Gerontology

Physical activity and physical function in older adults: The 45 and Up Study

by Ric Rosenkranz

Yorston, L.C, Kolt, G.S., & Rosenkranz, R.R. (2012). Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 60:719-725.

Objectives
To determine the strength of the relationship between physical activity and physical function in older... more Objectives
To determine the strength of the relationship between physical activity and physical function in older adults.

Design
Cross-sectional.

Setting
The 45 and Up Study baseline questionnaire, New South Wales, Australia.

Participants
Ninety-one thousand three hundred seventy-five Australian men and women aged 65 and older from the 45 and Up Study.

Measurements
Physical activity engagement (Active Australia Survey), physical function (Medical Outcomes Study Physical Functioning), psychological distress (Kessler-10), and self-reported age, smoking history, education, height, and weight were all measured.

Results
Higher levels of physical activity were associated with better physical function in older adults (correlation coefficient = 0.166, P < .001). Participants engaging in higher levels of physical activity had progressively lower likelihoods of functional limitation (middle tertile: odds ratio (OR) = 0.39, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.38–0.41; highest tertile: OR = 0.28, 95% CI = 0.27–0.29). This relationship remained significant, but weakened slightly, when adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, smoking history, psychological distress, and educational attainment (middle tertile: adjusted OR (AOR) = 0.48, 95% CI = 0.46–0.50; highest tertile: AOR = 0.36, 95% CI = 0.34–0.37).

Conclusion
There is a significant, positive relationship between physical activity and physical function in older adults, with older adults who are more physically active being less likely to experience functional limitation than their more-sedentary counterparts. Level of engagement in physical activity is an important predictor of physical function in older adults.

Personality traits and perceived social support among depressed older adults

by Alexis Franzese

Physical Activity and Functional Limitations in Older Adults: The Influence of Self-Efficacy and Functional Performance

by Sean Mullen

Aging and Wisdom: Culture Matters

by Igor Grossmann

Co-authored with Karasawa, M., Izumi, S., Na, J., Varnum, M. E. W., Kitayama, S., & Nisbett, R. E., published in 'Psychological Science', in press

Research indicates that cultures differ in the ways they approach social conflicts, with Japanese being more motivated... more Research indicates that cultures differ in the ways they approach social conflicts, with Japanese being more motivated to maintain interpersonal harmony and avoid conflicts than Americans. Such cultural differences have developmental consequences for reasoning about social conflict. We interviewed random samples of Americans from the Midwest in the U.S. and Japanese from the larger Tokyo area about the future developments of intergroup and interpersonal conflicts. Responses showed increased wisdom (e.g. recognition of multiple perspectives, compromise, and the limits of knowledge) with increasing age among Americans, but older age was not associated with wiser responses among Japanese. Younger and middle-aged Japanese showed greater use of wise reasoning strategies than younger and middle-aged Americans. This cultural difference was weaker for older participants for interpersonal conflicts and was actually reversed for intergroup conflicts. Implications of this research for the study of aging, cultural psychology, and wisdom are discussed.

Do Older Adults Show Less Confidence In Their Monitoring of Learning?

by Michael Serra

Tanztherapie in der Gerontopsychiatrischen Tagesklinik bei Patienten mit Angststörungen [Dance therapy in the geronopsychiatric day clinic with patients suffering from anxiety disorder]

by Iris Bräuninger

Bräuninger, I. (2000). Tanztherapie in der Gerontopsychiatrischen Tagesklinik bei Patienten mit Angststörungen [Dance therapy in the geronopsychiatric day clinic with patients suffering from anxiety disorder]. In C. Kretschmar, R. D. Hirsch, M. Haupt, R. Ihl, R. Kortus, G. Stoppe, & C. Wächter, C. (Eds.), Angst-Sucht-Anpassungsstörungen im Alter. Schriftenreihe der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Gerontopsychiatrie und –psychotherapie, DGGPP, Band 1 (pp. 202-206). Düsseldorf, Germany: Die Deutsche Bibliothek–CIP Einheitsaufnahme.

Physical activity, function, and quality of life: Design and methods of the< i> FlexToBa™</i> trial

by Sean Mullen

Caregivers’ retirement congruency: A case for caregiver support

by Áine Humble

Humble, A. M., Keefe, J. M., & Auton, G. M. (2012). Caregivers’ retirement congruency: A case for caregiver support. The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 74(2), 113-142. doi:10.2190/AG.74.2.b

Using the concept of retirement congruency (RC), which takes into account greater variation in retirement decisions... more Using the concept of retirement congruency (RC), which takes into account greater variation in retirement decisions (low, moderate, or high RC) than a dichotomous conceptualization (forced versus chosen), multinomial logistic regression was conducted on a sample of caregivers from the 2002 Canadian General Social Survey who were retired from employment (n = 700). Different variables increased the risk of having low and moderate RC, when both were compared to high RC. Factors predicting low RC (versus moderate RC), were similar but not identical to those predicting low RC (versus high RC). Retiring for health reasons and job problems were significant in all three comparisons. Retiring to give care only increased the probability of having moderate RC, compared to high RC, indicating that many employed caregivers who voluntarily retired because of caregiving responsibilities still expressed a desire to have remained in the labor force. Results raise questions about which policy domain—income security or labor—is most appropriate within this context.

Fivearts Cities: an evaluative report on the impact on over 50s people of participation in activities related to British Art Show 6

by Chris Whitehead

co-authored with A. Newman, commissioned by BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, 2006

This report presents research funded by Channel 5 and the Arts Council of England as part of the Five Arts Cities... more This report presents research funded by Channel 5 and the Arts Council of England as part of the Five Arts Cities initiative. It evaluates the impact on over 50s people of participation in activities related to British Art Show 6 including artists' talks and artist-led creative workshops. The report uses critical frameworks related to cultural capital, identity theory and the analytic philosophy of art.

Falls prevention for older people: vitamin D, calcium or both? . Kotecha, J., Leung, L.

by Lawrence Leung

Asia J Gerontol Geriatr. 6:107-9 (2011)

Falls and fall-related fractures increase with age and affect skeletal and muscle health negatively. Insufficient... more Falls and fall-related fractures increase with age and affect skeletal and muscle health negatively. Insufficient vitamin D and calcium intake is a contributing factor to fall-related fractures in older people (aged ≥65 years). The use of vitamin D and calcium supplements by the general public has increased, especially among older people in nursing homes, under long-term care, or with prolonged hospitalisation. However, there is controversy
regarding the actual clinical benefits of taking vitamin D with and without calcium. This article reviews the current evidence on the use of vitamin D supplements with and without calcium in older
people, as a means of reducing falls and related fractures.

Aging. Social biological and psychological dimensions

by Aleksander Kobylarek

Independence at Risk: Older Californians with Disabilities Struggle to Remain at Home as Public Supports Shrink

by Anne Soon Choi

Psychometric properties of the extended Care Dependency Scale for older persons in Egypt

by Ahmed Mohammedin

Psychological distress as a key component of psychosocial functioning in community-dwelling older people

by Rebecca Schnittger

Psychometric properties and health correlates of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory in Australian community-residing older women

by Nancy Pachana

Objective: To assess the psychometric properties and health correlates of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI) in a... more Objective: To assess the psychometric properties and health correlates of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI) in a cohort of Australian community-residing older women.
Method: Cross-sectional study of a population-based cohort of women aged 60 years and over (N ¼ 286).
Results: The GAI exhibited sound internal consistency and demonstrated good concurrent validity against the state half of the Spielberger State Trait Anxiety Inventory and the neuroticism domain of the NEO five-factor inventory. GAI score was significantly associated with self-reported sleep difficulties and perceived memory impairment, but not with age or cognitive function. Women with current DSM-IV Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) had significantly higher GAI scores than women without such a history. In this cohort, the optimal cut-point to detect current GAD was 8/9. Although the GAI was designed to have few somatic items, women with a greater number of general medical problems or who rated their general health as worse had higher GAI scores.
Conclusion: The GAI is a new scale designed specifically to measure anxiety in older people. In this Australian cohort of older women, the instrument had sound psychometric properties.

Coupling and irregularity in the aging motor system: tremor and movement

by S. Lee Hong

Improving older drivers' hazard perception ability.

by Nancy Pachana

One reason that older drivers may have elevated crash risk is because they anticipate hazardous situations less well... more One reason that older drivers may have elevated crash risk is because they anticipate hazardous situations less well than middle-aged drivers. Hazard perception ability has been found to be amenable to training in young drivers. This article reports an experiment in which video-based hazard perception training was given to drivers who were between the ages of 65 and 94 years. Trained participants were significantly faster at anticipating traffic hazards compared with an untrained control group, and this benefit was present even after the authors controlled for pretraining ability. If future research shows these effects to be robust, the implications for driver training and safety are significant.

Attitudes, knowledge, and interest: preparing university students to work in an aging world

by Nancy Pachana

Background: The underlying goals of the present study were (i) to assess knowledge of and attitudes towards aging in a... more Background: The underlying goals of the present study were (i) to assess knowledge of and attitudes towards aging in a sample of Portuguese undergraduate students undertaking various degrees in health and welfare subjects, and (ii) to analyze the extent to which knowledge, attitudes and other factors were associated with interest in working with older adults.
Methods: The study was cross-sectional in design. The sample comprised 460 Portuguese undergraduate students enrolled in degrees in nursing, social work, and psychology. They were asked to complete questionnaires and quizzes, which were analyzed using contingency tables and one way analysis of variance for inter-group comparison, and then subjected to multivariate logistic regression analysis.
Results: Significant differences emerged between groups on knowledge, attitudes towards aging and interest in working with older adults, with both nursing and social work students displaying more positive attitudes, knowledge, and interest in working with older adults, when compared with psychology students. A regression analysis indicated that attitudes, knowledge, and previous formal contact were significant predictors of interest.
Conclusion: Interest in working with older adults was significantly related to positive attitudes, more knowledge and formal previous contact. Positive attitudes towards older adults can be promoted through interaction with faculty members and experts, knowledge acquisition about normative changes with age, and contact with healthy and impaired older adults.

Guidelines for the provision of psychological services for older adults

by Nancy Pachana

The practice of psychology covers the range of ages from conception through to the end of life and palliative care.... more The practice of psychology covers the range of ages from conception through to the end of life and palliative care. Psychologists practice in a variety of roles, but the majority of these roles involve interactions with nonprofessionals of varying ages. These interactions are governed by codes of ethical practice, whether these are developed by the funding bodies for research activities, professional associations, or regulatory bodies. Ethical codes vary in their format and emphasis, but all have the protection of the public as a major purpose. Often there are special provisions in these codes for particular populations or circumstances. Here we describe the development of ethical guidelines for the practice of psychology with older adults in Australia and report on those guidelines and their supporting literature.

Geropsychology content in clinical training programs: a comparison of Australian, Canadian and US data

by Nancy Pachana

Background: There is a worldwide shortage of mental health professionals trained in the provision of mental health... more Background: There is a worldwide shortage of mental health professionals trained in the provision of mental health services to older adults. This shortage in many countries is most acutely felt in the discipline of psychology. Examining training programs in clinical psychology with respect to training content may shed light on ways to increase interest among students and improve practical experiences in working with older adults.
Methods: A large multinational survey of geropsychology content in university-based clinical and counselling psychology training programs was conducted in 2007 in the U.S.A., Australia, and Canada. Both clinical/counseling programs and internship/practicum placements were surveyed as to staffing, didactic content and training opportunities with respect to geropsychology.
Results: Survey response rates varied from 15% in the U.S.A. (n = 46), 70% in Australia (n = 25) to 91.5% in Canada (n = 22). The U.S.A. and Australia reported specialist concentrations in geropsychology within graduate clinical psychology training programs. More assessment and psychopathology courses in the three countries were cited as having ageing content than psychotherapy courses. Many non-specialist programs in all three countries offered course work in geropsychology, and many had staff who specialized in working clinically with an older population. Interest in expanding aging courses and placements was cited by several training sites. Recruiting staff and finding appropriate placement opportunities with older adult populations were cited as barriers to expanding geropsychology offerings.
Conclusions: In light of our results, we conclude with a discussion of innovative means of engaging students with ageing content/populations, and suggestions for overcoming staffing and placement shortcomings.