Age-at-death estimation in older adults is complicated because current techniques fail to capture an older individual’s age-at-death in a narrow enough range. This study aimed to test the relationship between osteoporotic change and age-at-death in the form of intracortical porosity. It was hypothesized that as individuals age, osteoporotic processes increase resulting in a higher percentage of intracortical porosity that may correlate with particular age cohorts. Forty ribs were analyzed, ranging in age from 15 to 84. Ribs sections were digitized using a 40X objective on a Nikon E600 microscope equipped with a motorized stage and a Turboscan montaging system (Objective Imaging Inc., UK). Images were made binary using image ImageJ 2.0. Nine measurements and calculations as described by the Agnew and Stout (2012) method were used: total subperiosteal area, endosteal area, cortical area, percent cortical area (%C/T), porosity area, percent porosity area, absolute cortical area, percent absolute cortical area (%CA/T), and the difference between %C/T and %CA/T. The ranges and mean values for intracortical porosity across the sample were calculated. The effect of intracortical porosity on measures of cortical area were interpreted using a calculation of the difference between %C/T and %CA/T. A Two Sample Independent T-Test was performed to see if there was a significant difference between sexes. Regression analyses were conducted to assess correlations between the traits and age-at-death. No significant difference was found between sexes in regards to intracortical porosity or the difference between %C/T and %CA/T. The mean intracortical porosity was found to be 15.30. The mean value of the difference was found to be 6.95%. Measures of intracortical porosity varied from 0.74% - 31.67% while measures of the effect of intracortical porosity varied from 0.32% - 17.85%. No correlation was found between either trait and age-at-death. There are a number of reasons intracortical porosity might not be correlated with an individual’s age-at-death including (1) processes that influence intracortical porosity, (2) hormonal changes, (3) the current understanding of the relationship between aging and bone cell functions. One should still account for intracortical porosity when conducting histomorphometric analyses, as failure to consider it would result in miscalculations.

This dissertation focuses on the ACCESS Framework which is an open source software framework designed to address four issues with regards to older and novice users with accessibility needs – that they often do not know what support is available within their systems, that they often do not know how to change those settings they know exist, that they often lack the confidence to make the changes they know how to make, and are often unable to physically enable accessibility support.The software discussed in this dissertation serves as a bridge between what users are expected to know and what they actually know by assuming the responsibility for identifying user accessibility requirements and making those changes on the user?s behalf. User interaction with the framework is limited to either expressing approval or disapproval with regards to corrective action. Individual corrections are deployed as plug-ins within this tool.Four studies were conducted during this research. Three of these studies were aimed at evaluating the ACCESS Framework directly with the remaining study being an exploration of a cognitive support tool deployed using the framework. Two of these studies involved participants attempting to perform specific, well-defined tasks on systems that had been configured to the extremes of what was possible with operating system settings. These tasks were attempted with and without the support of the framework. The final study was a focus group in which issues of the framework were discussed by individuals who had been through the experimental trials.The research provided strong evidence that this is an effective mechanism for accessibility configuration when there is a strong match between identified accessibility needs and available operating system support. The system was seen as understandable, useful and appropriate by individuals who had been through the experimental trials. The research provided strong evidence that this is an effective mechanism for accessibility configuration when there is a strong match between identified accessibility needs and available operating system support. The system was seen as understandable, useful and appropriate by participants, with a majority stating that they would be willing to use a similar system on their own machines.

No description available.

The overarching purpose of the study was to explore how music interventions, including spoken communication can be effectively facilitated with older adults with hearing loss. Specifically, aspects of the listener, auditory input, environmental factors, and non-auditory information that could be modified within the context of music therapy sessions to enhance music and speech perception were explored. A modified sequential exploratory mixed methods design (Qual->Quan+Quan) was used to address the research questions. The first phase of the study consisted of a one-time large group interview with audiologists to elicit an open discussion related to three questions: (a) What do music therapists need to know about hearing loss and assistive listening devices to effectively design and implement music therapy interventions for older adults with hearing loss? (b) What environmental considerations and modifications can be used to enhance successful communication and music listening in individual and group settings? and, (c) Are there strategies for supporting effective hearing and listening by older adults that could be applied to the context of music therapy? Data were gathered through written responses from the interview participants as well as notes taken by the moderator and a non-participant observer. Thematic analysis revealed the general categories of “areas of therapist knowledge,” “maximizing individual interactions,” and “improving access to communication.” From the initial phase of the study, a conceptual framework was identified to guide the parallel second and third phases to specifically investigate two forms of music stimuli. Phase II of the study included the creation of standardized recordings of 24 musical instruments to answer the question, How do musical instruments commonly used by music therapists with older adults interface with common configurations of hearing loss? The spectral analysis from each instrument was then applied to a series of audiograms to facilitate the comparison of each instrument’s spectral properties with common hearing loss profiles to determine potential audibility. Phase III consisted of a single-group, repeated measures design to investigate sung sentence recognition and the potential benefit derived from the inclusion of non-auditory information to facilitate top-down processing. For the purposes of this study, the Sung Sentence Recognition Test was developed to measure sentence recognition under three presentation conditions: sung with guitar accompaniment (SU-G), sung with guitar accompaniment and contextual cues (SU-G+C), and sung with guitar accompaniment and visual cues (SU-G+V). A total of 24 bilateral hearing aid users between the ages of 60 and 79 participated in Phase III. Results indicated that the presence of non-auditory information, in the form of contextual or visual cues, was beneficial for all listeners with a greater degree of benefit derived from visual cues. In addition, Phase III affirmed that listener characteristics such as music training also play a role in determining success. Clinical implications in the form of general strategies as well as recommendations matched with the auditory perceptual requirements of specific music interventions are proposed integrating the results from each of the three phases in this study.

Older adults are faced with many complex and critical decisions regarding retirement, health care, finances, and living situation, and their ability to make such decisions successfully has a profound impact on the individual and society as a whole. Numerous neurologically and psychiatrically healthy older adults do not make advantageous decisions: they get swindled and make poor financial choices. The vulnerability of such older adults has been postulated to be the result of disproportionate aging of the frontal lobes. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether decision-making performance among older adults can be improved as a result of pharmacological and/or psychoeducational intervention. Healthy community-dwelling persons were recruited to participate in four conditions: Lexapro, placebo, psychoeducational condition (Problem Solving Therapy [PST]), and waitlist control. Twenty-six elderly persons participated. Only six seniors participated in the pharmacological conditions due to unanticipated challenges with recruitment (e.g., lack of interest in drug studies, contraindications to study drug). Statistical comparisons were conducted to compare performance on several laboratory tasks of decision-making under conditions of ambiguity, risk, and deceptive advertising, between the PST group and Control group. The findings suggest that a psychosocial intervention can be effective in the enhancement of decision-making ability under ambiguity among healthy community-dwelling older adults and as such can provide a foundation for future investigations.

Within the social work profession, there is a lack of understanding about self-care practices of social workers working with older adults. This lack of knowledge is a concern for the profession because as the older adult population continues to grow, so will the need for social workers to address their needs. Using action research, a focus group of 7 female social workers working with older adults in the Pacific Northwest discussed the research questions related to their use of self-care practices and identifying strategies to increase the use of self-care. Self-compassion theory enhanced understanding the relationship between social workers' experiences with older adult clients and self-care. Coding protocols were used to analyze the data. Key findings provided a further understanding of the self-care practices of these social workers including the use of appropriate boundaries, effective communication, education about responsibilities and expectations, and advocacy regarding the need for self-care. Additional strategies to increase self-care involved mindfulness about job roles, primarily related to team and system barriers. Recommendations from this project included adding self-care to education and training in social work courses required for degrees, licensure renewal, and employment-based continuing education courses. By exploring self-care practices of social workers working with older adults, the findings of this study may bring about social change by increasing the awareness of current and future social workers about the importance of self-care and providing strategies that enable social workers to implement self-care.

Knowledge of the deeper meanings of attachment to companion animals is limited, particularly in terms of older adults. This study employed a modified grounded theory method, a phenomenological lens and a life course perspective to gather and analyze data garnered from individual interviews and panel discussions in order to investigate the multiple dimensions of older adult men’s relationships with their companion animal dogs. Individual audio-recorded in-depth interviews and repeated panel discussions with a sub-group of the participants, convened as a panel over a three-month period, explored behavioral and emotional manifestations of attachment and the emotional bond to their companion animal dogs and the changing nature of that attachment and bond over their life span. Analysis involved open, axial and selective coding of transcripts to reveal underlying patterns within the data. Outcomes included movement toward a theory of companion animal attachment for older adult men as well as insight into the role of dogs in development of older adult men’s identities. This dissertation offers insight into the deeper understanding of the human-animal bond resulting in enhancing quality of life for both older adult male pet owners and their companion animal dogs.

In order to create more efficient, useful alcohol treatment and intervention methods tailored specifically for the older population, it is important to understand the reasons that older adults perceive that they consume alcohol. For this reason, this study explored older adults’ perceptions regarding why they use alcohol. Older adults, age 60 and older, were surveyed through questionnaires completed at senior community centers within San Bernardino County. This was a mixed method design that used qualitative and quantitative analysis for the purpose of exploring the most frequently reported reasons for why older adults use alcohol. The main finding of the study is that older adults in the sample most frequently reported using alcohol for “having fun and celebration” and for “social reasons.” However, it is important to note that older adults reported a variety of motivations for using alcohol. Further research is suggested to determine correlations between demographics, alcohol use patterns, and older adults’ perceptions of why they use alcohol.

Poor sleep is known to contribute to increased levels of pain. Preliminary findings suggest that negative and positive affect may mediate this relationship. Given that older adults are prone to both sleep disturbance and pain, the main objectives of the present study were to: 1) examine the relationship between sleep and pain in a non-clinical pain sample of community-dwelling older adults and 2) to examine whether negative and positive affect mediate the relationship between sleep and pain. Baseline measures from 82 older adults participating in the Active Adult Mentoring Project (AAMP) were used for secondary data analysis. A daily sleep diary was used to assess sleep efficiency (SE), total wake time (TWT), total sleep time (TST), and sleep quality (SQ). Affect was measured using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), while pain was assessed on an 11-point Likert-scale. Findings only partially corroborated past research; SE, SQ, and TWT each predicted pain, while TST did not. In addition, neither positive nor negative affect was found to mediate the relationship between sleep and pain. Methodological and theoretical explanation for the lack of significant mediation are discussed. Nevertheless, the findings suggest that the assessment and treatment of poor sleep among older adults with pain may be clinically relevant.

The Baby Boomer generation in the United States is growing older, and the number of adults age 65 years or older is expected to double by 2050. The increase in older adults combined with the reduction in services to older adults has created a gap in available social services and volunteers are needed to fill those gaps. This quantitative, nonexperimental study was designed to identify the motivations of volunteers who served the socialization needs of isolated older adults in a rural U.S. community. The functional approach theory was utilized to explain how volunteers engage in the same volunteer activity for different reasons. The Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) was used to gather data on the motivations of Little Brothers- Friends of the Elderly (LBFOTE) volunteers as well as demographic data. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation coefficients, ANOVAs, and ANCOVAs to determine the relationships between the 6 functions of the VFI and demographic variables. The majority of volunteers of LBFOTE in this study were White married women with a college degree who were over 56 years of age, retired, and had volunteered for greater than 1 year. This demographic showed that the LBFOTE volunteer base is aging; 70% of volunteers were age 56 and older and 92.6% of volunteers had served for more than one year, indicating that the LBFOTE retains volunteers. Participants identified humanitarian and altruistic reasons as their motivation to volunteer, giving these the highest scores on VFI Values function. The findings promote positive social change by providing information to inform recruiting and retaining volunteers by targeting motives and untapped demographics, contributing to a culture of serving the socialization needs of isolated older adults.