published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / abstract / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Master / Master of Public Health

published_or_final_version / Medical Sciences / Master / Master of Medical Sciences

published_or_final_version / Medicine / Master / Master of Medical Sciences

published_or_final_version / abstract / Clinical Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Bakgrund och problemformulering: Tidigare forskning visar att 32 procent av Sveriges befolkning bor ensamma och många utav dem är äldre personer. Det är inte bara äldre som bor ensamma som upplever ensamhet utan även de som bor på boenden och har personer runt sig. Studien kommer beskriva hur en ensam äldre person kan bemötas på bästa sätt samt hur upplevelsen av ensamheten påverkas om den är självvald eller påtvingad. Syfte: att beskriva äldres upplevelse av ensamhet. Metod: En litteraturstudie har gjorts enligt Axelssons modell (2012), där kvalitativa artiklar har analyserats och sammanställts till fyra teman: ensamhetsfaktorer, att bli gammal, ensamhetens konsekvenser och att hantera ensamhet. Artiklarnas inklusionskriterier var att de handlade om personer äldre än 65 år. Artiklarna skulle inte vara äldre än sex år och bygga på kvalitativa studier. Resultat: Upplevelsen av ensamhet kan uppstå på olika sätt, den blir mest påtaglig vid förlusten av en partner. Att gå i pension har en betydande roll och kan orsaka att en persons livsrytm rubbas, ensamheten kan även uppstå när kroppen inte fungerar som den gjort innan. Ensamheten är något som varje individ upplever olika och därmed kan den uppfattas som både positiv och negativ. Det framkommer att sociala relationer har en positiv inverkan på ensamheten. Diskussion: Forskning har visat att åldern inte har en betydelse för upplevelsen av ensamhet. Upplevelsen bland yngre människor är relativt lika som hos äldre. Likaså verkar upplevelsen i olika delar av världen vara densamma. Genom vårdande samtal samt uppmuntran att aktivera sig kan ensamheten förhindras.

Culture, education and of other forms of acquired capacities act on individual differences in skill to shape how individuals perform cognitive tasks such as attentional and executive control. Of interest, the use of more than one language (bilingualism) also appears to be a factor that shapes individual performance on tests of cognitive functioning. Indeed, researchers have shown that a bilingual can have better attention and executive control capacities than monolingual speakers and this is argued to be due the ability to inhibit one language while using another. Beyond behavioral differences, bilingualism seems to affect brain structure as well. Recent evidence also shows bilinguals develop more gray matter in crucial brain areas responsible for executive control, hence, providing a neurological basis for why bilinguals outperform monolinguals on many attentional control tasks. It has been postulated that this cognitive advantage offers protection to bilinguals against cognitive decline in aging. Bilingualism affords a cognitive reserve in the form of a set of skills that allows some people to cope with cognitive decline such as mild cognitive decline or Alzheimer's disease better than others. The primary aim of the studies here performed was to investigate if and how the bilingual brain becomes more resistant to cognitive decline. Three combined comparative behavioral and structural neuroimaging studies were carried out in bilingual and monolingual seniors. The overall results show a rather interesting pattern of findings that may be summarized as follows: if well matched for demographic and behavioral variables such as age, socio-economic status, education, and global cognitive functioning, bilinguals have generally increased gray matter densities as compared to monolinguals in those brain areas that are known to be more affected by physiological aging such as the orbitofrontal cortex, the temporal poles and parietal lobules, and in areas involved in cognitive control such as the prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex. Increased gray matter in these latter areas also correlates with the superior performance of bilinguals on executive control tasks. Interestingly, in order to keep such a neural benefit (i.e. increased gray matter density) the degree of proficiency of the second language has to be relatively high and bilinguals have to be constantly exposed to their second language. Finally, specifically for the aging population, age of second language acquisition has no major role in determining putative neural differences. Any putative neural differences between bilingual speakers are determined by factors such as the degree of proficiency and exposure to a second language. In conclusion, as thoroughly investigated here, bilingualism represents a neural reserve for healthy aging. However, the benefits are most prominent when second language proficiency and exposure are kept high. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy