ScholarWorks@중앙대학교

초록

The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between age discrimination, and sleep quality, as well as depression as a psychological pathway. Using data from the 2023 National Survey of Older Persons, comprising 9,955 respondents, the hierarchical regression and PROCESS Macro Model 4 were conducted. Results show that age discrimination is significantly associated with sleep quality. In turn, older adults with higher age discrimination experience reported low level of sleep quality. Second, age discrimination was associated with higher level of depression. Third, it was proved that age discrimination exerts an indirect effect on sleep quality through the psycho emotional pathway of depression. These findings suggest that age discrimination has detrimental impact on various health domains in later life, both directly and indirectly. Based on these findings, this study proposed practical and policy strategies to address depression and poor sleep quality among older adults experiencing age discrimination. These include comprehensive, community-based mental health interventions to alleviate depressive symptoms and proactively address subsequent sleep disturbances, promotion of intergenerational contact, enactment of legislation to eradicate age discrimination, and expansion of state-led social service infrastructure.

키워드