Using an analysis of secondary data from the Health and Retirement Survey, this thesis provides the groundwork for understanding factors for nursing home placement using matching techniques to understand the differences between those persons with similar health characteristics who are not residents of nursing homes, and who are temporary residents or permanent residents of nursing homes. / Fisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology

Although the graying of the American society has been well documented, the question as to whether the elderly populace will indeed become a political factor has yet to be determined. Some studies indicate that the elderly will soon develop the consensus needed for political action; other studies counter that the elderly will never be a viable political factor. Among the determinants listed as influencing the political participation equation are standard socioeconomic variables (e.g., race, social status, education, and income). These factors have been studied extensively (Campbell 1960; Key 1950; Milbrath 1965; Nagel 1987; Rose 1965). Trela recently added an item that could possibly influence the political activism of the elderly: membership in age-graded associations. This study addresses the questions raised by Trela (1971), namely, whether age-graded associations influence the political activity of senior citizens, and if so, in what direction elderly participation is swayed. Unlike previous reports, the preliminary data gathered for this study suggest that the age-graded associations of the elderly cannot accurately predict their political activism.

The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between mental, physical, and social activity, and episodic memory (EM) of cognitively intact older persons. The specific aims were (a) to describe the relationship between EM and mental, physical, and social activity, (b) to describe the role of gender, marital status, and race on EM, (c) to describe the moderating effects of each activity on the relationship between each of the remaining two activities and EM, and (d) to describe the moderating effects of gender, marital status, and race on the relationship between each activity and EM. Two theoretical frameworks: Cognitive Reserve Theory (Stern, 2002) and Theory of Nursing as Caring (Boykin & Schoenhofer, 1993) guided the study. This study was designed as a correlational and retrospective secondary analysis of data sets from the Health and Retirement Study. The sample consisted of 3,903 cognitively intact persons who were 50 years and older and completed immediate and delayed recall tests in the 2016 HRS and the 2015 Consumptions and Activities Mail Survey. Descriptive statistics included the means for age: 67 (SD 9.54), education:13.85 (SD 5.89), and total cognition 16.86 (SD 3.11). The sample was predominantly Caucasian (78.3%), female (59.8%), and married (60.9%). / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Policy-makers and others historically have assumed that welfare programs should give assistance to the poor and carry stigma. This attitude in part developed from the English Poor Laws tradition in which poverty was considered a negative condition. Labeling theory has often been used to explain the process of welfare stigmatization. Once an individual is labeled as a deviant, such as a welfare recipient, a self-fulfilling prophecy is initiated. Others perceive and respond to the individual as a deviant and the individual also internalized the stigma attached to such a role. The stigma attached to public dependency becomes an outcome of this labeling process. This study identifies the relationship between welfare stigma and the elderly and has three objectives. First, it challenges the usefulness of labeling theory in explaining the perception of welfare stigma among elderly recipients. Second, it analyzes why different levels of stigma are attached to different public assistance programs. Third, it examines why some recipients feel more stigmatized than others. Historically, the elderly poor have heen identified as the deserving poor and provided for under most social programs. Because of differential treatment between the elderly poor and the able-bodied poor, this study contends that these groups develop different self-images as welfare recipients. A single welfare image applied indiscriminately to both groups results in a poor fit. Instead of internalizing the negative image from the outside community, the elderly may have internalized the deserving poor image and subsequently perceive their welfare status as less stigmatized. Congress established the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program in 1972 to replace the state-run Old Age Assistance (OAA) program. By placing SSI under the Social Security Administration, this new program seeks to provide additional income with less stigma to the aged poor. Data for this study come from two separate surveys: a local survey of 400 respondents and a national survey of 8600 respondents. The most important dependent variable in this study is welfare stigma. It is operationally defined by three indicators: 1) whether recipients feel bothered in receiving assistance; 2) whether recipients feel embarrassed to admit their welfare status; and 3) whether recipients perceive community disrespect for thier welfare status. Factor analysis enabled a welfare stigma index to be constructed using the above three items. The often cited welfare stigma was not substantiated by the data. Elderly recipients of both OOA and SSI had low stigma feelings. Labeling theory, while useful in explaining welfare stigma of other poor subgroups, is not applicable to the elderly. Significantly less stigma was found to be associated with SSI than with OAA. Other findings supporting the SSI program include: more recipients had confidence in the Social Security Administration than in local welfare agencies; more were satisfied with the performance of SSI than with OAA; more non-recipients expressed a willingness to use SSI. In contrast to findings of many studies, this study found that some demographic variables, such as education and socioeconomic status, were significantly related to stigma. This study has theoretical and practical significance. First, it demonstrates that labeling theory is not useful in explaining stigma perception of the elderly. Second, it provides important baseline data to judge future performance of SSI and other similar programs. The analysis calls for the need to design effective social programs on a universalistic rather than class-specific basis. Options for change in the income-maintenance programs in the 1980's are discussed and include an analysis of the two-tier proposal.

No description available.

No description available.

This study examines the widely prevalent belief that adult children desert their elders. Data which suggested considerable family support of elderly family members were collected over a period of one year through counseling families with dependent parents. These families exhibited confusion and lack of knowledge but not desertion.

This study evaluated the impact of receiving a home-delivered meal on the quality of life and nutritional risk of elders who were unable to attend congregate meal sites and who were unable to safely prepare a hot meal. Forty-three subjects on a waiting list were matched with a group currently receiving home-delivered meals. Matching criteria were functional needs measure, age, gender, and living arrangement.Home visits were conducted to collect the data and verify demographic information. Nutritional risk was assessed by the Nutrition Screening Initiative's Determine Checklist. Quality of life was measured across various domains including a global quality of life self-rating, mental health appraisal, functional ability, and food enjoyment. Two tailed t-tests failed to show differences in quality of life and nutritional risk between the groups at the 0.05 level of significance.In addition, the study reviewed the resources for meal preparation and grocery shopping possessed by the meal non-recipients that allowed them to remain at home without a meal provided. A significant difference was seen in the number of resources reported for meal preparation assistance with the meal non-recipient group reporting more informal resources. / Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

The relationship between work status (working and retired) and the degree of formal and informal social participation among elderly respondents sixty to sixty-nine years of age was studied and analyzed. A national probability sample of 735 elderly Americans provided the major data source. Elaboration model was used to further understand and explain the relationship between work status and the degree of formal and informal social participation. Ten control variables were introduced: work status of spouse, marital status, occupational status, family income, satisfaction with health, size of kinship network, race, gender, and size of community of residence. Indices of formal and informal social participation were constructed.

The point of concentration for this study was to estimate the extent to which health-promoting habits might predict medication-compliant practices among older adults. The purpose was to recognize potentially non-adhering persons, identify attitudes leading to healthy habits, and signal any practices contributing to non-compliant behaviors. Selected were patients who ranged in age from minimum 62, lived independently, self-administered medication regimes, had a chronic ailment that had persisted for at least 12 months, and regularly attended a geriatric clinic sited in the midwestern United States. A non-probability convenience sample (n = 100) was analyzed by a descriptive correlational approach to test self-proclaimed relations between health habits and compliant practices. The instrument used to measure health habits that would enrich life was the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II created and promoted by Walker, Sechrist, and Pender (1995). The tool used to decide levels of medication adherence was a compliance profile created specifically for this study. Demographic information was collected for age, race, marital status, gender, and education. Descriptive statistics were calculated for each variable and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was utilized to decide what, if any, real and measurable interrelationships exist between the health-promoting habits and medication-compliant practices among an older population. The t-test was utilized in determining differences in both healthpromoting lifestyle habits and medication-compliant practices between older males and females. The significance level used to evaluate every theory was p < .05. Discovery gave no statistically critical relationship between overall health-promoting lifestyle habits and medication-compliant practices among the constituents of an older populace. Findings gave no significant variance between men and women in either lifestyle habits or compliance practices as a whole, but the HPLP II categories of Interpersonal Relations and Nutrition did mirror a significant difference between genders. / Department of Physiology and Health Science