associated with differences in life style, factors which may contribute to differences in mortality. Mortality statistics of married people are presented here by age of surviving partner in an attempt to assess the influence of age difference between spouses.

ABSTRACTThis study examines age differences in causes, characteristics, and outcomes of facial trauma seen in a major trauma hospital. A retrospective analysis was undertaken of 615 cases of facial trauma that had occurred during a 5‐year period. The greatest proportion of patients were aged 20 to 29; those older than age 60 represented just 6.8% of the total cases. Gender differences were not observed in the oldest age groups. The oldest patients (older than 70 years) were more likely to have had pedestrian accidents and less likely to have been assaulted than other age groups. Older patients had more multiple injuries but fewer treatment procedures than other age groups. Significant differences were found in death rates; the older patients were more likely to die as a result of their injuries. Implications for patient management based on age and treatment needs are discussed.

In most countries around the world, the population is rapidly aging. A by-product of these demographic shifts is that older adults will likely occupy more positions of power and influence in our societies than ever before. Further, cultural differences might shape how these transitions unfold around the globe. Across two studies, we investigated whether business and political leaders differed in age across various cultures. Study 1 (N = 1,034) showed that business leaders were significantly older in Eastern (e.g., China, India, and Japan) cultures than Western (e.g., United States, Sweden, and United Kingdom) cultures, even while controlling for population structure (e.g., percentage of elderly in the society), gross domestic product (GDP), and wealth distribution across the population (GINI). Study 2 (N = 1,268) conceptually replicated these findings by showing that political leaders were once again older in Eastern vs. Western cultures. Furthermore, cultural tightness mediated the relationship between culture and older leadership. These findings highlight how cultural differences impact not only our preferences, but also important outcomes in consequential domains such as business and politics. Potential explanations for why cultural tightness may be related to differences in leader age across cultures are discussed. To build on these findings, future research should assess the potential causal mechanisms underlying the cultural effect on leader age, and explore the various practical implications of this effect. ; Ministry of Education (MOE) ; Published version ; This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) research grants (435-2018-0061) to L-JJ.

Objectives: We investigated whether context or different speech rates could improve older adult performance on identification of synthetically generated words. Background: Synthetic speech systems can potentially improve the daily functioning of older adults. However, research must determine whether older adults can effectively implement current text-to-speech technologies, which few studies have examined. Older adults' sensory and cognitive declines may cause difficulties in identifying words in synthetic speech. Methods: Ninety-six participants (young, middle-aged, and older adults) identified auditory monosyllabic words (half natural, half synthetic) presented in isolation or at the ends of sentences. Participants heard speech at either normal or slower rates. Results: We found an interaction of age, context, and voice type and that slower speech rates worsened performance for all groups. Contrasts revealed that context reduced age differences, though only for natural speech. Hearing acuity was highly correlated with age and fully accounts for the interaction. Conclusions: Context improves performance for everyone in natural speech. However, whereas context improves performance for synthetic speech, it does not differentially reduce the age impairment for older adults. Slower speed generally impairs everyone's performance compared with the normal rate. Applications: Systems using synthetic speech should avoid presenting words in isolation, and rich contextual support should be consistently adopted. Synthetic speech fidelity must be improved significantly before becoming truly useful for older adult populations.

In most countries around the world, the population is rapidly aging. A by-product of these demographic shifts is that older adults will likely occupy more positions of power and influence in our societies than ever before. Further, cultural differences might shape how these transitions unfold around the globe. Across two studies, we investigated whether business and political leaders differed in age across various cultures. Study 1 (N = 1,034) showed that business leaders were significantly older in Eastern (e.g., China, India, Japan) cultures than Western (e.g., United States, Sweden, United Kingdom) cultures, even while controlling for population structure (i.e., percentage of elderly in the society), gross domestic product (GDP), and wealth distribution across the population (GINI). Study 2 (N = 1,268) conceptually replicated these findings by showing that political leaders were once again older in Eastern versus Western cultures. Furthermore, cultural tightness mediated the relationship between culture and older leadership. These findings highlight how cultural differences impact not only our preferences, but also important outcomes in consequential domains such as business and politics. Potential explanations for why cultural tightness may be related to differences in leader age across cultures are discussed. To build on these findings, future research should assess the potential causal mechanisms underlying the cultural effect on leader age, and explore the various practical implications of this effect.