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Movement in mind: the relationship of exercise with cognitive status for older adults in the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care (SNAC)
- Authors:
- LINDWALL Magnus, RENNEMARK Mikael, BERGGREN Tomas
- Journal article citation:
- Aging and Mental Health, 12(2), March 2008, pp.212-220.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of light and strenuous exercise, and self-reported change in exercise status, with different components of cognitive function, and gender differences in this relation, in a large, representative sample included in the Swedish National study on Aging and Care (SNAC). Eight-hundred-and-thirteen participants in age-cohorts from 60-96 years completed a wide range of cognitive function tests, the Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE) and survey questions concerning exercise behaviour and exercise change with light or strenuous intensity. ANCOVA, controlling for age, education, depression, functional status and co-morbidity, demonstrated a main effect for light exercise, but not for strenuous exercise, on five of the six cognitive tests and the MMSE, for men but nor for women. A negative change in exercise status was associated with lower MMSE scores for men but not for women. Individuals exercising with light intensity several times a week had the highest cognitive test and MMSE scores and the inactive group had the lowest scores. The results of the study may contribute to increased knowledge in the exercise-mental health relationship for elderly and spawn new research specifically on gender differences in this relation.
Staff shortages in Swedish elderly care – reflections on gender and diversity politics
- Author:
- LILL Linda
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Migration Health and Social Care, 16(3), 2020, pp.269-278.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the labor shortage is described at the national level and how these problematizations correlate to gender and diversity politics. The paper is overview of the governance of staff shortages in elderly care, how it is articulated and how the governmental scenario of solutions, which includes the channeling of unemployed migrants into elderly care. Politicians and public media describe the situation as desperate and the issue of the staff shortages in elderly care is described as a state of crisis. A highly profiled solution is to open up elderly care for unemployed migrants. Design/methodology/approach: By analyzing specific management strategies for controlling a phenomenon, the paper will also be able to highlight values surrounding the phenomenon. The ambition is to understand how institutions, authorities and organizations handle practical forms of knowledge that are aimed to implement a particular policy or working method within the welfare system. Findings: One important aspect of the findings is the ways in which these official political discourses link the issues of migration and the shortages of staff in elderly care. But also visualize factors in how the government bodies with the formal responsibilities and authorities express their concerns about these links and the quality of the elderly care more generally. Originality/value: It is well-known that migrants are employed to take care of the growing population of elderly in Europe. In Spain and Italy, for example, immigrants are frequently employed directly by families to care for their elderly family members. This type of employment entails a series of new social risks. The most important of those risks is the global “care chain” that these arrangements incur for the sending families, who lose a family member on whom they depend. This paper is connecting the international research on the global “care chain,” but focuses on the Swedish context, where the migrants already are established and elderly care work is not linked to migration in the same way. However, the experience of migration and the importance of transnational and cultural knowledge can be influential in understanding the changing processes in Swedish elderly care, not the least as the question of staff recruitment has been linked to migration by the highest political levels.
Need and support: determinants of intra-familial financial transfers in Sweden
- Author:
- LENNARTSSON Carin
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Social Welfare, 20(1), January 2011, pp.66-74.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Inter-generational financial transfers, or the passing down of wealth, are recognised by scholars as a crucial part of the inter-generational link in modern societies. This paper examined downward inter-generational intra-family financial transfers in Sweden made in the form of money transactions or gifts. The paper asked whether recipients of intra-family financial transfers are children in need of such support, and whether early family environment has any consequences for later financial transfers. The study, using data from a nationally representative survey, suggested that childhood disadvantages had long-term consequences in connection with intra-family financial transfers, where disadvantages and inequalities in childhood were likely to remain into adulthood. Children who experienced adverse childhood conditions were less often recipients of later intra-family financial support. Intra-family transfers were also related to the needs of the younger generation. Single parents and students from higher social class families were more often beneficiaries of financial support.
Healthcare consumption in men and women aged 65 and above in the two years preceding decision about long-term municipal care
- Authors:
- KRISTENSSON Jimmie, HALLBERG Ingalill Rahm, JAKOBSSON Ulf
- Journal article citation:
- Health and Social Care in the Community, 15(5), September 2007, pp.474-485.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The aim of this study was to investigate healthcare consumption in men and women aged 65 and above in the two years preceding decision about long-term municipal care at home or in special accommodation and to investigate determinants for healthcare consumption. The study comprised 362 people (aged 65 or over), all subject to a decision about municipal care and/or services during 2002–2003, drawn from the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care (SNAC). Data were collected from three existing registers, the SNAC data covered age, gender, marital status, functional ability, informal care and living conditions and were merged with the Skane County Council's patient administration system PASiS and PrivaStat covering healthcare consumption from the year 2000 and forward. About 50% of the acute hospital stays (n = 392) occurred within 5 months prior to municipal care. The men had significantly longer stays in hospital, more diagnoses and contacts with other staff groups beside physicians in outpatient care compared to the women. The regression analysis showed heart conditions, cancer, musculoskeletal problems, genitourinary diseases, injuries and unspecified symptoms to be significantly associated with various kinds of healthcare consumption. The findings indicated a breakpoint in terms of hospital admissions about 5 months prior to municipal care and service and a share of 15% having several admissions to hospital. Early detection and preventive interventions to these people in a transitional stage of becoming increasingly dependent on continuous care and services seems urgent to prevent escalating acute healthcare consumption.
Perceptions of elder abuse in Sweden: voices of older people
- Authors:
- ERLINGSSON Christen L., SAVEMAN Britt-Inger, BERG Agneta C.
- Journal article citation:
- Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention, 5(2), May 2005, pp.213-227.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
This study explores the perceptions of elder abuse held by older persons in Sweden. Six focus group interviews were conducted. Through qualitative content analysis, the text revealed four themes: causes of elder abuse, conceptions of elder abuse, consequences of elder abuse, and coping with elder abuse. Changing society and families, as well as individual determinants, were believed to be causes of elder abuse. The main conception of elder abuse was that of robbery or assault, and the main consequence was fear. Coping with abuse included individual strategies and improvements in society. Issues of age discrimination were intrinsic in the findings. Gender differences were evident in the group dynamics. Nurses and other health care personnel need to be aware of what older persons believe to be the cause of elder abuse and what they consider abusive. Awareness of the results of this study can help in refining interview and assessment techniques and in designing training manuals.
Are today's older people more active than their predecessors? Participation in leisure-time activities in Sweden in 1992 and 2002
- Authors:
- AGAHI Neda, PARKER Marti G.
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 25(6), November 2005, pp.924-941.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
For the older individual, leisure activities are a resource that helps to maintain health and engagement with life. This article investigates change over 10 years in the level of participation of older people in leisure activities in Sweden, and the factors associated with these changes. The data are from nationally representative samples of the Swedish population aged 77 or more years in 1992 and 2002. The level of participation was higher at the later date, and among four major groups of activities, social and cultural activities increased the most, while physical and intellectual activities increased only among women. Ordered logistic regressions enable variations in the level of participation by age, gender, level of education, disability and fatigue to be described. Participation in most kinds of activities, including the overall level, was more common at the younger ages (the late seventies and early eighties) and among those with full mobility and more education. Since average health was worse in 2002 than in 1992, it cannot explain the higher level of participation. Other possible explanations, such as cohort differences, improved accessibility, and changing gender roles, and the implications for health promotion programmes are discussed.
Receipt of formal and informal help with specific care tasks among older people living in their own home. National trends over two decades
- Authors:
- DAHLBERG Lena, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Social Policy and Administration, 52(1), 2018, pp.91-110.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Sweden is seen as a typical example of a social democratic welfare regime, with universal and generous welfare policies. However, in the last decades, there have been substantial reductions in the Swedish provision of care for older people. This study aimed to examine trends in sources of care-receipt in older people (77+) living in their own home and with a perceived need for help with two specific tasks: house cleaning and/or food shopping. Trends in care-receipt were examined in relation to gender, living alone, having children and socio-economic position. Data from the 1992, 2002 and 2011 data collection waves of the national study, Swedish Panel Study of Living Conditions of the Oldest Old (SWEOLD), were used. Response rates varied between 86 and 95 per cent, and the sample represents the population well. Trends and differences between groups were explored in bivariate and logistic regression analyses. There was a reduction in formal care-receipt regarding house cleaning and food shopping over the study period. It was more common for women than men to receive formal care, and more common for men than women to receive informal care. Reductions in formal care have affected older women more than older men. Still, living alone was the most influential factor in care-receipt, associated with a greater likelihood of formal care-receipt and a lower likelihood of informal care-receipt. It can be concluded that public responsibility for care is becoming more narrowly defined in Sweden, and that more responsibility for care is placed on persons in need of care and their families. (Publisher abstract)
Predictors of loneliness among older women and men in Sweden: a national longitudinal study
- Authors:
- DAHLBERG Lena, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Aging and Mental Health, 19(5), 2015, pp.409-417.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Objectives: This study examines the extent to which older women and men (70+) report feelings of loneliness, with a focus on a) the changes in reported loneliness as people age, and b) which factors predict loneliness. Method: Data from the 2004 and 2011 waves of SWEOLD, a longitudinal national survey, was used (n = 587). The prediction of loneliness in 2011 by variables measured in 2004 and 2004-2011 variable change scores was examined in three logistic regression models: total sample, women and men. Variables in the models included: gender, age, education, mobility problems, depression, widowhood and social contacts. Results: Older people moved into and out of frequent loneliness over time, although there was a general increase in loneliness with age. Loneliness at baseline, depression increment and recent widowhood were significant predictors of loneliness in all three multivariable models. Widowhood, depression, mobility problems and mobility reduction predicted loneliness uniquely in the model for women; while low level of social contacts and social contact reduction predicted loneliness uniquely in the model for men. Conclusion: This study challenges the notion that feelings of loneliness in old age are stable. It also identifies important gender differences in prevalence and predictors of loneliness. (Edited publisher abstract)
The implementation of elder-care in France and Sweden: a macro and micro perspective
- Authors:
- JÖNSSON Ingrid, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 31(4), May 2011, pp.625-644.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
This paper presents results from a comparative project in France and Sweden to study access to social care when older persons become dependent. The aim of the study was to study the entrance into dependence as a process, looking at how the need of help and support over time is attended to and by whom. The paper starts with an overview of elder-care at the institutional level in the 2 countries. The study comprised interviews with older people in each country: 10 single people and 6 couples in Sweden; and 12 singles, 7 couples, and 2 sisters living together in France. Interviews were also held with a small number of administrators and adult children. The focus was to identify ways of co-operation between actors, such as public eldercare providers, family members, and help provided by profit and non-profit organisations. The results shed light on how policies are implemented on the local level and put the focus on who actually does what and when for older persons with care needs. The different roles played by the state, the family, the market and civil society are examined. Family members in France take on a more active role both as co-ordinators of care and as actual caregivers. The study shows that gender and social class remain associated with caring but that such differences are much larger in France than in Sweden.
Pattern of participation in leisure activities among older people in relation to their health conditions and contextual factors: a survey in a Swedish urban area
- Authors:
- PAILLARD-BORG Stephanie, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 29(5), July 2009, pp.803-821.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
The objective of this study is to describe the pattern of participation in leisure activities in an older population in relation to contextual factors as well as to mental and physical health. A cohort of 1,623 participants aged 75 or older living in Stockholm, Sweden was asked to list all the leisure activities they were engaged in. These were successively organised into 31 major categories and further grouped into mental, social, physical, productive and recreational types. The pattern of participation was examined in relation to age, gender, contextual factors (education, social network) and health status (depressive symptoms, cognitive impairment, dementia, somatic diseases and physical limitation). In spite of their advanced age, the majority of the population was active, as 70 per cent had participated in at least one activity. Reading (19%) was the most prevalent individual activity, and mental activities (43%) the most prevalent activity type. Older age, female gender, low education status, having a poor or limited social network, mental disorders, and physical limitation, were all factors correlated with a decreased engagement in ‘at least one activity’. Contextual factors and health-related factors were related to the five activity types in different ways. The pattern of participation in leisure activities is associated with multiple factors and their recognition is essential to the facilitation of an active lifestyle in the older population.