Sixty ethnographic interviews with 15 family caregivers for frail older people living in the community were analyzed to understand the meaning of activity in caregiving. Schön's (1983) reflection-in-action framework was used to organize the data. Three goals of caregiving activity were derived: (a) getting things done, (b) achieving a sense of health and well-being for the care receiver, and (c...

BACKGROUND This mixed-methods study investigated personal, interpersonal, and environmental factors salient to decisions about being active in neighborhoods of different levels of deprivation. METHODS Twenty-five participants age 70 years and older (10 women) with diverse physical activity levels provided data on their weekly activity patterns (using accelerometry) and their perceived barrier...

BACKGROUND Clinical experience suggests that the work characteristics of staff in residential care may influence the well-being of residents with dementia. However, few studies have explored those anecdotal experiences. The aim of this study was to investigate associations between work characteristics of nursing staff and prevalence of behavioral symptoms among people with dementia in residenti...

BACKGROUND Many interventions aim to alleviate well-documented problems of malnutrition in residential care homes and improve residents' health and wellbeing. Despite some positive findings, little is known about how and why mealtime interventions might be effective, and in particular, what effects residents' experiences of mealtimes have on health outcomes. The aim of this study was to gain an...

BACKGROUND Later transitions to adult roles and responsibilities have been linked with better psychological well-being yet psychological distress has risen despite young people making the transition to adulthood at older ages over recent years. METHOD We examine the role of structural constraints and adolescent resources in the relationship between the timing of transitions and psychological ...

OBJECTIVES This study examined the effect of childlessness on psychological well-being in widowhood taking into account the influences of social network variables. METHOD A total of 273 Chinese widowed individuals who were community dwelling formed the sample of this study. Sixteen percent (n = 44) were childless. Social network variables, instrumental activities of daily living, chronic illn...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Lower occupational class correlates with a higher disability risk later in life. However, it is not clear whether the demands made by mental and physical work relative to individual resources in midlife predict well-being in old age. This study investigated prospectively whether work ability in midlife predicts disability severity in activities of everyday living in old age....

BACKGROUND Falling fertility and increasing life expectancy contribute to a growing elderly population in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA); by 2060, persons aged 45 y and older are projected to be 25% of SSA's population, up from 10% in 2010. Aging in SSA is associated with unique challenges because of poverty and inadequate social supports. However, despite its importance for understanding the consequ...

BACKGROUND high levels of social support and engagement may help sustain good health and functional ability. However, the definition of social support in previous research has been inconsistent and findings are mixed. The aim of this analysis was to explore the effect of two aspects of social support on subsequent disability in a group of community dwelling older women and men. METHODS data w...

Given the heterogeneity of autism spectrum disorder, an important limitation of much autism spectrum disorder research is that outcome measures are statistically modeled as separate dependent variables. Often, their multivariate structure is either ignored or treated as a nuisance. This study aims to lift this limitation by applying network analysis to explicate the multivariate pattern of risk...