Abstract
BackgroundDespite the increased scholarly interest in the senses and sensory experiences, the topic of older people’s sensory engagement with nature is currently under researched. This paper reviews and synthesises qualitative research evidence about how older people, including those living with dementia, describe their sensory engagement with the natural world.MethodsTen databases were searched from 1990 to September 2014: MEDLINE (Ovid), MEDLINE-in-Process (Ovid), PsycINFO (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCO), GreenFILE (EBSCO), ProQuest Sociology, ASSIA (ProQuest), International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (ProQuest); HMIC (Ovid); Social Policy and Practice (Ovid). Forward and backward citation chasing of included articles was conducted; 20 organizations were contacted to identify unpublished reports. Screening was undertaken independently by two reviewers.ResultsTwenty seven studies were included. Thematic analysis revealed that descriptions of sensory experiences are encompassed within six themes: descriptions from ‘the window’; sensory descriptions that emphasise vision; descriptions of ‘being in nature’; descriptions of ‘doing in nature’; barriers to sensory engagement; and meanings of being and doing in nature.ConclusionsOlder people derive considerable pleasure and enjoyment from viewing nature, being and doing in nature which, in turn has a positive impact on their wellbeing and quality of life. Future research could usefully explore how sensory engagement with nature could be used to stimulate reminiscences of places and people, and evoke past sensory experiences to enrich everyday life and maintain a sense of self.The protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42015020736).Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12877-016-0288-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Despite the increased scholarly interest in the senses and sensory experiences, the topic of older people’s sensory engagement with nature is currently under researched
A full screen text identified 27 studies that met the inclusion criteria; 19 further studies were not included in the synthesis because of insufficient sensory description they did explore older people’s experiences in nature
Six of the studies involved older people living with dementia, either in a residential setting or in the community, and two studies included both care home/nursing home residents living with dementia and those without
Summary
Despite the increased scholarly interest in the senses and sensory experiences, the topic of older people’s sensory engagement with nature is currently under researched. This paper reviews and synthesises qualitative research evidence about how older people, including those living with dementia, describe their sensory engagement with the natural world. Since the older population is not homogeneous [1, 3] it seems likely that diverse groups within the older population will experience quite differently the ‘bodily. Examples of different groups within the older population include those who live within the community and those who live in residential/ nursing care; and older people who live with dementia, who can be still living independently with or without a formal diagnosis and those who need to have residential or specialist residential dementia care [1]. Despite the UK Government’s ambition that “everyone should have fair access to a good quality natural environment” [12] (p.44),
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