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Innov Aging
Innov Aging
innovateage
Innovation in Aging
2399-5300 Oxford University Press US 

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.3032
igaa057.3032
Abstracts
Session 7590 (Symposium)
AcademicSubjects/SOC02600
Importance of Will in Resilience and Recovery: Findings From the BLSA
Simonsick Eleanor 1 Griswold Michael 2 Windham B Gwen 3 1 
National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, Maryland, United States
2 
The University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi, United States
3 
University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi, United States
2020 
16 12 2020 
16 12 2020 
4 Suppl 1 Program Abstracts from The GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting “Turning 75: Why Age Matters”829 829
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.2020This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Abstract
Using data from 743 initially well-functioning men and women (49.5%) aged ≥60 in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging we interrogated the association between physical reserve operationalized as fast 400m walk performance scaled from 0 to 4 and psychological reserve (“will”) operationalized as personal mastery (high versus not) and likelihood of recovery from a decline of ≥2 points in reported walking ability. Of the 35% who declined 1-2 years post study baseline, 54% recovered 1-2 years later and 45% did not. Controlling for age, sex, race and initial walking ability, for each increment in reserve, likelihood of recovery was 43% greater (95% confidence interval (1.10, 1.85); p=.007). This association was most pronounced in women (odds ratio=1.84; 95% CI (1.19, 2.86; p=.006). Personal mastery showed no association with likelihood of recovery. Continuing work will further explore alternative operationalizations of “will”. Part of a symposium sponsored by Epidemiology of Aging Interest Group.