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ABSTRACT: The present study compared how varying task priorities affected young and older adults' language production. Both young and older adults responded to monetary incentives to vary their performance when simultaneously talking and tracking a pursuit rotor. Tracking performance improved when they were rewarded for tracking and declined when they were rewarded for talking. Both young and older adults also spoke more slowly when rewarded for tracking and more rapidly when rewarded for talking. Young produced less complex sentences when rewarded for tracking and produced more complex sentences when rewarded for talking. However, older adults did not vary their grammatical complexity as a function of monetary incentives. These results are consistent with prior studies suggesting that older adults use a simplified speech register in response to dual-task demands.
Experimental Aging Research 03/2011; 37(2):198-219. · 1.31 Impact Factor
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Donna M Wilson,
Joachim Cohen,
Stephen Birch,
Rod Macleod, Deepthi Mohankumar,
Paul Armstrong,
Katherine Froggatt,
Anneke L Francke,
Gail Low,
Brendan McCormack,
Vivien Hollis,
Allison Williams
Journal of palliative care 01/2011; 27(2):148-56. · 0.93 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Context. Little is known about the number and types of moves made in the last year of life to obtain healthcare and end-of-life support, with older adults more vulnerable to care setting transition issues. Research Objective. Compare care setting transitions across older (65+ years) and younger individuals. Design. Secondary analyses of provincial hospital and ambulatory database data. Every individual who lived in the province for one year prior to death from April 1, 2005 through March 31, 2007 was retained (N = 19, 397). Results. Transitions averaged 3.5, with 3.9 and 3.4 for younger and older persons, respectively. Older persons also had fewer ER and ambulatory visits, fewer procedures performed in the last year of life, but longer inpatient stays (42.7 days versus 36.2 for younger persons). Conclusion. Younger and older persons differ somewhat in the number and type of end-of-life care setting transitions, a matter for continuing research and healthcare policy.
Current Gerontology and Geriatrics Research 01/2011; 2011:101276.
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ABSTRACT: To raise awareness of social isolation, and provide an approach to first conceptualise and then prevent social isolation among older community-dwelling persons.
Older adults comprise a vulnerable population for social isolation and its associated health risks.
Literature review.
Canada's Population Health Promotion Model was chosen as a comprehensive tool to understand and prevent social isolation. Research studies were sought to identify key health determinants and evidence-based options for preventing social isolation.
Around 1 out of 6 older persons are socially isolated and three health determinants are of prime importance: (i) income and social status; (ii) personal health practices and coping skills and (iii) social support networks. Evidence-based interventions targeted to these health determinants are suggested.
Nurses are a key group to advocate for actions needed to prevent social isolation.
Nurses can play a vital role in minimising social isolation through a variety of educational, prevention and political lobbying activities.
International Journal of Older People Nursing 12/2010; 6(4):282-8.
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ABSTRACT: Depression is common among older persons. An experimental study was undertaken to test the impact of a four-week hope program on depressed nursing home residents. Residents aged 65 or older, who met the criteria for this pilot study and agreed to participate, were randomly assigned to (a) an intervention group, and provided with weekday hope interventions mainly involving positive messages and pictures or (b) a modified control group, and provided with a friendly weekday greeting. The structured hope intervention was not proven effective for reducing depression or raising hope. Instead, a significant reduction in depression among the control subjects was found, as well as a nonsignificant increase in their level of hope. Although these findings suggest friendly visitors may be a more efficacious nonpharmacological approach for reducing depression, further investigations are needed to confirm this and to explore the impact of other hope interventions.
Nursing research and practice. 01/2010; 2010:676351.
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ABSTRACT: A digital pursuit rotor task was used to measure dual task costs of language production by young and older adults. After training on the pursuit rotor, participants were asked to track the moving target while providing a language sample. When simultaneously engaged, young adults experienced greater dual task costs to tracking, fluency, and grammatical complexity than older adults. Older adults were able to preserve their tracking performance by speaking more slowly. Individual differences in working memory, processing speed, and Stroop interference affected vulnerability to dual task costs. These results demonstrate the utility of using a digital pursuit rotor to study the effects of aging and dual task demands on language production and confirm prior findings that young and older adults use different strategies to accommodate to dual task demands.
Aging Neuropsychology and Cognition 12/2008; 16(3):241-59. · 1.07 Impact Factor
