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.

Numerous researchers have explored the benefit of creative activities for the aging population diagnosed with dementia. However, there is a lack of data available to community administrators and organizers of senior residences about how successful aging may be enhanced, in the relatively healthy older adults, through their participation in creative art-making. Activities that provide mental stimulation, facilitate expression of emotions, and that are related to overall psychological well-being can provide a foundation for healthy aging. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to explore older adults' subjective experience of engaging in creative artwork. The conceptual framework that guided this phenomenological study was based on Lazarus's cognitive-emotional-relational theory of emotions. The focus of the research questions was on the subjective experience of 10 older adults who participated in 7 weekly art sessions offered at a senior residence. Audiotaped interviews that were held after the last art-making session, together with participants' artwork and field notes, were analyzed, coded, and then categorized into themes. Results indicated the participants learned they can be creative, and that their images became a visual inroad to meaningful expression of emotions, insight, and motivation. The results point to evident social change when community organizers and administrators of senior residences increase activities for residents, especially meaningful activities designed to facilitate expression of emotions and insight during later life. Creative image-making activities can lead to continued learning, heightened social interactions, increased mental fitness, reduced depression, and enhanced healthy aging.

Background: Older adults walk more slowly than healthy young adults at fast and normal walking speeds. These age-associated changes in mobility impact upon daily function. A slower gait, for example, may reduce the older adult’s ability to safely cross at traffic intersections due to the time restriction. Recent research has demonstrated whole body vibration (WBV) can improve the strength and power (Roelants, Delecluse & Verschueren, 2004; Russo et al., 2003; Verschueren, Roelants, Delecluse, Swinnen, Vanderschueren & Boonen, 2004) of community dwelling elderly females, and the mobility of nursing home residents (Bautmans, Van Hees, Lemper & Mets, 2005; Bruyere et al., 2005). To date, no published research has examined the impact WBV has on the gait parameters of community dwelling elderly females. The research was conducted in three phases. Phase One – Development of a WBV Platform: This phase outlines the development of a WBV platform (ACUWBV) that was designed and built for this research. A unique aspect of the ACUWBV was the method of adjusting WBV amplitude and therefore intensity. Current WBV technology, using tilting oscillations, requires the individual to increase their stance width. The ACUWBV allowed for the adjustment of WBV amplitude while maintaining the same stance width. The reliability and accuracy of the ACUWBV eccentric cam was measured during this phase of the research. Although an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.4 was calculated and is considered an indication of low reliability, calculations of typical error (TE -95% error range) for each amplitude indicated the error to be small in the overall precision of the instrument. Specifically, at a frequency of 20 Hz, the expected WBV acceleration ranges for amplitudes of 0.5 mm and 1.0 mm were 7.58 m.s-2 to 8.85 m.s-2 (TE = 0.02 mm) and 16.90 m.s-2 to 17.53 m.s.-2 (TE = 0.01 mm), respectively. Phase Two – Pilot Study: This phase established the response of elderly community-dwelling female fast gait to WBV. Seven elderly female participants attended three WBV sessions per week for three weeks. Participants performed fast walks over an electronic walkway (GAITRite) at the end of each WBV session. A time-series graph displayed a linear increase in stride velocity over the three week intervention period. Conversely, stride time, stance time and double support time exhibited linear decreases. However, stride time (p=0.04) and stance time (p=0.04) were the only variables that exhibited a significant difference. It was concluded that the linear changes in stride velocity, stride time, stance time and double support time warranted further investigation with a larger sample size within a longer intervention period. Phase Three – Major Study: Phase three was an extension of phase two. This WBV intervention study was performed over a twelve week period. Twenty-two elderly female participants were placed in one of two groups. Group one (placebo/WBV; Group; n=12) was exposed to a placebo intervention for the first six weeks followed by a six week WBV intervention. Group two (Group WBV/placebo; n=10) was exposed to WBV for the first six weeks and a placebo intervention for the following six weeks. Group placebo/WBV exhibited no change in stride velocity during the placebo period, but a seven per cent increase during the six week WBV period (p=0.005). The changes in stride velocity coincided with increases in stride length (p=0.017), and reductions in stride time (p=0.007), stance time (p=0.001) and double support time (p=0.001). Group WBV/Placebo demonstrated stride velocity to increase by five per cent during the WBV period. Although the time-series graphs demonstrated improvements in stride velocity to be associated with decreases in stride time, stance time, and double support time, the changes failed to reach significance. Single support time and stride length showed no change over the WBV period. The improvements shown by group WBV/placebo from the first six weeks of WBV were maintained during the six week placebo (detraining) period. In summary, WBV was an effective intervention for enhancing the walking speed of community dwelling elderly female gait. This form of exercise may have positive outcomes on the daily function of elderly females, which in turn may improve their quality of life.