Ageing & Society最新文献

Loneliness and social isolation among older adults are emerging public health concerns. Older adults from ethnic minority communities or with immigration backgrounds may be particularly vulnerable when encountering loneliness and social isolation due to the double jeopardy of their old age and minority status. The goal of this study is to conduct a scoping review of published journal articles on ethnic minority/immigrant older adults' loneliness and social isolation experiences to show the extent, range and nature of empirical studies in this area across several high-income countries (i.e. European countries, United States of America (USA), Canada, Australia and New Zealand). This review uses Arksey and O'Malley's five-state framework, a well-established scoping review method. We identify and analyse 76 articles published between 1983 and 2021. This evidence base is largely US-focused (54%) with the vast majority (76%) having a quantitative design. We summarise and map factors of loneliness and social isolation into a multi-dimensional socio-ecological model. By doing so, we show how ethnicity/immigration-specific factors and general factors intersect in multiple dimensions across places and time, shaping ethnic minority/immigrant older adults' heterogeneous experiences of loneliness and social isolation. Several critical gaps that should be at the forefront of future research are highlighted and discussed.

Few previous studies have investigated how socioeconomic differences in labour market exit have changed after restrictions in social insurance policies. The aim of this register-based study is to investigate how early labour market exit pathways among older men and women with different levels of education changed after major restrictive social insurance and retirement policy reforms in Sweden. Cohort 1 (pre-reform) consisted of individuals who were 60 or 61 years old in 2005 (N = 186,145) and Cohort 2 (post-reform) consisted of individuals who were 60 or 61 years old in 2012 (N = 176,216). Educational differences in four labour market exit pathways were investigated using Cox proportional hazards regression; the exit pathways were disability pension, early old-age pension with and without income respectively, and no income for two consecutive years. As expected, exits through disability pension were rarer in Cohort 2. Lower education was also more strongly associated with disability pension in Cohort 2. Parallel to this, lower education showed a stronger association with both early old-age pension types in Cohort 2. Additionally, a tendency towards a relatively higher likelihood of earning no income was seen among the less educated. Increases in inequalities tended to be greater for women. Our results indicate that educational inequalities in labour market exit have grown significantly after restrictions in social insurance and changes in retirement policies, which can have negative financial repercussions for those already in a vulnerable position. These results indicate that careful analyses of effects on disparities are needed before making major changes in welfare systems.

Social engagement is considered a relevant modifiable factor for older adults' wellbeing. Theory and policies highlight its importance for ageing well. Empirical evidence shows that social activities are associated with positive psychological outcomes and might buffer wellbeing declines in late life. Despite growing research, social engagement lacks conceptual clarity, it is difficult to adopt standardised measures and findings are sometimes inconsistent. Previous systematic reviews either take a different approach to this topic or were published over a decade ago. Therefore, the present study aimed to review the literature systematically regarding the relationship between social engagement and wellbeing in community-dwelling older adults. Papers published from 2000 to 2021 were searched in five databases using a combination of terms. The reviewers screened the records according to predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. After identifying eligible articles, the authors extracted data and produced a narrative synthesis covering conceptualisation, measurement and main findings. The review includes 42 papers. Despite great conceptual and methodological diversity, research supports that older adults with higher participation in social activities have improved wellbeing. Findings also suggest that these associations are stronger for individuals with disadvantages and have a cumulative nature whereby the greater the social engagement, the higher the wellbeing. Conversely, for more demanding activities, there might be optimal participation levels. Regardless of accumulating knowledge, social engagement remains diffuse and difficult to measure. This paper summarises the current state of research on this topic, showing encouraging evidence of social engagement benefits, but also questions that deserve further inquiry. Future studies should be anchored in a clear conceptual framework, use robust measures, and explore hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing. Social engagement can be an important developmental resource for social interventions and policies aimed at improving people's lives.

The aim of this article is to critically review the scientific literature about the changes in travel behaviour and mobility amongst older adults caused by the COVID-19 pandemic across various countries, identify unmet travel needs and highlight patterns of inequalities in older adults' mobility. We have collected articles from four academic databases: PubMed, Scopus, Transportation Research International Documentation (TRID) and Web of Science. Papers were considered for inclusion if they were published online in 2020 or later, written in English, and referred to urban or rural changes in travel behaviour and mobility of older adults over 50 years old. We examined the pre-existing models developed before the outbreak and classified the articles based on Musselwhite and Haddad's hierarchy of older adults' travel needs. The synthesis of the selected 25 articles shows a general decline in literal mobility amongst older adults, an increased share of virtual travel and their decreased capacity to fulfil different levels of travel needs. Findings also indicate an increased gap in older adults' mobility across geographical regions with various levels of transport infrastructure and digital capital. We conclude the paper with the lessons learned, the opportunities ahead, and the challenges that must be overcome to achieve sustainable development and the United Nations Decades of Healthy Ageing goals in the post-pandemic world.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the media provided daily coverage of this unprecedented crisis in the history of the 21st century. Some topics, such as how the virus affected older adults, were widely covered. The way in which COVID-19 was documented evoked a ‘tragedy’ narrative through consistent reporting about the suffering it was causing and the deleterious consequences it had on specific populations, including residents of long-term care homes (LTC). This article explores how reports on COVID-19 in LTC homes in a national newspaper (The Globe and Mail) fuelled a tragedy discourse that modulated the value of life of older adults living in those environments. We used critical discourse analysis and analysed 74 articles focusing on older persons residing in LTC homes in two Canadian provinces (Quebec and Ontario) during COVID-19. This article offers a brief overview of the notion of tragedy and how the discourse of tragedy is intertwined with humanitarian crises, life and death, and the value of life. Our findings revealed the construction of three types of tragedies that shape our societal values around life and death in LTC: the tragedy of the threat to life, the tragedy of the unfortunate (old, vulnerable and lacking in agency) and, finally, the tragedy of historical neglect and abandonment. Our findings suggest that the nature of reporting on life and death in LTC homes during the COVID-19 pandemic provoked a sense of fear and pity for a passive other. Re-thinking what gets reported in the media, including whose voice is represented/missing and how tragedy narratives are balanced with contesting stories, could elicit more sentiments of solidarity and action rather than reinforce pity, distancing and immobilisation.

Limited studies have evaluated the impact of recreation on successful ageing (SA) for individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) in a longitudinal manner. Most existing SA models emphasise biomedical-based dimensions of physical functioning, which has been criticised as unrealistic and limited, especially for people with disabilities. Various researchers and organisations have proposed that SA needs to be reassessed using more self-perceived, self-reported measurements. Understanding long-term life satisfaction predictors for individuals ageing with SCI is still limited, particularly when including longitudinal recreation participation data. This study, based on Rowe and Kahn's SA model and utilising self-reported measurements, observes the long-term changes in self-reported health status, recreation participation time and social integration levels, and evaluates the long-term impacts of these predictors on life satisfaction among individuals with SCI. The sample comprises individuals with SCI (N = 11,450) who are at least 45 years old at the time of injury or have lived with their injury for over 15 years. Results indicate that when ageing with SCI, life satisfaction increases over time, but their recreation time, social interactions and self-perceived health status decline. Moreover, regular participation in recreational activities, engagement in and maintenance of certain levels of social relationships, and high self-evaluation of health can positively impact life satisfaction during ageing. The study explores the feasibility of using self-perceived measurements to replace biomedical-based variables in Rowe and Kahn's SA model and examines their impacts on life satisfaction among people ageing with disabilities. In the future development of SA models, researchers can incorporate more self-reported, self-evaluated assessment variables to better capture the ageing experience, especially for people with disabilities.

Although evidence on aspects of individual ageing of LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and/or intersex) people is mounting, there is a poor understanding of the macro aspects of population ageing within the LGBTQI population itself. This paper seeks to address this lacuna through an examination of structural and numerical ageing of the Australian LGBQ population. Drawing upon new data sources, alongside recent advances in demographic modelling, we utilised a modified multi-state cohort-component projection model to produce estimates and projections of the ageing of the Australian LGBQ population from 2016 to 2041. Our results indicate that the LGBQ population is significantly younger than the heterosexual population and is ageing structurally (in relative terms) at a slower rate. However, the LGBQ population is ageing considerably faster numerically (in absolute percentage growth terms) relative to the heterosexual population. We show the LGBQ population aged 65+ is projected to grow between 150 and 170 per cent between 2016 and 2041, under relatively conservative assumptions. This strong numerical ageing counters traditional assumptions about ageing of the LGBQ population and provides data to improve visibility of this population and to ameliorate future planning for health, care and social service provision that is appropriate and well-funded. The methods and materials we develop in this paper provide new opportunities for other countries to improve planning for LGBQ populations similarly.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a chronic, progressive eye condition that can affect individuals in later life and lead to loss of central visual function. In this analysis, we aimed to explore the discursive landscape of talk about AMD, drawing on extracts published in peer-reviewed qualitative studies on AMD. Drawing on procedures of qualitative meta-synthesis, we compiled a corpus of raw data extracts from 25 qualitative studies on AMD published in English, largely carried out in high-income countries. Extracts were analysed to identify dominant discourses and key interpretative repertoires (such as recurring metaphors, tropes and figures of speech). We adopted a Foucauldian discourse analytic approach, to consider the implications of dominant discourses, and their associated subject positions, for the subjective experience of living with AMD. Our analysis identified five distinct ways in which AMD was constructed in research participants' talk about experiences of AMD. They included: AMD as a mysterious affliction, linked to biological ageing; AMD as a total loss of independence; AMD as grievous loss; AMD as a condition to be stoically accepted; and – to a more limited extent – AMD as an opportunity for discovery. Drawing on theory from critical disability studies and gerontology, we suggest that the constructions identified are underpinned by broader societal discourses which construct ageing and disability in largely negative, medicalised and individualistic terms. Taking up subject positions within such discourses may compound feelings of isolation, hopelessness and powerlessness. We suggest there may be value in exploring talk about experiences of living with AMD within a broader range of everyday social, relational and environmental contexts.

In the United Kingdom, people living with dementia admitted to National Health Service (NHS) psychiatric/mental health inpatient dementia assessment wards (dementia assessment wards) are nearly always compulsorily detained under a section of the Mental Health Act 1983 owing to the risk and complexity of the presenting condition. As such, dementia assessment wards admit some of the most vulnerable patients in society, yet these environments of care are under-researched and under-reported in the literature. Using care aesthetics as an overarching explanatory lens, this article focuses on the care of one patient (Charlotte – not her real name) resident on a dementia assessment ward and uses a range of qualitative methods to illuminate that experience, including ethnographic observations and a care record review. To further develop the reach of the case study, interviews were also conducted with Charlotte's husband as her main family carer and key ward staff involved in Charlotte's care. Data were analysed using a sensory and narrative-based method to provide a sequential, embodied, individually positioned and storied account of Charlotte's care and interpreted experience on the ward. The analysis revealed that Charlotte's presentation of dementia was complex insofar as she resisted any attempt by the ward staff to offer her food or drink or to help with washing and dressing. Charlotte also swore frequently and loudly and spent time actively ‘watching’ and ‘looking’ at people and the environment in which she was now living. The findings contribute to the fields of critical dementia studies, dementia education, health-care practice and policy making, and may be used to highlight the value of sensory and embodied approaches to capturing a caring dynamic.

Against the backdrop of demographic change and the pluralisation of living arrangements, the article focuses on repartnering after widowhood, divorce and separation in older age in Germany. While theoretically framing repartnering as a lifecourse transition, the question arises of how later-life relationships form in relation to gender- and ageing-specific as well as structural and processual dimensions. Since previous research indicates that there are gender-specific patterns when repartnering in older age which differ from repartnering in middle age, the article explicitly accounts for gendered ageing and attitudes towards ageing. Using data from the German Ageing Survey (1996–2017), longitudinal hybrid panel regressions are modelled for 3,653 respondents, 11,628 observations and 179 new relationships. I propose to understand within-effects as processual and between-effects as structural dimensions of repartnering. The results for the structural dimensions show that the likelihood of repartnering is higher for men and for individuals with more negative attitudes towards ageing. The results for the processual dimensions show how repartnering becomes less likely the older one gets and the more positive one's attitudes towards ageing become. The interaction term for gender and ageing shows that ageing has a stronger influence on the likelihood to repartner for women than for men. Additionally, the findings reveal a difference between forms of singlehood: in the short term, repartnering is less likely for divorced or separated individuals than for widowed individuals, whereas the opposite effect shows in the long term. In sensitising the lifecourse perspective with gender- and ageing-specific concepts and analytically separating processual and structural dimensions, this article demonstrates the importance of gendered ageing and of the linkage between relationship transitions. Applying hybrid panel models to lifecourse transitions in older age reveals the processual dynamic and structural embeddedness of repartnering in older age.