Personal Resources as a Factor of Biological Age of Rescuers

Berezina Tatiana Nikolaevna Doctor of Psychology Professor of the Department of Scientific Basis of Extreme Psychology at Moscow State University of Psychology and Education. 123290, Russia, Moscow, nab. Shelepikhinskaya, 2a, room 508 tanberez@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Novichkova Viktoriya Vyacheslavovna specialist psychologist, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education 123290, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, nab. Shelepikhinskaya, 2a, of. 206b victoria.ivanchina@yandex.ru

Introduction The study of personal resources that lower the biological age of an individual is relevant for the formation of an active longevity strategy, especially for representatives of high-risk professions whose activities take place in dangerous conditions leading to early aging ^[1].

As T.V. Doroshenko wrote, the more often a person becomes a participant in events related to emergencies, the more resources she spends on living life, the more the probability of biological and psychophysiological failures increases ^[2]. Many authors note that a person's choice of a profession of special risk negatively affects his health and life expectancy ^[3]. The professional activity of rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, as well as other representatives of professions of special risk, is carried out in extreme conditions (under water, in fire, at high altitude, and so on). All this can negatively affect psychological and somatic health and increase the wear and tear of the body.  In such conditions, a person may also experience fear for his life, which in turn affects the human psyche, and this can also lead to psychosomatic complications and premature aging of the body ^[4].   According to I.M. Markelov and co-authors, the extreme nature of the profession and the stressful conditions of the activity performed in combination with numerous risk factors and the high stress of the work of veterans of professions of special risk lead to a decrease in their duration and quality of life, while causing a high level of psychosomatic pathology and somatic morbidity ^[5]. A.V. Koteneva also emphasizes that that the specifics of the work of representatives of dangerous professions leads to premature aging of the biological systems of the body, as well as to an increase in the age at which a person feels ^[6].

Biological age is the functional age of each individual person, reflecting the totality of biological indicators of the functioning of the organism as a whole ^[7].  Unfavorable conditions of activity, leading to increased wear of the body of rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations ^[8], also lead to an increase in biological age and acceleration of biological aging ^[9].   As shown by the doctoral research of V.A. Oleshko, the biological age of veterans of professions of special risk exceeds the average population standard by 2.14 years, and the calendar age – by an average of 5.53 years, in addition, the distribution of the studied sample and the "ideal" age group differs significantly according to the index of relative biological aging (an indicator of the difference between biological age and proper biological age (BV-DBV)).  According to the author, these data indicate premature aging of veterans of professions of special risk and are a consequence of professional activities performed by them earlier and associated with the impact of stressful factors.  Based on this, the author concludes that his results indicate the activation of the processes of premature aging of the body of veterans of the pores and the increase in their biological age ^[1].

According to modern research, the biological age of active employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations also exceeds both the population norm and the calendar age;  due to the specifics of their profession, they are prone to faster biological aging ^[4].   The researchers also found that the psychological age of rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, on the contrary, is lower than the real one. This leads to the fact that representatives of extreme professions, including rescuers, have a distorted perception of their real age ^[10].

Personal resources are features of the psyche or behavior that contribute to slowing down biological age, improving health, and contributing to an increase in life expectancy ^[11].

Scientists in their research identify a large number of personality characteristics and resources that affect health indicators in one way or another ^[12]. They associate life expectancy and health indicators with social status, the presence of relatives and close friends ^[3], life satisfaction, level of education, family status, level of professional achievements ^[13], passive or active lifestyle ^[14], stress level, psychological health, availability of resource areas (such as hobbies and hobbies ^[15].   

We have previously proposed criteria for attributing the indicator to personal resources.  Firstly, these resources are subject to the control of the individual, i.e., a person can arbitrarily develop and train them.  Secondly, these resources are auxiliary, complementary to a person's life path; their use does not require a radical restructuring of the whole life (and in particular, a change in the field of activity).  Thirdly, there is empirical evidence of their effectiveness for various groups of people ^[16]. Based on these criteria, 13 main personal resources of biological age were identified: sports, control (and time management), creativity, intelligence, subject hobbies (and needlework), altruistic resource, humor, spiritual resource (and self-improvement), risk resource, communication, nature, achievements, optimism ^[16]. The effectiveness of these resources was empirically studied on several groups of subjects in the North Ossetia region ^[17]. It has been shown that properly selected personal resources contribute to slowing down biological aging and reducing the index "biological age – proper biological age" of residents of the Caucasus region.  However, the use of these resources for rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations has not been sufficiently studied, this is what will be the scientific task of our study. 

Organization of research.The purpose of the study.

To study the relationship of the use of personal resources by rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations with their biological age, as well as to assess the impact of individual selection of personal resources and their use for 4-6 months on the index of biological aging.

Subjects. – rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations - 59 people aged 19 to 32 years. All the subjects were 2 natural groups. Group 1 - 34 people (16 of them women) acted as an experimental group.  Group 2 – 25 people (17 of them women) - were taken as a control.

Diagnostic techniques:

1. The test "Questionnaire of personal resources" by T.N. Berezina. The test has been developed and standardized ^[18]. Personal resources within the framework of the author's concept were considered as occupations (hobbies and interests) that can be used as additional activities in everyday life. The structural reliability of the questionnaire is confirmed by calculating the Kronbach alpha (0.4 – 0.6). Retest reliability is in the range of 0.7-0.8. Criterion validity is in the range of 0.2-0.5.

2. Methodology "Determination of biological age (BV) according to V.P. Voitenko" ^[19].

3. The index of relative biological aging (biological age - proper biological age (BV- DBV)); it allows you to assess how much a person is older than the statistical age norm according to their state of health. Negative values indicate individual youth of a person, and positive values indicate individual aging relative to statistical norms.

4. The diagnosis of personality types was carried out using the following techniques:

- questionnaire (age, gender, family, children, profession, place of residence);

- the style of interaction (cooperation, compromise, rivalry,) determined by a game based on the prisoner's Dilemma (the game is presented online: http://95.181.226.63 /);

- body type endomorph, ectomorph, mesomorph, indefinite. It was determined on the basis of functional measurements of height, weight, wrist volume, hip width, shoulders, which were offered to be weighed by the respondent himself, and the result should be reported to a psychologist.

- type of functional asymmetry (left-handed, right-handed, ambidextrous). It was determined by the leading hand;

- the type of emotionality according to V.M. Rusalov, (communicative, psychomotor, intellectual).

Methods of experimental exposure:The program "Anti-Aging XXI trial", implemented in the form of a computer program, is a system for selecting personal resources for a person, taking into account his personality indicators (gender, age, place of residence, profession, family status, physique, functional asymmetry, emotionality, relationship style).

   The developed program was based on previously obtained data on the relationship between the rates of biological aging and resources in representatives of different types of people ^{[20],[17],[11]}.  Based on information about personality, the Anti-Aging XXI Trial program selected 2-3 resources from the allocated ones: sports, control (and time management), creativity, intelligence, subject hobbies (and needlework), altruistic resource, humor, spiritual resource (and self-improvement), risk resource, communication, nature, achievements, optimism. The system determined the leading resource and 1-2 additional ones - these resources for a person with a given personality could slow down the dialogic aging index as much as possible.

Based on information about the leading and additional resources, the psychologist made recommendations for each member of the experimental group, selected possible hobbies for him, gave recommendations for leisure activities, recommended additional clubs and sections, etc. Recommendations were made individually for each rescuer, taking into account his capabilities. A program for the use of resources for 6 months was drawn up.

The plan of the experiment.

The experiment took place in 3 stages.

Stage 1: ascertaining. Diagnostics of initial indicators of biological age and personal resources of respondents was carried out. Correlation analysis was carried out.

Stage 2: experimental exposure. It took from 4 to 5 months. At the beginning of the stage, the subjects of the experimental group were selected resources using the Anti-Aging XXI Trial program. Further, the subjects could use the recommendations of a psychologist and use the selected personal resources in their lives.

Stage 3: control. The diagnostics of the biological age indicators of the respondents was carried out, and the intensity of training was assessed on a 6-point scale:

0 b – did not train at all, did not follow the recommendations

1b – single training sessions, no more than 1 month in total

2b – rare workouts, no more than 2 months in total

3b – the average number of workouts, a total of no more than 3 months

4b – the number of workouts is above average, for a total of no more than 4 months.

5 b – frequent workouts, throughout the past months.

Independent variable: The intensity of implementation of recommendations for updating personal resources.

The dependent variable was biological age.

Methods of mathematical statistics:

1. Methods of descriptive statistics.

2. Correlation analysis.

3. One-factor analysis of variance ANOVA.

The results of the study.The average values of the indicators at the ascertaining stage of the experiment are presented in Tables 1 and 2.

Table No. 1. Average indicators of biological age in men and women. The name of the indicator

As can be seen from Table No. 1, the average biological age of male rescuers is 52.8, the proper biological age is 33.3, and the relative aging index is a positive value (19.4), while the average calendar age is 23.4. From these data, it can be concluded that the biological age of men in this sample exceeds their proper biological age. This suggests that male respondents are significantly older than the statistical norm.

Female rescuers have a biological age of 36, the proper biological age is 29.8, and the relative aging index is a positive value (6.2), while the calendar age of women in this sample is 21.5. From the above, it can be concluded that women, like men in this sample, have a biological age greater than relative and calendar, and the rate of aging is increased.

Table No. 2. Average indicators according to the questionnaire "Resource areas" for men and women.Women

Having studied Table No. 2, we can say that at the time of the survey, such a resource for organizing their lives as kindness (an altruistic resource) prevails among women. This resource area includes the availability of objects of care, caring for elderly relatives, caring for children, caring for pets, participating in volunteer activities, etc. The lowest indicators among the resource groups of women were found in the indicators "risk". Also in Table No. 2, the average indicators of the male sex are presented. The male respondents are dominated by the resource group "Humor". This resource area includes all hobbies related to humor. The lowest indicator in this group is the subject activity. This resource group includes any kind of activity when a person does something with his own hands (needlework, repairs, fishing, dacha). At the moment, this group is not popular with men of this sample.

Table No. 3. The results of the correlation analysis of the indicators of resource and biological age in men and women..

Resources

KV – calendar age, BV- biological age, DBV- proper biological age, BV-DBV – index of relative biological aging.

The table shows that there are significant correlation coefficients (p <0.05) in men between resource indicators and biological age. The more subject hobbies are used in a person's life, the higher the relative aging index (BV-DBV), which means that rescuers with subject hobbies age faster.  There is also a direct correlation between optimism and calendar age (KV), optimism and proper biological age (DBV). There is also an inverse correlation between optimism and the Relative aging index (BV-DBV), which means that optimism slows down biological aging.

In women, we can see a significant direct correlation (p <0.05) between subject activity and the relative aging index (BV-DBV). That is, the higher the indicators of subject activity, the higher the indicators of the relative aging index. There is also a direct correlation (p <0.01) between communication and biological age (BV) and communication and the relative aging index (BV-DBV), which means that these indicators accelerate aging in women, these are unfavorable for this age and professional group. 

Individual selection of resources is necessary, because not all resources are equally useful to all people.

We selected personal resources for the respondents of the experimental group using the Program "Anti–Aging -XXI- trial" and gave recommendations on how these resources can be used in their lives. At the end of six months, we evaluated the effectiveness of our selection of resources (see the table below). 

Table No. 4. The effect of training intensity on biological age indicators for male rescuers.Indicator of biological age

Analyzing Table No. 4, it can be concluded that after applying the effect on the group, the indicators of male respondents did not change, except for the relative aging index, it slowed down at the trend level.  This is the effect of the intensity of training, i.e. it is true for men that if they follow the recommendations for activating personal resources, the longer they follow these recommendations, the more their relative aging index slows down.

Table No. 5 Effect of training intensity on biological age indicators for female rescuers.Indicator of biological age

From Table No. 5, it can be seen that after the application of exposure to a group of female respondents, the indicators of biological age did not change, more precisely, there are changes, but they do not depend on the intensity of training.

Let's consider a one-factor analysis of variance of a control group of male and separately female military reserve respondents.

Table No. 6 Changes in indicators of biological age in the control group of men (without training).Indicator of biological age

Analyzing Table No. 6, it can be concluded that without special use of personal resources, the indicators of male respondents have not changed, except for the relative aging index. They slowed down at the trend level, i.e. it is true for men that after the second measurement, the relative aging index became smaller compared to the first measurement.

Table No. 7. Changes in biological age indicators in the control group of women (without training).Indicator of biological age

Analyzing Table No. 7, it can be concluded that after six months passed without the use of personal resources, the indicators for the group of female respondents changed, the indicators of biological age and the relative aging index increased, that is, it is true for women that after the second measurement, the relative aging index and biological age became larger, compared with the first measurement, this is most likely a consequence of an objective increase in calendar age.

Discussion of the results.

Most of the studies of the relationship between personal resources and biological age by other authors were carried out on older age groups than in our study. A number of studies have studied the relationship of personal resources with temporal indicators in people at the age of middle maturity ^[21], or late maturity ^[22]. In our study, the respondents were, firstly, a younger group of professionals (of the period of early maturity), and secondly, the studies were conducted on representatives of high-risk professions characterized by accelerated aging due to their official duties.

Our study partially confirmed the data of other authors, partially brought new results that need further verification and rechecking.

We have confirmed the existence of accelerated aging in representatives of high-risk professions  both men and women. Our study also showed that male rescuers age faster than women, which also corresponds to the data of modern science.

However, it is more difficult for female rescuers to perform the activity than for men.   This is evidenced by the absence of negative correlations between personal resources and indicators of aging in women, and, conversely, the appearance of positive correlations between these parameters. In other words, the use of some additional types of activity, including conditionally positive ones (hobbies, interests, additional trainings, interesting ways of spending leisure time) in women does not slow down aging, but accelerates it.  Although we have found very few such correlations (only with the resources of communication and subject activity), however, they exist.   In the modern psychology of aging ^{[21],[23],[24]} an explanation of accelerated aging is proposed for different groups of professionals: it is believed that all types of activity leading to overwork accelerate biological aging.  At the same time, overwork can be caused by combining several types of activities (for example, work and study with master's degree students). As shown by A. M. Zinatullina, in this case, the increase in biological age is explained by overload, especially in women of pre-retirement age who are forced to combine work, study and family care ^[23]. For representatives of professions of particular risk, especially for women working in traditionally "male" professions, additional types of activity, especially those close to the work performed (subject activity and communication are part of the work of rescuers), can accelerate aging.  

For men, the situation is slightly different. Subject activity (as a hobby) for them also acts as a factor accelerating aging. Apparently, for the same reason as for women, it coincides with the main work of rescuers who are forced to sort out rubble, carry heavy loads, carry people, etc. But men also have a common positive resource, their optimism slows down biological aging.

In the second part of our study, we conducted an individual selection of personal resources for each person. To do this, we used the program "Anti-Aging XXI trial", which was based on previously obtained results ^{[20],[17],[11]}. Each person was recommended those resources that representatives of the same personality types slowed down aging. Individual selection of resources was crucial here. Each person was offered their own resource, recommendations were made on how to use it in everyday life (combining it with work and family), however, we did not have the opportunity to force rescuers to use our recommendations, so after six months we evaluated not only the availability of recommendations, but also the frequency of their use.  In general, we have found that the individual selection of resources for women and their use in everyday life is positive.  The female rescuers of the control group continued accelerated aging. After six months, their biological age indicators significantly increased. This can partly be explained by objective reasons, their calendar age has increased, and biological age is still associated with calendar age, but their biological aging index has also increased, which indicates the continuation of accelerated aging.  In the women of the experimental group, who began to use individually selected personal resources, the biological age did not increase in six months, and biological aging did not accelerate. We tend to consider this a positive consequence of our training.

The situation is more complicated for men, the effect of the training is more difficult to trace for them, because the male rescuers of the control group also have a tendency to decrease the biological aging index in half a year, as in the experimental group. Apparently, the pace of individual aging was influenced by some other factors other than the use of personal resources. 

Conclusions.

1. Indicators of biological age of emergency rescuers at the age of early maturity (up to 35 years)    above both the proper biological and calendar ages, and their biological aging index is positive, which indicates accelerated aging of representatives of this professional group.  The conclusion applies to both men and women.

2. The use of personal resources, understood as additional types of activity (hobbies, leisure activities) differs between men and women.  Among female rescuers, the "altruistic resource" (kindness) prevails. This resource area includes all kinds of activities related to helping other people.  Men most often use the resource "humor". This resource area includes all hobbies related to humor.  However, these resources turned out to be unrelated to biological age and the biological aging index.  Their use does not increase or decrease the rate of aging. In men and women, the pace of aging accelerates subject hobbies, and slows down (in men) optimism.

3. The use of personal resources for each person, selected with the help of the Anti-Aging XXI trial program, taking into account the types of his personality, allows to reduce the index of biological aging, and at the level of the tendency to delay accelerated aging in women.  Men also have a tendency to decrease the biological aging index in the experimental group, but the same trend was revealed in the control group, which requires additional research. 

Limitation of the results obtainedDiagnostics of personal resources was carried out using a test developed in accordance with the author's concept.

  Conclusions are made for the approach we propose, namely, we call personal resources - activities additional to the respondent's daily life (various hobbies and interests, leisure activities). For example, we understood by the resource "intelligence" the presence of intellectual hobbies, and not the intelligence quotient (IQ).  In order to transfer the conclusions to a different understanding of personal resources, additional research is needed.  The empirical study was carried out on a certain professional (rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations) and age (up to 35 years) group, the conclusions cannot be transferred to other professional and age groups.

Research prospects.  The prospects of our work lie in the development of an individual typological approach to anti-aging, in the development of programs such as "Anti-Aging XXI" and their application to other professional and age groups, in individual, not group selection of personal resources for a person.