May 07, 2014 02:31 PM EDT By Jaleesa Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

Perceived age and weight discrimination may be worse for health in older adults than perceived race and sex discrimination, according to a recent study.

Researchers from the Florida State University College of Medicine measured changes in health for a four-year period and found that older adults who perceived weight discrimination and older adults who perceived discrimination based on age had significantly lower physical and emotional health and greater declines in health compared to people who did not report experiencing such discrimination.

"Our previous research showed that perceived discrimination based on body weight was associated with risk of obesity. We wanted to see whether this association extended to other health indicators and types of discrimination," Angelina Sutin, lead author and assistant professor of behavioral sciences and social medicine, said in a statement. "What we found was unexpected and striking."

For the study, researchers collected data from more than 6,000 adults who participated in the Health and Requirement Study, a study of Americans ages 50 and older and their spouses. Participants reported on their physical, emotional and cognitive health in 2006 and 2010 and also reported on their perceived experiences with discrimination.

"We know how harmful discrimination based race and sex can be, so we were surprised that perceived discrimination based on more malleable characteristics like age and weight had a more pervasive effect on health than discrimination based on these more fixed characteristics," Sutin said.

The one exception was loneliness.

Researchers found that loneliness was the most widespread health consequence of discrimination among older adults. Discrimination based on every characteristic assessed in Sutin's study was associated with greater feelings of loneliness.

"Humans have a strong need to belong, and people often feel distressed when they do not have their desired social relationships," Sutin said. "Our research suggests that perceiving a hostile society is associated with pervasive feelings of loneliness. An individual may interpret discrimination as an indication that they do not fit in the society in which they live."

The findings were recently published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

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