Search

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of background, psychological, and social variables on older adults' well-being, and how this may differ for men and women. Participants included 800 adults from the 2002 Health and Retirement Study (HRS), aged 60 to 101 years old (M = 71.22, SD = 8.46), who completed the optional positive well-being module. Gender-based regression models revealed that for men, marital status, self-rated health, and depression were significant predictors and accounted for 32% of the variability in positive well-being. Similar to men, self-rated health and depression were significant predictors of well-being for women. Additional significant predictors for women included age, the importance of religion, and volunteer work. Combined, these variables explained 35% of the variance in women's positive well-being. These results can help us understand which variables are important to target when developing interventions to improve the well-being of older men and women. doi: 10.2190/AG.70.3.a

The purpose of the study was to explore unique experiences and challenges for older men in assisted living (AL) communities. Although evidence suggests that men may socialize differently from women, little is known about how social engagement is experienced by men in long-term care settings. A sequential mixed methods design was used in that a quantitative study (N = 82; men = 21) was followed by qualitative in-depth interviews (N = 29; men = 9). Participants were selected from eight AL communities in a Southern state. Results indicate that men's social worlds are limited and AL practices do not favor men's preferences. Practice implications in AL communities are discussed. KEYWORDS Assisted living, social engagement, older men, mixed methods Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 52:767-783, 2009 Copyright [C] Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0163-4372 print/1540-4048 online DOI: 10.1080/01634370903285541

The associations between socio-economic position (SEP) and physical functioning have frequently been investigated but little is known about which measures of SEP are the best to use for older people. This study examined how different SEP indicators related to the physical functioning of men aged 50 or more years in England and Greece. The data derived from Wave I of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Self-reported physical functioning limitations and mobility difficulties were combined and categorised into 'no disability', 'mild disability' and 'severe disability'. The SEP indicators studied were: wealth, educational level and occupational class. The findings indicate that respondents with less wealth, fewer educational qualifications and lower occupational class were more likely to experience mild or severe physical disability than those of high SEP. When all three measures of SEP were adjusted for each other, in both samples wealth maintained a strong association with mild and severe disability, while education was associated with severe disability but only among English men. Occupational class was not strongly associated with physical disability in either case. Hence, among English and Greek older men, wealth was a more important predictor of physical functioning difficulties than either occupational class or education. KEY WORDS-physical functioning, older people, wealth, education, occupational class, men, England, Greece.

Objectives. Although social and physical components of leisure activity have proven beneficial to successful aging, the influence of solitary and nonstrenuous activity on subsequent aging is unclear. This study examined reading activity to investigate the relationship of a solitary, nonstrenuous activity on aging and mortality. Methods. A cohort of visually and cognitively intact community-dwelling participants born in 1920 1921, taken from the Jerusalem Longitudinal Study, underwent comprehensive assessment at ages 70 and 78. We collected mortality data spanning 8 years. We dichotomized reading frequency to daily or less and performed data analyses separately by gender. Results. Reading daily was common at both ages 70 (62% of the sample) and 78 (68%) and was associated at baseline with female gender, Western origin, higher socioeconomic and educational statuses, employment, and reduced medications. The hazard ratio for mortality over the 8-year follow-up among men was significantly reduced (hazard ratio = 0.44, 95% confidence interval = 0.23-0.84) after we adjusted for numerous social, medical, and health parameters. Discussion. The findings suggest that leisure activities devoid of social or physical benefits may nonetheless contribute to improved aging, predicting reduced mortality among men. A broader definition of leisure activities may be useful when considering the impact of these activities among older people. Key Words: Reading--Mortality.

Elderly men are an understudied population in the area of abuse and neglect. The typical elder abuse or neglect victim is described as a frail woman. The National Elder Abuse Incidence Study shows men to be victims as well and at higher risk than women for abandonment, the most extreme form of neglect. A qualitative study of older widowed men did not specifically explore issues of abuse and neglect, but found several of the men experiencing alienation from one or more of their adult children. This paper explores the dynamics of these 'fractured relationships' and finds several patterns that may increase an older man's risk of being neglected when his needs for support increase. Many men are not functioning in a kinkeeper role and are not attempting to repair fractured relationships. Minimizing their own feelings may prevent men from understanding the extent of alienation felt by an adult child. doi:10.1300/J084v19n01_06 KEYWORDS. Older widowers, adult children, elder neglect, men's relationships, alienation

Relatively little attention has been paid to later life masculinities. Separate studies were designed to identify the commonly held images of old men and then determine whether or not an old man is perceived as a man or more in terms of a gender-neutral elderly person. The first assessed the commonly held images of positive and negative later life masculinities. A second study examined if old men's gendered character was perceived similarly in comparison to a young man or an old woman. Findings from the studies revealed age expectations and masculinity norms jointly affected people's images of old men. Old men were favorably described more often than negatively stereotyped, and there was evidence of distinct late life masculinity expectations. Keywords Old men * Later life masculinities * Stereotypes

We investigate the association between marital status and living situation (over 5 years) on 10-year subsequent cognitive decline. The study population consisted of 1,042 men aged 70-89 years in 1990, who participated in the longitudinal Finland, Italy, the Netherlands Elderly (known as FINE) Study. We measured cognition by using the Mini-Mental State Examination, and we assessed marital status (married vs unmarried) and living situation (living with others vs living alone) with a standardized questionnaire. We performed repeated measurement analyses and made adjustments for age, education, country, smoking, alcohol, chronic diseases, marital status or living situation, and baseline cognition. Men who lost a partner, who were unmarried, who started to live alone, or who lived alone during the 5-year period had at least a two times stronger subsequent cognitive decline compared with men who were married or who lived with someone in those years.

Older men are much less likely to be aware of community services available to them and they are less likely to utilize services generally. This underutilization is affected by tire [...]

Men are reticent to share with others the slow realization that with age they begin to confront a world that they had not expected. They had not expected to grow [...]

All employed workers are required to contribute to the Social Security System; however, a disproportionate percentage of African American males never live long enough to collect any benefits from their [...]

Efforts across many fields engaged in addressing the population of aging in this country have tended to create a nearly homogenous cohort that often does not recognize the heterogeneity of [...]

This paper considers a dimension of social life that has been largely neglected in the research literature on ageing, older men's involvement with informal associations. These affiliations represent an under-valued resource which may contribute to the quality of life of older men by facilitating social interaction and providing a context for continued social productivity. Using the British Household Panel Survey for 1999, we explore the engagement of men aged 65 or more years with civic groups (such as political parties or voluntary agencies), religious organisations, and sports and social clubs. Involvement in civic and religious groups and sports clubs is common among middle class older men, while social club membership is common among working class men. Only a small amount of these differences can be explained by variations in health, income and access to private transport. Compared with partnered older men, widowers are more likely to be involved with sports and social clubs, while men who are divorced or never married are less likely to be a member of any informal group. KEY WORDS--older men, informal organisations, social class, marital status.

Research indicates that fewer people are able to die at home than would wish to do so. Furthermore the ability to die at home is unequally distributed depending on patient characteristics. Unless factors associated with home deaths are identified and interventions are targeted accordingly, further general improvements in care support may only help those already at an advantage. This paper reviews research investigating the relation between patient characteristics and home deaths and considers whether these variables influence place of death because they are associated with differential access to services, focusing on access to palliative home care. Patients with informal caret support were both more likely to die at home and to access palliative home care. Provision of home care did not remove the dependence on informal carets in achieving home death, however. An important target in improving home death rates is therefore better support for informal carets overall. Older patients were both less likely to die at home and to access home care. Once in home care they no longer were less likely to die at home. Although age related needs require consideration, improved access to home care is therefore likely to increase home deaths for older people. Women were less likely to die at home than men, yet younger women may be more likely to access home care. There is some evidence to suggest that men were less efficient as carers, which may help explain why women were less likely to achieve home deaths, while making their referral to home care more likely. While home care may help redress the gender imbalance, men may also need to be encouraged and enabled to take on the caret role. Cancer patients in higher socioeconomic groups were both more likely to die at home and to access home care. Hence home deaths may increase by improving access for lower socioeconomic groups to the services available. Key words - place of death, palliative care, home care, terminal care

Intimacy and its contribution to life satisfaction have not been explored among institutionalized elders. We studied residents of a Veterans Affairs nursing home and assessed cognitive and physical function, life satisfaction, and importance of intimacy. The Folstein Mini-Mental State, Barthel Index, Life Satisfaction Index-Z, and a series of vignettes were used to assess each domain. Vignettes depicted various scenarios (e.g., recent admission to a nursing home, notification of diagnosis of a terminal disease), and asked the subject to rate the importance of intimate social, intellectual, emotional, or physical interactions. Social intimacy was rated as most important, followed by nonsexual physical, intellectual, emotional, and finally, sexual-physical intimacy (social vs. sexual-physical, p = 0.0013). In addition, social (|r.sub.s~ = .299, p = 0.023), nonsexual physical (|r.sub.s~ = .312, p = 0.019), and intellectual (|r.sub.s~ = .382, p = 0.005) intimacy were associated with life satisfaction. Nursing home care providers can enhance resident quality of life through social intellectual, and nonsexual physical interactions even when the underlying medical, physical, or cognitive deficit cannot be ameliorated.