As humans change and develop, there is one characteristic in every person’s life that stays the same, and that is the power of connection. In order to have a meaningful, happy life, people need social relationships and connection with others. This is the way we become a part of events and moments that give real meaning to our lives, and it’s also how we gain new perspectives of the world, which ultimately makes us smarter and more open minded. While this is an unchanging aspect of life, it shows its prominence as we age, which is why having connection with other people as an older adult is so important. In fact, researchers continue to find that trends of emotions like depression, loneliness, and anxiety, are extremely high in this population.
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In this, researchers used meta-analysis of a French epidemiological cohort study called the PAQUID study. This experimental designed study used over 3,620 community-dwelling elderly people, aged 76 or older, living in Southwestern France. The original purpose of this study was to investigate the risk factors related to dementia and incapacity for older adults. However, in 2016, the American Psychosomatic Society used this longitudinal data to understand how psychosocial vulnerability is associated with a high risk of mortality. Over the course of 22 years, these randomly assigned individuals were visited and asked to complete a series of tests, which included the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale, and if they lived alone or with family. Mortality being the dependent variable, was measured based off of vital signs collected and with the use of the Cox proportional hazard model, which is a way to predict survival of an individual based on covariates. In this case, loneliness was the determining factor and served as the independent variable. Overall, Teguo concluded that living alone and having frequent feelings of loneliness were predictors of early mortality among this population (Teguo, et al., …show more content…
This issue has been noticed by many researchers, and has prompted possible strategies to overcome these challenges. Specifically, the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, along with other universities, created a study that aimed to discover the effect of intergenerational programs on older adults with depression and lack of coherence. Over 80 randomly assigned adults from multiple places in Japan, aged 65 or older, were used in this study as volunteers. Each person was required to take various surveys and have health checks to determine their mental health status. With these results, 26 participants showed prominent depression, and were enlisted in the Research of Productivity by Intergenerational Sympathy program, otherwise known as REPRINTS. This program aims to engage seniors to volunteer in picture book reading projects with younger, school-aged children in educational settings (Murayama, et al., 2014). However, 54 of the volunteers were used as the control group for this experimental design in order to see how the independent variable, being depression, affected the dependent variable, which was the use of intergenerational programs (Murayama, et al., 2014). Overall, the results concluded that with long term use of these activities, the experimental group showed a higher sense of manageability with their depression and gave
In this, researchers used meta-analysis of a French epidemiological cohort study called the PAQUID study. This experimental designed study used over 3,620 community-dwelling elderly people, aged 76 or older, living in Southwestern France. The original purpose of this study was to investigate the risk factors related to dementia and incapacity for older adults. However, in 2016, the American Psychosomatic Society used this longitudinal data to understand how psychosocial vulnerability is associated with a high risk of mortality. Over the course of 22 years, these randomly assigned individuals were visited and asked to complete a series of tests, which included the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale, and if they lived alone or with family. Mortality being the dependent variable, was measured based off of vital signs collected and with the use of the Cox proportional hazard model, which is a way to predict survival of an individual based on covariates. In this case, loneliness was the determining factor and served as the independent variable. Overall, Teguo concluded that living alone and having frequent feelings of loneliness were predictors of early mortality among this population (Teguo, et al., …show more content…
This issue has been noticed by many researchers, and has prompted possible strategies to overcome these challenges. Specifically, the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, along with other universities, created a study that aimed to discover the effect of intergenerational programs on older adults with depression and lack of coherence. Over 80 randomly assigned adults from multiple places in Japan, aged 65 or older, were used in this study as volunteers. Each person was required to take various surveys and have health checks to determine their mental health status. With these results, 26 participants showed prominent depression, and were enlisted in the Research of Productivity by Intergenerational Sympathy program, otherwise known as REPRINTS. This program aims to engage seniors to volunteer in picture book reading projects with younger, school-aged children in educational settings (Murayama, et al., 2014). However, 54 of the volunteers were used as the control group for this experimental design in order to see how the independent variable, being depression, affected the dependent variable, which was the use of intergenerational programs (Murayama, et al., 2014). Overall, the results concluded that with long term use of these activities, the experimental group showed a higher sense of manageability with their depression and gave