scholarly journals Gerotranscendence and Alaska Native Successful Aging in the Aleutian Pribilof Islands, Alaska

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-67
Author(s):  
Erik S. Wortman ◽  
Jordan P. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Psychosocial Development ◽  
Alaska Native ◽  
Personal Growth ◽  
Successful Aging ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
The United States ◽  
Emotional Wellbeing ◽  
Theories Of Aging ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
Pribilof Islands

AbstractThe population of the United States is aging and by 2045 it is projected that approximately 1 in every 6 Alaskans will be 65+. Delivering healthcare and meeting the needs of older Alaskans in their community is critical to supporting healthy aging and community sustainability. Alaska Native (AN) Elders are underserved with very few studies providing an emic perspective on their experience aging. This research opens the door and allows us a glimpse of the AN Elder experience of aging: the values, beliefs, and behaviors that allow them to age well. This study highlights the characteristics and activities of AN Elders in the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands to further develop the model of AN successful aging. There are many theories of aging and this study explores a cross-cultural understanding of gerotranscendence - the personal and interpersonal changes that result from successful aging or achieving Eldership. This study interviewed Elders in two communities of the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands region. Using 22 standardized questions based on the explanatory model, researchers facilitated discussion of what it means to be an Elder and age successfully. Employing thematic analysis, interview transcripts were analyzed for themes to organize the data. Themes were organized into 5 core elements of successful aging with specific emphasis on values, beliefs, and behaviors that were protective and helped them adapt to aging-related changes. Interview content, meaning, and themes support the four elements of the AN model of successful aging developed by Lewis (The Gerontologist, 51(4), 540-549, 2011): Mental and Emotional Wellbeing, Spirituality, Purposefulness and Engagement, and Physical Health. Elders’ stories highlight the importance of reflection, personal growth, and psychosocial development. Elders who more strongly identified with their role in the community described how their perspective had changed and they shared stories that emphasized culture, connection to the land, and enjoyment of daily activities that resulted in increased life satisfaction. Elders provided clear evidence that they experienced aspects of gerotranscendence, which Tornstam (Journal of Aging Studies, 11(2), 143-154, 1997) categorized as the cosmic dimension, the self, and social and personal relationships. Elders adapting to aging-related changes and embracing their role as an Elder provided the greatest evidence of gerotranscendence - they developed new perspectives on life, took on new roles within the community, and experienced a shift in mindset that reinforced the importance of culture, tradition, and the Native Way of Life. This research allowed AN Elders to share their experiences, define successful aging, and expand the concept of Eldership to include changes in mindset, values, and relationships with themselves and others. The study is a framework to help us better understand the experiences of AN Elders aging successfully and the wisdom they wish to impart to others to help them learn to live healthy and meaningful lives.

scholarly journals Mediating role of resilience between successful aging and acculturation among older Korean immigrants In the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 117-133
Author(s):  
Jaewon Lee
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Acculturative Stress ◽  
Successful Aging ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
The United States ◽  
Korean Immigrants ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Weak Correlation ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Older Korean Immigrants

Background: This study was to investigate how acculturative stress affects older Korean immigrants' successful aging and whether resilience can play a mediator's role to the sample population's successful aging or not. The research design was a cross-sectional survey using three valid and reliable scales such as Successful Aging Scale, Acculturative Stress Scale, and Resilience Scale. A research shows that there is no or minimum correlation between acculturative stress and successful aging (Choi & Thomas, 2009). However, it was hypothesized that although there was a weak correlation between acculturative stress and successful aging, once the resilience involved as a mediator, the correlation would be stronger. Methods: The study was designed as a self-administered survey research using the scales mentioned above. One hundred and two (N=102) older Koreans who currently enrolled in Adult Health Care Centers in Los Angeles, CA, participated in this study. Multiple Regression, Correlation, ANOVA, and t-test was administered to analyze the collected data. Results: The results indicated that there was a positive but weak correlation between acculturative stress and the sample population's successful aging rate (r = .252, p<.05). Interestingly, when resilience intervened as a mediator, the correlation between acculturation and successful aging was increased to (r = .622, p<.05). Therefore, the study discovered that the resilience was able to play a mediator's role between acculturative stress and successful aging among the older Korean immigrants. Implications: The findings can be directed to social work researchers and practitioners to help educate the ethnic older adults in the community on the social and behavioral importance of the positive aspects of aging such as successful aging and healthy aging to increase the chance of community member's longevity. Future research will include other ethnic and immigrant older populations in the community to show internal and external validity of the study related to successful aging, acculturative stress, and resilience.

scholarly journals A QUALITATIVE REVIEW OF OLDER ADULT PERSPECTIVES ON HEALTHY AGING IN THE CIRCUMPOLAR NORTH

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S264-S265
Author(s):  
Britteny M Howell ◽  
Jennifer R Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Older Adult ◽  
Successful Aging ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
The United States ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
Circumpolar North ◽  
Personal Resilience

Abstract Cross-cultural research has shown marked variation in health outcomes across the world’s older adult populations. Indeed, older adults in the Circumpolar North experience a variety of health disparities. Because aging is a biological process rooted in sociocultural context, there exists great variation in the ways older adults define and experience healthy, or “successful,” aging in their communities. The aim of this analysis was to synthesize qualitative research among older residents (aged 50+ years) in the Circumpolar North to identify a definition of healthy aging common in the region. The Circumpolar North is defined as the Arctic and subarctic regions of Canada, Finland, Denmark, Greenland & the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States. A thorough review was conducted across a variety of academic search databases for peer-reviewed, qualitative studies conducted among community-dwelling older adults. The search strategy initially identified 194 articles; 22 articles met the inclusion criteria. Included studies were coded and analyzed using Grounded Theory to examine underlying themes of healthy aging in the Circumpolar North. The findings reveal the importance older adults place on incorporating social, environmental, and personal resilience factors into multidimensional models of healthy aging. This research also highlights the need for increased translational research with populations in the Circumpolar North that are under-represented in the gerontological literature.

scholarly journals A Qualitative Study for Perceptions Toward Successful Aging Among Older Korean Immigrants in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Jaewon Lee
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Successful Aging ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
The United States ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Korean Immigrants ◽  
Subjective Perception ◽  
Sample Population ◽  
Older Immigrants

A qualitative study was designed as an attempt to overcome the limitations of previous studies of successful aging, which included biased sample population, ignorance of subjective perception of successful aging, and a restrictive definition. The purpose of this study was to explore older immigrants’ perceptions toward successful aging and to indicate the important predictors to determine successful aging. In addition, this study aimed to identify significant factors influencing willingness to become successful agers among older immigrants in the United Sates. The research design was a cross-sectional key informant interview. One hundred and two (N=102) older Koreans in Los Angeles, CA, participated in this study. Interestingly, their children’s successful life was one of the heavily influential factors to become a successful ager among them. Implications are directed to social work researchers and practitioners to help educate the ethnic older adults in the community on the social and behavioral importance of the positive aspects of aging such as successful aging and healthy aging to increase the chance of longevity.

scholarly journals GEROTRANSCENDENCE OF ALASKA NATIVE ELDERS AGING SUCCESSFULLY IN THE ALEUTIAN AND PRIBILOF ISLANDS

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S517-S518
Author(s):  
Jordan P Lewis ◽  
Eric Wortman
Keyword(s):  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Alaska Native ◽  
Successful Aging ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Emotional Wellbeing ◽  
Remote Communities ◽  
Healthcare Needs ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
Kleinman's Explanatory Model ◽  
Specific Health

Abstract Meeting the healthcare needs of Alaska Native (AN) Elders in remote communities is critical to support successful aging and this study allows AN Elders from the Aleutian region to share their experiences and define successful aging, supporting the limited research on AN successful aging. This study interviewed 19 Elders in two communities from the Aleutian region of Alaska. Using a 20-item questionnaire based on Kleinman’s explanatory model to explore successful aging and experiences of being an Elder. Thematic analysis was employed to identify the characteristics and activities of Elders coping and adapting to aging-related changes. This study identified 5 core elements of successful aging, 4 of which formed Lewis’s AN model of successful aging (2011): Mental and Emotional Wellbeing, Spirituality, Purposefulness, and Physical Health and Mobility, and the new element of Gerotranscendence. The unique finding of this study that expands Lewis’s model is the change in mindset Elders experience as they self-reflect. Elders describe being more intentional in their relationships and a stronger connection to traditional cultural and spiritual activities, described by Tornstam (2005) as gerotranscendence. This research will be used locally to develop community specific health promotion and prevention programs to improve Elder services. These findings can also be used by health care providers to help Elders find meaningful activities that promote health and teach individuals to cope with aging-related changes.

Understanding Characteristics Of Users With Signs Of Opioid Misuse On Twitter (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haya Jarad ◽  
Junhua Yang ◽  
Abeed Sarker
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Pain Management ◽  
Religious Orientation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Opioid Abuse ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Opioid Misuse ◽  
Major Health Problem ◽  
Personal Traits ◽  
And Behaviors

BACKGROUND Opioid misuse is a major health problem in the United States, and can lead to addiction and fatal overdose. The United States is in the midst of an opioid epidemic; in 2018, an average of approximately 130 Americans died daily from an opioid overdose and 2.1 million have an opioid use disorder (OUD). In addition to electronic health records (EHRs), social media have also been harnessed for studying and predicting physical and behavioral outcomes of OUD. Specifically, it has been shown that on Twitter the use of certain language patterns and their frequencies in subjects’ tweets are indicative of significant healthcare outcomes such as opioid misuse/use and suicide ideation. We sought to understand personal traits and behaviors of Twitter chatters relative to the motive of opioid misuse; pain or recreational. OBJECTIVE . METHODS We collected tweets using the Twitter public developer application programming interface (API) between April 13, 2018 – and May 21, 2018. A list of opioid-related keywords were searched for such as methadone, codeine, fentanyl, hydrocodone, vicodin, heroin and oxycodone. We manually annotated tweets into three classes: no-opioid misuse, pain-misuse and recreational-misuse, the latter two representing misuse for pain or recreation/addiction. We computed the coding agreement between the two annotators using the Cohen’s Kappa statistic. We applied the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) tool on historical tweets, with at least 500 words, of users in the dataset to analyze their language use and learn about their personality raits and behaviors. LIWC is a text processing software that analyzes text narratives and produces approximately 90 variables scored based on word use that pertain to phsycological, emotional, behavioral, and linguistic processes. A multiclass logistic regression model with backward selection based on the BIC criterion was used to identify variables associated with pain and recreational opioid misuse compared to the base class; no-opioid misuse.. The goal was to understand whether personal traits or behaviors differ across different classes. We reported the odd ratios of different variables in both pain and recreational related opioid misuse classes with respect to the no-opioid misuse class. RESULTS The manual annotation resulted in a total of 1,164 opioid related tweets. 229 tweets were assigned to the pain-related class, 769 were in the recreational class, and 166 tweets were tagged with no opioid misuse class. The overall inter-annotator agreement (IAA) was 0.79. Running LIWC on the tweets resulted in 55 variables. We selected the best model based on BIC. We examined the variables with the highest odd ratios to determine those associated with both pain and recreational opioid misuse as compared to the base class. Certain traits such as depression, stress, and melancholy are established in the literature as commonplace amongst opiod abuse indiviuals. In our analysis, these same characteristics, amongst others, were identified as significantly positively associated with both the Pain and Recreational groups compared to the no-opioid misuse group. Despite the different motivaions for opiod abuse, both groups present the same core personality traits. Interestingly, individuals who misuse opioids as a pain management tool exhibited higher odds ratios for psychological processees and personal traits based on their tweet language. These include a strong focus on discipline, as demonstrated by the variables “disciplined”, “cautious” and “work_oriented”. Their tweet language is also indicative of cheerfulness, a variable absent in the recreational misuse group. Variables associated with the reacreational misuse group revolve around external factors. They are generous and motivated by reward, while maintaining a religious orientation. Based on their tweet language, this group is also characterized as “active”; we understand that these individuals are more social and community focused . CONCLUSIONS To our best knowledge, this is the first study to investigate motivations of opioid abuse as it relates to tweet language. Previous studies utilizing Twitter data were limited to simply detecting opiod abuse likelihood through tweets. By delving deeper into the classes of opioid abuse and its motivation, we offer greater insight into opioid abuse behavior. This insight extends beyond simple identification, and explores patterns in motivation. We conclude that user language on Twitter is indicative of significant differences in personal traits and behaviors depending on abuse motivation: pain management or recreation.

scholarly journals A Confluence of Policy Inequality: Health Disparities in Old Age Among American Indian and Alaska Native Populations

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 37-37
Author(s):  
Sadie Giles
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Disparities ◽  
Life Course ◽  
American Indian ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Alaska Native ◽  
Political History ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Life Course

Abstract Racial health disparities in old age are well established, and new conceptualizations and methodologies continue to advance our understanding of health inequality across the life course. One group that is overlooked in many of these analyses, however, is the aging American Indian/Native Alaskan (AI/NA) population. While scholars have attended to the unique health inequities faced by the AI/NA population as a whole due to its discordant political history with the US government, little attention has been paid to unique patterns of disparity that might exist in old age. I propose to draw critical gerontology into the conversation in order to establish a framework through which we can uncover barriers to health, both from the political context of the AI/NA people as well as the political history of old age policy in the United States. Health disparities in old age are often described through a cumulative (dis)advantage framework that offers the benefit of appreciating that different groups enter old age with different resources and health statuses as a result of cumulative inequalities across the life course. Adding a framework of age relations, appreciating age as a system of inequality where people also gain or lose access to resources and status upon entering old age offers a path for understanding the intersection of race and old age. This paper will show how policy history for this group in particular as well as old age policy in the United States all create a unique and unequal circumstance for the aging AI/NA population.

scholarly journals Resilient Aging: Psychological Well-Being and Social Well-Being as Targets for the Promotion of Healthy Aging

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 233372142110029
Author(s):  
Eric S. Kim ◽  
Rifky Tkatch ◽  
David Martin ◽  
Stephanie MacLeod ◽  
Lewis Sandy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Population Aging ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Treatment Programs ◽  
Response Effort ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
Social Trends ◽  
Functional Quality ◽  
Prevention And Treatment

Population aging is one of the most important social trends of the 21st century and in the United States, the number of people aged ≥65 is projected to increase by nearly 50% in the next 15 years. Most biomedical and public health efforts have focused on reducing harmful risk factors when targeting chronic disease—an approach that has contributed greatly to prevention and treatment programs. However, evidence suggests that the number of years lost to disability is increasing and historic gains we have made in life expectancy are eroding, and even reversing in some groups. As our society ages and grapples with these issues, expanding the focus to include resilience, as well as psychosocial assets in our prevention and treatment programs might help inform the multidisciplinary response effort we need. Here we synthesize research evaluating associations between different dimensions of psychological well-being (e.g., purpose in life, optimism, life satisfaction) and social well-being (e.g., structural, functional, quality) with chronic conditions. We also evaluate evidence around three biopsychosocial pathways hypothesized to underlie these associations. These factors are meaningful, measurable, and potentially modifiable; thus, further pursuing this line of inquiry might unveil innovative paths to enhancing the health of our rapidly aging society.

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