narrative gerontology

Background: World population is not only aging but suffering from serious chronic illnesses, requiring an increasing need for end-of-life care. However, studies show that many healthcare providers involved in the care of dying patients sometimes express challenges in knowing when to stop non-beneficial investigations and futile treatments that tend to prolong undue suffering for the dying person. Objective: To evaluate the clinical signs and symptoms that show end-of-life is imminent in individuals with advanced illness...

The purpose of the current systematic review was to examine the effects of music interventions on cognitive function in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). A systematic search of CINAHL, PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science databases was performed. Studies examining the effects of music interventions on cognitive function in older adults with MCI were included. Narrative synthesis for cognitive outcomes postintervention was performed. A total of 11 articles met inclusion criteria. Music interventions significantly improved global cognitive function, verbal fluency, executive function, and spatial function in older adults with MCI...

Testosterone, many steroidal androgens, and nonsteroidal ligands that bind to androgen receptor and exert tissue-specific transcriptional activity (selective androgen receptor modulators [SARMs]) are being developed as function-promoting therapies to treat functional limitations associated with aging and chronic diseases. This narrative review describes preclinical studies, mechanisms, and randomized trials of testosterone, other androgens, and nonsteroidal SARMs. Sex differences in muscle mass and strength and empiric use of anabolic steroids by athletes to increase muscularity and athletic performance provide supportive evidence of testosterone's anabolic effects...

BACKGROUND: This narrative review describes foundational and emerging evidence of how dietary protein intakes may influence muscle-related attributes of older adults. METHODS: PubMed was used to identify pertinent research. RESULTS: Among medically stable older adults, protein intakes below the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) (0.8 g/kg body weight [BW]/d) exacerbate age-related reductions in muscle size, quality, and function. Dietary patterns with total protein intakes at or moderately above the RDA, including one or preferably more meals containing sufficient dietary protein to maximize protein anabolism, promote muscle size and function...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Gerontological research shows that stereotypes about older people negatively impact the quality of health care they receive. Therefore, knowledge about ageism is particularly relevant for medical students. Narrative Medicine draws on theory and methods from literary studies to interlace the humanities and medical studies. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: This paper first describes a Narrative-Medicine intervention at the University of Southern Denmark where medical students learn about ageism and stereotypes through a presentation of gerontological research results...

INTRODUCTION: Supporting care receivers in Activities of Daily Living (ADL), irrespective of diagnosis, setting, or cultural background, lies at the heart of fundamental nursing care. The pursuit of quality ADL care becomes increasingly challenging with the changing complexity of care needs. ADL care delivery is often undervalued and is considered a low-status task despite its crucial importance to care receivers. This study aims to synthesize challenges in ADL care irrespective of the care setting...

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Portuguese government identified those aged 70 or more as a risk group, placing a special duty of protection on them to shelter-at-home. This paper asks how Portuguese municipalities, using Facebook posts, communicated the risk to older adults and to what extent ageist stereotypes were found in the language and frames employed. Over 3800 Facebook posts made by Portuguese municipalities concerning older adults and COVID-19 published between March and July 2020 were analyzed...

By inquiring into older adults' narrations about their lives in the present, past, and future, this study aims to learn more about home-dwelling older adults' lived experiences of being and becoming "frail". This article is based on a dialogical narrative analysis of interviews with three home-dwelling older adults identified as frail by the home care services. We conducted a series of three interviews with each participant over a period of eight months. Our results demonstrate that while some older adults experience frailty as inevitable and irreversible, others experience it as a transition...

OBJECTIVES: A meta-analytic review was conducted to assess the effects of healthy aging, amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and Alzheimer's disease (AD) on naturalistic autobiographical memory using the Autobiographical Interview, a widely used, standardized assessment that derives measures of internal (episodic) and external (nonepisodic) details from freely recalled autobiographical narratives. METHODS: A comprehensive literature search identified 21 aging, 6 MCI, and 7 AD studies (total N = 1,556 participants)...

BACKGROUND: Understanding fall circumstances can help researchers better identify causes of falls and develop effective and tailored fall prevention programs. This study aims to describe fall circumstances among older adults from quantitative data using conventional statistical approaches and qualitative analyses using a machine learning approach. METHODS: The MOBILIZE Boston Study enrolled 765 community-dwelling adults aged 70 years and older in Boston, Massachusetts...

With the growing population of older persons, medical students have to be well prepared for older persons' health care during medical school. Becoming a doctor is an interplay of building competencies and developing a professional identity. Professional identity formation of medical students is a relatively new educational concept in geriatric medical education. This review aims to explore the concept of professional identity formation of undergraduate medical students in relation to the care of older persons...

This article presents findings from an interdisciplinary project which invited readers to experience the impact of dementia via fictional characters' narratives. Combining methods from critical gerontology and literary linguistics - a field that examines the language of literature - we undertook an empirical reader response study of dementia fiction. We constructed a large corpus of dementia fiction; selecting twelve extracts, each containing first-hand, focalized accounts of fictional characters' experiences of living with dementia...

The term 'intergenerational relationships' is widely used in gerontological literature and age-related policies. However, discussions of the term often tell us surprisingly little about what it means or why it matters. We suggest that this is due to a reductivism and instrumentalism in two main discourses within which intergenerational relationships are usually discussed. Firstly, intergenerational relationships are often conceptualised through a binary 'conflict / solidarity' lens, reinforcing an entrenched 'generationalism' (White, 2013)...

Neighborhood support can improve aging in place for older adults, but research on the role of public housing staff in supporting older tenants is lacking. Twenty-nine participants (janitors, n = 11; maintenance staff, n = 18) collected data about critical situations among older tenants residing in apartments in Sweden. Modifying the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) and applying a mixed-methods design, quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed with descriptive statistics and thematic analysis, integrated through narrative...

Religion and spirituality for transgender and gender expansive people (whom we refer to collectively as trans) are complicated by mainstream religions' history of stigmatizing and marginalizing sexual and gender minorities. We conducted an interpretive content analysis of biographical interviews with 88 trans older adults from across the United States, applying six tenets of spiritual psychotherapy to their life narratives. Our findings suggest that some trans older adults' spirituality is experienced both implicitly and explicitly...

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the greatest contributor to global morbidity and mortality. Poor social health plays a critical role in CVD incidence. Additionally, the relationship between social health and CVD may be mediated through CVD risk factors. However, the underlying mechanisms between social health and CVD are poorly understood. Certain social health constructs (social isolation, low social support and loneliness) have complicated the characterisation of a causal relationship between social health and CVD...

In recent years there has been increasing emphasis on the importance of intergenerational learning and interaction. People of different ages engage in meaningful and mutually beneficial activities, aimed at developing knowledge, skills, and values. The aim of this systematic review was to examine the psychosocial effects of intergenerational learning in school-age children and older adults. A systematic review of both quantitative and qualitative data was performed according to the PRISMA guidelines. PubMed, Scopus, and ERIC electronic databases were searched up to 26 July 2022 using the following Population (P) -Exposure (E) - Outcome (O) elements: school-age children and older adults (P), intergenerational learning (E), and psychosocial effects (O)...

INTRODUCTION: Frailty is a syndrome characterised by decline in functional ability and increasing vulnerability to disease and associated with adverse outcomes. Several established methods exist for assessing frailty. This scoping review aims to characterise the development and validation of frailty indices based on laboratory test results (FI-Lab) and to assess their utility. METHODS: Studies were included in the review if they included data concerning the development and/or testing an FI-Lab using the deficit accumulation method...

Aim: The purpose of this study was to explore the significance of performing a life story interview for gerontological nursing students. Method: The study had a qualitative exploratory design, focusing on hermeneutical understanding using thematic analysis. Seven nurses in older people nursing were interviewed. Findings: Two main themes emerged from the analysis: "Engaging fellowship" and "Understanding the importance of life stories." The participants experienced increased engagement and fellowship with their patients after the life story interview; the change in their perspective was characterized by renewed interest, connection, and recognition of the individual person...

Interest in ageism research has grown immensely since the term was coined. Despite methodological innovations to study ageism in different settings and the application of different methods and methodologies to the topic, qualitative longitudinal studies investigating ageism are still underrepresented in the field. Through qualitative longitudinal interview data with four individuals of the same age, this study explored the applications of qualitative longitudinal research on ageism, highlighting its potential benefits and challenges to the multidisciplinary study of ageism and to gerontological research...