Search results for ‘Subject term:"older people"’ Sort:
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Daily crosswords improve verbal fluency: a brief intervention study
- Authors:
- MURPHY Mike, O'SULLIVAN Katie, KELLEHER Kieran G.
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 29(9), 2014, pp.915-919.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Objective: Phonemic verbal fluency (PVF) is a cognitive function that involves serial processes termed clustering and switching and which is impacted in both normal aging and dementia. The cognitive reserve hypothesis suggests that appropriate cognitive stimulation could maintain or improve cognitive performance. This study examines the effect on PVF performance of a brief crossword-based intervention in a cognitively normal, community-based sample. Methods: Thirty-seven members of active retirement groups volunteered to participate and were randomly assigned to a crossword group and a control group. The former attempted a crossword daily for 4 weeks while the latter kept a daily gratitude diary for the same period. Results: 2 × 2 mixed analyses of variance revealed that the crossword group performed significantly better over time than the control group in both total PVF score and in the cluster size component. Conclusion: Daily crosswords may be a simple and effective means of bolstering PVF performance in older people. (Publisher abstract)
‘Women are just more active’: gender as a determining factor in involvement in senior centres
- Author:
- MARHANKOVA Jaroslava Hasmanova
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 34(9), 2014, pp.1482-1504.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
A three-year ethnographic study was conducted at two centres in the Czech Republic which offer seniors-only leisure-time activities strongly grounded in the idea of active ageing. The method of participant observation was used, and 47 in-depth interviews were conducted with the centres' clients and employees. The higher participation by women in the centres and the role they attribute to such organisations in their lives is analysed in the context of their previous gendered biographies. Gender patterns embedded in the way daily activities at the senior centres are organised, as well as in the idea of active ageing itself, are highlighted. Despite the seeming invisibility of gender as a principle that structures the way these centres are run, they are in fact gendered organisations, where gender emerges as a basic principle affecting the chances of participating in active ageing as presented by the centres. (Edited publisher abstract)
The third-age African American seniors: benefits of participating in senior multipurpose facilities
- Authors:
- TAYLOR-HARRIS Davette, ZHAN Heying Jenny
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 54(4), May 2011, pp.351-371.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Senior multipurpose facilities provide a wide range of services and activities for older adults including creative arts, exercise classes, recreation, nutritional meals, information and referrals, and paid work and volunteer opportunities. This purpose of this study was to examine the contexts and benefits of African American seniors' participation in multipurpose facilities. The research site was the Adell O. Stone Senior Multipurpose facility located in Atlanta, Georgia. Qualitative data was collected from 15 in-depth participant interviews, an interview with the multipurpose coordinator of the facility, and 6 months of on-site participant observations. The research revealed the physical, emotional, and social benefits that African American seniors reported as a result of their participation in various activities offered in the facility. The study presents a social context in which African American seniors constructed their new third age identities that is different from the wide-spread negative images depicted by the mainstream about this minority group. The policy implications of this research are discussed.
Creative ageing: exploring social capital and arts engagement in later life
- Author:
- REYNOLDS Jackie
- Journal article citation:
- Generations Review, 22(2), April 2012, Online only
- Publisher:
- British Society of Gerontology
This study explored the meanings that older people attach to their participation in group arts activities throughout their lives. The research focused upon: factors impacting on arts engagement (e.g. age, health, gender, cohort); the relationship between individual and group involvement and the links between arts participation and social capital. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 24 (8 male and 16 female) participants from a town in the English Midlands. Participants were recruited through a range of groups, including choirs, dancing, amateur dramatics, and arts and crafts groups. In interviews, participants were asked to reflect on their arts engagement throughout their lives. The study's findings suggest that much of older people's arts engagement has been something they have 'taken for granted', highlighting the key roles played by people's childhood experiences at home, school and church, in shaping arts engagement. People's arts engagement was also found to be strongly connected to their relationships with others. The study also found that people‟s arts engagement could be linked to their sense of approaching ageing in a positive way.
Group and individual work with older people: a practical guide to running successful activity-based programmes
- Authors:
- CHIA Swee Hong, HEATHCOKE Julie, HIBBERD Jane Marie
- Publisher:
- Jessica Kingsley
- Publication year:
- 2011
- Pagination:
- 208p.
- Place of publication:
- London
Being active is essential to a person's physical and mental wellbeing, and the need to engage in meaningful activity does not diminish with age. However, the effects of ageing, such as reduced vision and hearing, arthritis, dementia, and in some cases social isolation, can affect an older person's ability to participate in therapeutic and recreational activities. This book will enable professionals working with older people to initiate and run successful activity-based programmes, either individually or in groups. The authors guide the reader through the processes of group and individual work, and provide step-by-step instructions for a range of activities, including arts and crafts, music, drama, movement, relaxation, reminiscence, and day-to-day tasks such as taking care of personal hygiene and preparing food and drinks. The book describes the importance of assessing and evaluating activity-based work, with examples of completed evaluation and assessment forms. The book is designed for occupational therapists, creative arts therapists, health and social care practitioners and other professionals working with older people.
Leisure activities and retirement: do structures of inequality change in old age?
- Authors:
- SCHERGER Simone, NAZROO James, HIGGS Paul
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 31(1), January 2011, pp.146-172.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
This study highlighted the relationship between old age, retirement and social inequalities, as represented by participation in leisure activities. It considered whether old age, and particularly the transition into retirement, have an effect on participation in three selected activities (having a hobby, being a member of a club, and an index of participation in cultural events), and also whether the social inequalities underlying these activities change with older age and retirement. The empirical investigation uses data from the first two waves of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Findings suggested that different socio-economic backgrounds of different age groups explained a considerable part of the observed age differences in these activities. Analyses showed that respondents tended to continue their activities regardless of changes in work and age, with two exceptions, namely that retirement was positively related to having a hobby, and those who stopped working because of an illness experienced a significant decline in all three of the examined categories of activity.
Baseline leisure time activity and cognition more than two decades later
- Authors:
- KAREHOLT Ingemar, et al
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 26(1), January 2011, pp.65-74.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Using information from 2 baseline surveys carried out in 1968 and 1981, this study analysed the correlation between different leisure time activities and cognition more than 20 years later. The surveys interviewed random samples of Swedish people aged 46-75 years, and a total of 1,643 follow-up observations were made. The range of activities included political, mental, socio-cultural, social, physical, and organisational activities. There was a significant association between later cognition and earlier political, mental and socio-cultural activities, controlling for a range of factors. Physical activities had a significant association with cognition only among women. The researchers concluded that the findings reinforce the theory that various forms of engagement in mid-life can have a protective effect with respect to cognition in later life, and support the long-term importance of policies to encourage an active life style among middle aged adults.
Inventory and analysis of definitions of social participation found in the aging literature: proposed taxonomy of social activities
- Authors:
- LEVASSEUR Melanie, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Social Science and Medicine, 71(12), December 2010, pp.2141-2149.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
Social participation is an adaptable health determinant of healthy aging. However, while it is an important intervention goal for health professionals, there is no agreement on its definition and underlying dimensions. This paper provides an inventory and content analysis of definitions of social participation in older adults, and presents a taxonomy of social activities. Four databases were searched with relevant keywords resulting in the identification of 43 definitions. Definitions were deconstructed as a function of who, how, what, where, with whom, when, and why dimensions. The study explored the typical contexts, demands and potential meanings of activities. Analysis showed that social participation definitions mostly focused on the person’s involvement in activities providing interactions with others in society or the community. Six levels of involvement of the individual with others were identified: doing an activity in preparation for connecting with others; being with others; interacting with others without doing a specific activity with them; doing an activity with others; helping others; and contributing to society. This taxonomy is designed be useful in focusing future investigations and clarifying dimensions specific to social participation.
Growing old in a new estate: establishing new social networks in retirement
- Authors:
- WALTERS Peter, BARTLETT Helen
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 29(2), February 2009, pp.217-236.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
The benefits of a strong proximal social network for people as they advance in age are well documented, but the continuation or development of social networks may be challenged when people relocate to a new home on retirement. This paper explores the personal network development of older residents who have moved to a new suburban (but not age-specific) residential development in a general urban setting. Drawing on a case study of a new outer-suburban ‘master planned estate’ in Brisbane, Queensland, the findings from interviews with 51 older residents and participant observations of a community group are presented. The study suggests that a traditional ideal of unreflexive community of place was an unreliable source of durable social bonds in contemporary fragmented and mobile social conditions, where the proximity of family members, durability of tenure and strong neighbourly ties are not inevitable. One successful resolution was found in a group of older residents who through exercising agency had joined a group the sole focus of which was social companionship. The theoretical bases of this type of group are discussed and its relevance is examined for retirees who have chosen to live in a residential environment for lifestyle and amenity reasons, away from their lifelong social networks.
Socioeconomic status of elderly women in India and Japan
- Authors:
- RAMACHANDRAN Rathi, R. Radhika
- Journal article citation:
- Indian Journal of Social Work, 67(3), July 2006, pp.275-295.
- Publisher:
- Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Rapid ageing trends present new challenges to governments, communities, families and the elderly themselves. This article describes the result of a comparative study to examine the cross country differences (India and Japan) in the social and economic conditions of aged women in a developed country as against a developing country. Empirical data was collected from representative samples of elderly women from both countries.