Senior Retirement Research Articles

Understanding How Older Adults Negotiate Environmental Hazards in Their Home

The purpose of this research was to examine environmental hazards related to falling risk by using two different approaches and to discuss older adults’ adaptive coping strategies. Environmental hazards were identified by a researcher and residents in 88 older adults’ independent living units at a senior retirement community. This research employed two statistical analyses including a dependent sample t-test and pair-wise Kappa statistics in order to identify a significant difference in environmental hazards from two assessment tools as well as examine the inter-rater reliability on each item. Research findings show that older adults could hardly identify as many environmental hazards as the objective measurement did because of their different coping strategies, knowledge, experience, and health status. The residents' perception is a necessary component in that it could provide new insights about hazards. This research provides empirical evidence of how older adults negotiate their environmental hazards.

Understanding Older Adults' Perception and Usage of Indoor Lighting in Independent Senior Living.

The main purpose of this research is to examine the lighting condition and residents' perception of lighting in a senior retirement community in order to understand various environmental issues related to lighting. Also, this research aims to suggest a new lighting solution to compensate for older adults' vision impairment and challenges at home for a successful aging place. In the normal aging process, more than 30% of older adults have a vision impairment, which negatively affects health and well-being of older adults such as limited activities, falling, loneliness, depression, anxiety, and a sense of control. Via a mixed method study design, residents in senior living communities were asked to describe the adequacy of light levels and specific tasks and needs related to lighting at their home. In addition to the survey and interview, indoor lighting assessments were conducted during the in-home session. The research findings highlighted older adults' experience and perception of lighting in their homes. Paired-sample t test indicated that there were statistically significant differences in light levels between normal conditions and full capacity conditions in all spaces. In order to address various challenges which older adults have been experiencing in their home for a long time, this research suggests new smart lighting platform which provides a proper level of illumination in older adult's homes. Such a smart platform is proactive and can dynamically adjust the smart devices or lighting fixtures in situ, while older adults are performing certain tasks.

Learning Health System In A Senior Retirement Community: A Platform To Promote Implementation Research

Learning Health System In A Senior Retirement Community: A Platform To Promote Implementation Research

Eye Tracking Analysis of Visual Cues during Wayfinding in Early Stage Alzheimer’s Disease

Introduction: Persons with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have profound impairment in wayfinding, potentially related to a deficit in visual attention and selection of relevant environmental information. This study sought to determine differences in visual attention to salient visual cues and nonsalient cues (building features) in older adults with and without AD during active wayfinding in a large-scale, virtual reality spatial task. Methods: Fifteen subjects (7 with AD and 8 controls without AD) were asked to find their way repeatedly during 10 trials in a virtual simulation of a senior retirement community. Subjects wore eye tracking glasses to capture visual fixations while wayfinding. The least square means (LSMs) and their standard errors (SEs) for percentage of fixations and duration of fixations on salient and nonsalient cues were estimated from the linear mixed effects models and compared by group (AD or control) and cue type. Results: The group by cue type interaction was significant for both percentage of fixations (F(1, 13) = 6.79, p = 0.02) and duration of fixations (F(1, 13) = 4.87, p = 0.04). The AD group had significantly lower percentages of fixations on salient cues, LSM = 57.91 (SE = 2.44), compared to controls, LSM = 66.40 (SE = 2.19); p = 0.03. Persons with AD had a higher percentage of fixations on building features, LSM = 31.65 (SE = 2.18), than controls, LSM = 24.54 (SE = 1.95); p = 0.02. Shorter durations of fixations on salient cues were experienced by the AD group, LSM = 38.89 (SE = 1.69), than the control group, LSM = 44.69 (SE = 1.55); p = 0.02. Discussion/Conclusion: Individuals with AD may have difficulty selecting relevant information for wayfinding as compared to normally aging individuals and attend more frequently than controls to irrelevant information. This may help explain the wayfinding difficulties seen in AD.

The effectiveness of incentives to postpone retirement: evidence from Italy

AbstractThis paper investigates whether financial incentives may be used as an effective device to induce workers to postpone retirement by evaluating the Italian so-called ‘super-bonus’ reform. The bonus consisted of economic incentives given for a limited period to private sector workers who had reached the requirements for seniority pension but who chose to postpone retirement. Using data from the Bank of Italy Survey on Household Income and Wealth, this paper assesses the effect of the bonus on the decision to postpone retirement, by comparing private and public workers before and after the reform. Results suggest a 30% reduction in seniority retirement probability, despite the fact that, when changes in social security wealth are taken into account, the bonus actually provided a negative incentive for most workers. Results also suggest that the effect of the reform was driven by low-income workers. Some evidence is presented showing that liquidity constraints and financial (il)literacy may help to interpret these results.

Retraining investment for U.S. transition from coal to solar photovoltaic employment

Although coal remains the largest source of electricity in the U.S., a combination of factors is driving a decrease in profitability and employment in the coal-sector. Meanwhile, the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry is growing rapidly in the U.S. and generating many jobs that represent employment opportunities for laid off coal workers. In order to determine the viability of a smooth transition from coal to PV-related employment, this paper provides an analysis of the cost to retrain current coal workers for solar photovoltaic industry employment in the U.S. The current coal industry positions are determined, the skill sets are evaluated and the salaries are tabulated. For each type of coal position, the closest equivalent PV position is determined and then the re-training time and investment are quantified. These values are applied on a state-by-state basis for coal producing states employing the bulk of coal workers as a function of time using a reverse seniority retirement program for the current American fleet of coal-powered plants. The results show that a relatively minor investment in retraining would allow the vast majority of coal workers to switch to PV-related positions even in the event of the elimination of the coal industry.

A Foray Into Not-Quite Companion Species: Design Experiments With Urban-Animals as Significant Others

This paper examines the project, Urban Animals and Us, as a journey - or foray - into the ‘terrain vague’ between people and (other) animals with whom we share urban space. Through three design experiments developed around speculative prototypes and co-design tools, we attempt to bring ’wild’ urban animals - like magpies and gulls into contact with the residents of a senior retirement home, to explore what new practices can arise between, otherwise, unconnected life-worlds. We expand the notion of companion species from philosopher of science Donna Haraway and begin to position the current project within a growing interest in animals in contemporary design research. Through analysis of the design experiments and the subsequent discussion, we argue, that a foray into interspecies relations, can inform the practical research agenda, and, help to re-articulate the dominant anthropocentricity of design research.

BRAZIL'S SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM: PROSPECTIVE TRAJECTORY AND REFORM ALTERNATIVES

SUMMARYThis article assesses the current status of Brazil's Social Security System in terms of the social and economic development of the Brazilian population it is intended to serve. It starts with a historical overview of the system. Data from a household survey (Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílio) is used to describe the workforce and its relationship with the social security system. The years 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007, and 2012 were chosen to give a series of pictures of the Brazilian population at equal intervals but under different legal circumstances with respect to the implementation of social security legislation. Data with regard to beneficiaries and the corresponding expenditures and revenues of the system are also shown. The situation presented is rather bleak considering that, since 1997, expenditure on benefits has consistently surpassed revenues based on payrolls. Some alternative reform options (parametric in nature) are evaluated using simulations. These simulations show that the alternative of postponing the eligibility age would have the greatest positive effect on balancing the books, especially when using 65 years as the minimum pensionable age. This would be the equivalent of eliminating “seniority retirement.” Age testing is also effective for the recipients of survivor's benefit. Eliminating multiple benefits, though not impressive in terms of numbers, is progressive in nature and, therefore, an alternative to be considered. Dissociating the minimum wage from the minimum benefit would have a much larger impact in the long run, but the measure is highly unpopular and would most probably not be approved if proposed by the Government. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Language of Loss: Modeling a Transformative Narrative of Grief

This article is a fictional narrative that is based on the true experience of the author’s undergraduate fieldwork at a senior retirement community. Through its silences and suffering, the language of loss speaks through Jacob, a grieving widower, as the author compiles her field notes to make sense of his pain. The imagined lens of a patient–counselor dynamic serves an important role in being mindful of the collision between the theoretical and the interpersonal. By interweaving psychological theories and counseling experience, the creative narrative is grounded in the transformative dialectic between patient and counselor as they both navigate the space between grief and recovery. Ultimately, a relational-cultural approach begins to heal all who share the experience of this loss.PERSPECTIVES is a special feature included in this issue of the Journal of Creativity in Mental Health that provides mental health professionals with an opportunity to discuss their positions on a variety of creativity-related topics.In this article, Sophia E. Terazawa, writer and performance artist, shares her perspective on helping a client cope with the death of his wife. The story is based on Sophia’s experience working in a retirement community as part of her undergraduate field work.

Elders' Lifelong Connection with the Natural Environment

Our interaction with nature does not end just because we age. People have a lifelong connection with the outdoor environment in varying degrees. For some, this participation may be subtle by simply watching others interact with the outdoor environment. For others, there is a deeper connection with nature through gardening, birding, exercise, painting, and other nature-related pursuits. This pursuit takes on a deeper meaning when people get involved in making positive changes to the environment to make it a better place for this and future generations. There is a growing movement among elders, specifically those older adults who are living in senior retirement communities, to focus greater attention on aspects of their campus that relate to the environment. These environmental benefits result in positive changes for themselves, the other members of the community, and for the community structure itself.

Social Security Incentives For Retirement In Italy

The present work is the first of a two-paper project aiming at bringing a new empirical contribution to literature on retirement, with particular focus on Italy. In this paper I carry out an analysis of Social Security-provided incentives for early retirement and of the main changes brought about by the two major early 90s reforms. For this purpose I use a sample of male employees drawn from the Bank of Italy Survey on Wealth and Income of Italian Households (SHIW) and I calculate both static and dynamic SS incentive measures: as for the latter, I discriminate between one year and lifetime measures of the accumulation opportunities of SS entitlements and suggest new measures to account for the trade-off comprised in the decision of retirement. The analysis documents strong early retirement incentives for Public Sector employees and relevant binding eligibility constraints for Private Sector workers. In general prosecution of work beyond age 60 has been dramatically discouraged due to the actuarial unfairness of pension formula. As for the effects of the SS reforms, it emerges that the early 1990s changes will produce a strong cut of benefits in the long run, while for current employees the most important changes have been the reduction of benefit indexation, the temporary restrictions and actuarial penalizations on seniority retirement. It turns out that especially Public Sector employees and younger cohorts undergo the strongest benefit cuts. All in all, to the extent to which such benefit cuts have been perceived by individuals, one would expect reforms to have induced anticipated exits from labor force among older cohorts.

A Comparison of Eating Practices of Independently Living Older Adults in Private Residences and in Senior Retirement Housing: A Pilot Study

This study investigated eating-related habits and their importance in older people and compared those living in private residences with those in senior retirement community housing. A convenience sample of 58 seniors answered eating-related items from the Self-maintenance Habits and Preferences in Elderly questionnaire (SHAPE). Meal location, companions, concurrent activities, portion size, and food variety differed between private and retirement housing for some meals, but the overall importance assigned to eating practices was similar. The meals themselves appeared to be more important than any specific socio-environmental element. Eating practices associated with dinner were more important than those for the other meals.

Early Retirement in Italy: Recent Trends

Abstract. The analysis presented provides new statistical information on pensioners receiving seniority retirement benefits and highlights the positive effects of specific factors on their pension income.The statistical estimates suggest that work incentives are weak and steady job exits before the normal retirement age continue, especially for civil servants.In particular, since seniority benefits are based on a long contribution history, their corresponding level of pension income is high. This is not true for pensioners receiving old age benefits because of their incomplete work history.

Total Knee Replacement in Patients Older Than 85 Years

Between 1987 and 1995, 62 unilateral total knee replacements performed in patients older than 85 years (mean age, 87 years) were followed up for a minimum of 2 years (range, 2-11 years, mean, 5.4 years). This group represented 3.8% of all the total knee replacements performed during the same time. The majority of the patients were women with osteoarthritis. There was a 70% preoperative cardiac disease comorbidity. Overall, confusion after surgery was greater in this older group than in the patients younger than 85 years of age, however, confusion was lower in the group of patients who had epidural anesthesia as compared with those patients who had surgery under general anesthesia. The mean knee score at followup was 89 points and the mean pain score was 43 points (of 50 points). The mean flexion was 114 degrees. Seventy-five percent of these elderly patients still required the use of a cane for walking outdoors compared with 18% of the patients who were younger than 85 years. More than 855 of the older patients could travel independently to socialize and shop after surgery. Seventy-six percent of the patients were living independently or in senior retirement housing after surgery. Only two of the patients required living accommodations in a nursing home. One third of the patients still could drive their own car after surgery. Quality of life improvement was markedly increased in this elderly group of patients. The results of this study indicate that total knee replacement still is a valuable procedure even for this elderly group, and most of these patients returned to a more functional lifestyle.