Thesis advisor: Christina Klein / With the recent rise in popularity of Korean media, more audiences than ever before have been exposed to portrayals of Korean women. Most female protagonists in Korean dramas adhere to Confucian gender norms: they are primarily concerned with romance and fail to drive their own narratives. This paper analyzes feminist characters who instead bend or expand conservative gender conventions in order to normalize different lifestyles for all women. In seeking out progressive portrayals, this paper focuses specifically on depictions of unmarried, elderly, and lesbian women in Korean entertainment. By honing in on women who do not fit the mold of traditional or acceptable femininity, this paper argues for more realistic representations of women in modern Korean society. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: English.

Ensamhet är en vanlig upplevelse bland äldre runtom i världen. Det är en subjektiv upplevelse som kan leda till både psykisk och fysisk försämring hos individen. Syftet var att belysa omvårdnadsåtgärder som kan tillämpas i mötet med äldre personer som lider av ofrivillig ensamhet. Metoden som användes var en allmän litteraturstudie med deduktiv ansats. Strukturerade sökningar i tre databaser för omvårdnadsforskning genomfördes. Det resulterade i tio vetenskapliga artiklar som analyserades utifrån strukturen för innehållsanalys. Analysen resulterade i fem kategorier: Medverkan, Stöd, Miljöanpassning, Observation och Samordning. Resultatet visar att medverkan kan främjas genom kommunikation med anhöriga vilket kan underlättas med hjälp av teknologi. Sjukvårdspersonal kan vara ett stöd för äldre personer genom att bygga en relation och ömsesidig tillit. Miljöanpassning kan genom sociala aktiviteter leda till nya kontakter och minskad känsla av ofrivillig ensamhet. Vid observation är riskbedömning är ett viktigt verktyg för att förhindra uppkomsten av andra hälsorelaterade problem. Samordning mellan olika organisationer kan främja den äldre personens oberoende. Konklusionen är att omvårdnadsåtgärder vid ofrivillig ensamhet hos äldre personer behöver individanpassas för att uppnå en så bra effekt som möjligt. / Loneliness is a common experience amongst older people all over the world. It’s a subjective feeling that may lead to mental and physical deterioration. The aim was to highlight nursing interventions when dealing with elderly people who experience involuntary loneliness. The method was a literature study with a deductive approach. Structured searches were made in three databases relevant for nursing research. It resulted in ten scientific articles that were subject to content analysis. The analysis resulted in five categories: Participation, Support, Environmental adaptation, Observation and Coordination. The result shows that participation can be promoted through communication with relatives which can be more accessible with the help of technology. Health care professionals can be a support to elderly persons by building a relationship and mutual trust. Environmental adaptation can enable new contacts through social activities. Observation through risk assessment is an important tool to prevent other health related problems. Coordination between organizations can help the elderly person to be more independent. The conclusion is that nursing interventions related to loneliness in elderly persons must be individualized to achieve the best possible effect.

Researchers have found that digital gaming is beneficial for the cognitive,psychological, and physical health of the elderly people [1][6]. The percentage of theelderly people playing digital games is growing increasingly (and so do thedemographics) and thus the elderly generation form a potential base for a yetinexperienced game market. Nevertheless, the game industry seems to have ignoredthis important layer of the population as a special category of users [3]. Neither thehardware nor the software are designed with the elderlies’ age-related cognitive andphysical impairments.While there is a lot of research on the positive effects of digital games on the elderlies’well-being, the characteristics of the elderly gamers have rarely been explored [1]. Thepurpose of this study is to find out the elderly people’s perceptions and experiences ofplaying games and map the difficulties they experience. Based on the collected dataand facts, a number of important factors to be considered by the designers of gamesfor the elderly people are recommended.Almost 50 individuals between 65 and 90 years of age, living in their homes andenjoying a for their age normal health, have been interviewed by the author. The resultsreveal that a considerably high majority of the respondents show interest in playinggames. Meanwhile, they complain about the complexity of both hardware andsoftware in relation to their age-related cognitive and physical limitations. Most of theelderly individuals say that they need help with both playing games and using thedevices. An important conclusion from the findings of this research is that gamestargeting the elderly users should be designed beyond the general usability issues,considering the possibility of customizing the technologies to individual needs andrequirements, as the health and physical conditions of the elderly people vary greatly.The study concludes that for the elderly population to be motivated and benefit fromdigital games, developers producing the software and hardware, and designersengaged in the design of user interface, need to consider this population as a separatecategory of gamers and offer games meeting age-related needs and requirements.

Bakgrund: Åldrandet innebär naturliga biologiska, sociala och psykologiska förändringar, andelen äldre i samhället beräknas öka och äldre upplever ett lägre socialt deltagande kontra resten av befolkningen. Ensamhet beskrivs som en obehaglig eller oacceptabel avsaknad av relationer och involverar hur en person uppfattar, upplever och utvärderar den avsaknaden. Hälsoproblem och upplevelsen av livskvalitet är knutet till ensamhet. Ingen konsensus om fenomenet ensamhet finns inom vårdvetenskapen. Sjuksköterskan har viktig roll att upptäcka, motverka och förebygga ensamheten, därför behövs mer kunskap om fenomenet. Syfte: Att belysa äldre människors upplevelser av ensamhet. Metod: en litteraturstudie med kvalitativ ansats baserad på tio original artiklar med kvalitativ eller mixed-metod ansats. Resultat: Upplevelserna av ensamhet speglas i de fyra teman som analysen visade: ensamhet relaterat till förlust av relationer, den abstrakta ensamheten, den hanterbara ensamheten och den positiva ensamheten. Slutsats: Ensamheten hos äldre är ett fenomen som involverar hela människans livsvärld och upplevs ha positiva och negativa sidor. Tillgänglighet till relationer samt tankar och känslor kring dessa har en central betydelse i upplevelsen av ensamhet. Ensamheten sågs som hanterbar och förutsägbar, men samtidigt som någonting stigmatiserat som upplevdes svårt att prata om. Den positiva ensamheten sågs som självvald. I denna kunde tid för reflektion och eftertanke ges och människor kunde uppleva relationer till sig själv eller abstrakta ting. / Background: Aging involves natural biological, social and psychological changes, the amount of elderly people in society is expected to rise and elderly people experience a lower amount of social participation than the rest of the population. Loneliness is described as an unpleasant or inadmissible lack of relationships and involves how a person perceives, experiences and evaluates this lack of relationships. Health problems and perceived quality of life are tied to loneliness. Consensus on the phenomenon of loneliness does not exist in the nursing sciences. The nurse plays an important role in detecting, deterring and preventing loneliness; therefore more knowledge of the phenomenon is needed. Aim: To illuminate the lived experience of elderly people. Method: A literature review with a qualitative approach based on ten original articles with either a qualitative or mixed-method approach. Results: Four themes emerged that illuminate the experience of loneliness in elderly people: Loneliness related to the loss of relationships, the abstract loneliness, the manageable loneliness and the positive loneliness. Conclusion: Loneliness in the elderly is a phenomenon that involves the whole human being and his life world and is seen to contain both positive and negative sides. The availability of relationships along with thoughts and feelings surrounding these are seen to be central in the experience of loneliness. Loneliness was seen as manageable and predictable, but at the same time as stigmatized and was difficult to talk about. The positive loneliness was seen as something chosen. There was time for reflection and thought, and people were able to experience relationships with themselves or abstract things.

This research examined the use of compassionate release policy in response to the fastest-increasing segment of the prison population- elderly offenders. Though this policy is an approach to this problem, there was little available research regarding which correctional organizations in the United States adopt compassionate release and how it is used. The purpose of this nonexperimental comparative quantitative study was to examine the use of the policy in neighboring and distant state correctional systems relative to those organizations that used the policy more frequently to determine if the leader-laggard theory of policy diffusion was an effective policy-implementation framework. The research questions were structured to determine if there was a significant difference between the use of compassionate release policy in state and federal prisons and if there was a significantly higher concentration of policy use in states directly neighboring those where the policy was used more-frequently. Data were collected from 31 state and federal correctional agencies' publicly-available records regarding compassionate release policy use. Data were analyzed using a test of differences for the first research question and independent-samples t-tests for the second research question. The results suggested that there was significantly higher use of the policy by state correctional organizations compared to the federal prison system and that there were not significant differences in policy use between neighboring and distant states of high-use policy areas. Implications for positive social change include informing prisons about processes that may assist in reducing organizational costs and increase safety of elderly offenders, correctional workers, stakeholders, and community members/taxpayers.

Depression in the elderly population is a growing concern in the United States. A decrease in depression in the elderly could lead to greater quality of life and reduced cost of healthcare services. The Sense of Coherence Theory was utilized as the theoretical foundation for this study. The purpose of this study was to use archival data to analyze differences in depression scores by groups based on prayer (yes/no) and over time (wave 1/wave 2 of data collection) when controlling for amount of time spent in prayer by category, gender, and ethnicity. The data were retrieved from the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging, which included interviews with adults aged 65 and over living in the coterminous United States. The first wave was collected in 2001 and consisted of 1,500 interviews. Wave 2 was collected in 2004 and consisted of 1,024 of the original participants. A mixed ANOVA was used to analyze the data. Results showed that change in depression over time differed depending on use of prayer after controlling for frequency of prayer. Comparisons of the 2 waves in the sample revealed that depression significantly decreased for people who prayed but not for people who did not pray. Implementing prayer as a supplemental form of treatment for depression may alter the way that some clinicians and providers conduct mental health treatment, reduce the emotional burden on families who are often the caretakers of the elderly, and become a cost-effective method of reducing depressive symptoms.

The population of Americans over age 65 is expected to increase from a reported 12 percent in 1988 to 22 percent by the year 2030. Nutrition screening and intervention can help combat the rising need for health care and other services among the elderly by preventing or delaying disability and dependency. This study was designed to determine the degree of nutritional risk present within the elderly population in rural and urban areas in the state of Utah by conducting an initial nutrition screening using the Determine Your Nutritional Health checklist developed by the Nutrition Screening Initiative. Congregate meal sites were stratified according to urbanization and fifteen centers were selected from both rural and urban counties. Congregate meal participants present at the site completed a Determine Your Nutritional Health checklist and survey asking additional demographic data including age, sex, marital status, living situation, frequency of participation in congregate meals, and if they had previously used the checklist. A total of 838 valid surveys was collected from 29 congregate meal sites throughout the state of Utah. Fifty-seven percent of participants scored in the "good nutritional health" category, 27.7 percent were at moderate nutrition risk, and 15.4 percent scored in the high nutrition risk category. Nutrition risk category was significantly associated with gender, marital status, and cohabitation status. Women, unmarrieds, and individuals living alone scored more frequently in a higher nutrition risk category. Results of this study reflect influences on nutrition risk found in a sample of congregate meal participants in the state of Utah. These results can help the state of Utah identify the common risk factors within this segment of its population, i.e. gender, marital status, cohabitation status, acute/chronic disease, eating alone, and polypharmacy, to plan education and/or intervention for individuals who are at risk.

There has been insufficient data available for suggesting a recommended dietary allowance for pantothenic acid in the elderly population. The purpose of this study was to determine the average dietary intake of pantothenic acid and correlate it with urinary excretions and the blood levels of this vitamin to assess the pantothenic acid status of the elderly population. A seven day diet record was obtained from 65 non-institutionalized and 26 institutionalized persons over 65 years of age assessed to be free of chronic diseases. A 24 hour urine specimen and a fasting blood sample was obtained from each study participant. An average of the seven day diet record was calculated to obtain the amount of pantothenic acid consumed per day. The averaged value calculated for dietary in-take was correlated with urinary excretion and blood levels of the vitamin. The amount of pantothenic acid ingested from vitamin supplements was also calculated. The total amount of pantothenic acid (dietary and vitamin sources) was correlated with urinary excretion levels and blood levels of the vitamin. The average dietary intake of pantothenic acid for the elderly population studied was 5.9 ± 1.4 mg/day. The average total intake of pantothenic acid (dietary and vitamin sources) was 10.3 ± 13.8 mg/day. The dietary intake of pantothenic acid ranged from 2.5 - 9.5 mg/day and the intake of pantothenic acid from vitamin plus dietary sources ranged from 2.5 - 122.4 mg/day. there was a low to moderate correlation between the intake of pantothenic acid and the urinary excretion of the vitamin and a low to moderate correlation between the intake levels and blood levels of pantothenic acid.

Bakgrund: Sveriges befolkning blir allt äldre. Det är en stor heterogen grupp i behov av vårdinsatser och ett antal äldre bor idag på särskilda boenden. Det är vanligt förekommande med fysisk och psykisk ohälsa, ensamhet samt bristande social interaktion på särskilda boenden för äldre. Det har tidigare visats att införandet av hundar inom vården kan minska fysisk och psykisk ohälsa samt öka motivation till deltagande i fysioterapi. Syfte: Undersöka och sammanställa vad vetenskaplig littereratur visar angående fysiska, psykiska och sociala hälsoeffekter hos äldre på särskilda boenden vid regelbunden interaktion med vårdhund. Metod: Litteratursökningen genomfördes via databasen PubMed och åtta vetenskapliga artiklar inkluderades. Artiklarna granskades via PEDro-skalan i syfte att skatta studiekvaliteten. Evidensstyrkan betygsattes sedan via SBU:s metod GRADE. Resultat: Begränsad evidens har visat sig för effektmåtten depression, apati, ångest, aggression, livskvalité, emotioner och ensamhet. Det har visat sig att djurassisterad terapi med hund har otillräckligt vetenskapligt underlag för effektmåtten energiåtgång, fysisk aktivitet, ADL, vikt, BMI, kognition och social interaktion. Konklusion: Resultatet från denna litteraturstudie visar varierande evidens för djurassisterad terapi med hund. Studien påvisar att djurassisterad terapi med hund kan ha positiv effekt på vissa effektmått hos äldre personer på särskilda boenden. Evidensen är som starkast för psykiska effektmått. Vidare forskning med större väl genomförda studier är relevant för att fortsatt kunna utvärdera effekterna av djurassisterad terapi med hund. / Background: The population of Sweden is getting older. It is a big and heterogeneous group in need of health care and a number of older people are living in a nursing home. It is common with physical and mental disorders, loneliness and lack of social interaction in nursing homes. It is shown that animal assisted therapy with dogs can reduce physical and mental illness and motivate older people to participate in physiotherapy. Objective: Examine and compile evidence of animal assisted therapy with dogs on physical, mental och social function in elderly living in a nursing home. Methods: The search was done in the PubMed database and eight articles became included. The articles were assessed for study quality confirmed by the PEDro scale. The evidence from the articles were assessed confirmed by the SBU GRADE. Results: Limited evidence was shown for that animal asssisted therapy with dogs can improve symptoms of depression, apathy, anxiety, agitation, quality of life, emotions and loneliness. Insufficent evidence was found for energy expenditure, physical activity, ADL, weight, BMI, cognition and social interaction. Conclusions: Results show varying evidence for animal assisted therapy with dogs. This study shows that animal assisted therapy with dogs can improve some limited effects in the population of older people at nursing homes, especially for mental health effects. More well made research with larger groups is indicated to ensure and value these effects.

Abstract: Determine the level of concordance between the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Short Portable Mental State Examination (SPMSQ), and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) screening test for cognitive impairment in older adults. A cross-sectional study based on an original cohort study. 1683 patients over 60 years-old were included between 2010 and 2015. Demographic information was collected and the MMSE, MoCA, and SPMSQ scores were obtained. Categorical variables were presented as frequencies and percentages, while numerical ones as median and interquartile range. The agreement was measured and adjusted by the number of years of education by Cohen’s Kappa index (k) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). The agreement was considered as good if k > 0.80. MMSE classified 43.32% of the patients as having cognitive impairment, MoCA 43.14%, and SPMSQ 24.84%. MMSE and MoCA showed an agreement (k) of 0.99 with a 95% CI of 0.99–1.00; MoCA and SPMSQ showed a k of 0.43 (95% CI: 0.38–0.46). Finally, MMSE and SPMSQ showed a k of 0.42 (95% CI: 0.37–0.46). The results did not change when performing the analysis by education subgroups. There was a strong concordance between MoCA and MMSE tests. Nevertheless, the SPMSQ was discordant with the other tests. / Revisión por pares