Views of aging and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder among older adult war veterans in the context of renewed war

Objectives: For aging combat veterans, experiencing renewed war in old age can exacerbate coping with age-related challenges. The present study sought to examine how past and current war-related stressors affect long-term trajectories of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and views of aging (VoA) among a sample of older adult war veterans during wartime. Methods: The participants were 239 combat veterans of the 1973 Yom Kippur War (YKW), randomly selected to complete a longitudinal web-based survey, aged between 69 and 88years (M=73.76, SD=3.66 in T3). The present study relied on data collected before the Israel-Hamas War (T1) and several months into the war (T2 and T3). Results: Controlling for chronological age and self-rated health, we conducted three path analyses predicting one of three VoA measures (attitudes toward own aging [ATOA], subjective accelerated aging, and subjective age), PTSD symptoms from the YKW, as well as PTSD symptoms from the Israel-Hamas War at T3. Cross-lagged effects revealed that higher PTSD symptoms from the YKW at T2 predicted higher PTSD symptoms from the Israel-Hamas War at T3, but not vice versa. T1 VoA predicted T2 PTSD symptoms from the YKW, and T2 VoA predicted T3 PTSD symptoms from both the current and the past wars, while PTSD symptoms in previous assessments did not predict subsequent VoA. Discussion: Present findings suggest that exposure to current trauma of war among older adult war veterans might uniquely shape the long-term trajectories of their VoA and PTSD symptoms, while contradicting the previously found PTSD symptoms-VoA directionality.