Maintaining Late Life Health Behaviors Comparing Clinician Rating and Self-reported Resilience

As part of the SENIOR Project II (Study of Exercise and Nutrition in Older Rhode Islanders), a study investigating strategies for maintaining health behaviors of exercise and nutrition in older adults, self-reported resilience was compared with the rating of a health behavior coach. Older adults who were meeting an exercise and/or fruit and vegetable consumption goal when the study began were contacted twice a year by a health coach to promote continued maintenance of these goals. At completion of the study, coaches assigned participants to 1 of 4 resilience trajectories. Self-reported resilience was then compared with the coaches' rating. Composite resilience scores on the Resilience Scale were not found to be related to ratings at particular time points. Only 1 of the 4 trajectories was significantly different from the others across time, providing limited support for coaches' ratings. There were significant differences among the trajectory groups on subscales of the Resilience Scale (Personal Competence, and Acceptance of Self and Life). It would be worthwhile to compare trajectories with other measures included in SENIOR Project II such as social support, depression, cognition, and functional status to identify any other differences among them.