Search

Life review (LR) therapy has received considerable support as an effective treatment for depression among older adults. Researchers believe that providing LR does not require extensive training and can be done by family members who are not psychiatric professionals. If so, then training family caregivers to provide LR is a potential strategy for alleviating the shortage of resources for treating depression among the growing population of older adults experiencing depression. A pilot study that explored the feasibility of that strategy had mixed results. Seventeen (89%) of 19 caregiver-care recipient dyads completed the current study, and caregivers provided the LR with self-reported fidelity. However, there was lack of statistically significant improvement in this convenience sample. Implications are provided for future assessments of this strategy with a larger study of caregiver and care recipient dyads. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 46(2), 41-48.]., (Copyright 2020, SLACK Incorporated.)

Online blogs about healthy aging written by health care professionals and others are increasing. The purpose of the current study was to analyze a first-person narrative blog about engaging with aging (EWA), with a goal of better understanding the process used to manage daily life and inform healthy aging for older adults. Using a thematic analysis approach, 67 blog posts written by a nonagenarian, retired nursing professor were analyzed. Emergent themes revealed the identification of age-related changes (e.g., physical, cognitive, functional, social, societal, psychological), characteristics of the age-related changes process, responses to age-related changes (e.g., feelings, attitudes), approaches and strategies to addressing age-related changes (i.e., the use of internal and external resources), and the outcomes of the approaches. The EWA blog posts help understand the aging experience from the perspective of an older adult, especially functional changes and how they affect daily life, as well as strategies used to adapt to changes. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 45(12), 21-27.]., (Copyright 2019, SLACK Incorporated.)

Single-component interventions for modifiable risk factors to improve cognitive function in older adults have limited impacts. Multi-component interventions may be more effective. The current review describes randomized trials of multi-component interventions, and reports the state of the evidence to protect the cognitive health and reduce the risk of cognitive decline among middle-aged and older adults. Two hundred seventy-nine studies were found through electronic databases, 30 full-text reviews were completed, and six studies were identified for final selection. Findings suggest that a multi-component approach is promising compared to single-component interventions. Most multi-component intervention studies found improvement in at least one domain of cognitive function. However, the quality of multi-component studies was largely fair or poor primarily due to small samples and short trial durations. There is a need for more rigorous studies of multi-component interventions and to refine the knowledge on the specific interventions that optimize prevention domains. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 43(5), 39-48.]., (Copyright 2017, SLACK Incorporated.)