Online Posters
Correlational Study between Flexibility, Annual Falls, and Quality of Life in the Elderly
Virtual Poster Carina Rose Lorenzen
The aging process is characterized by a significant increase in falling risk associated with a remarkable decrease in physical activity. Studies suggest the fear of falling and reduced physical activity negatively affect the quality of life of the elderly. It is possible that the limited flexibility imposed by these reduced levels of physical activity could exacerbate the risk of falling and further impair quality of life. This study investigates the correlation between physical flexibility and quality of life as well as number of falls in the elderly. Eighty-one participants completed quality of life and demographic questionnaires, self-reported the number of falls in the past year, and performed the chair sit-and-reach and the back scratch flexibility tests. Correlation analysis showed positive correlations of upper and lower body flexibility with quality of life components and negative with annual falls. The quality of life components more commonly related to flexibility levels were sleep disturbances, depression, and anxiety symptoms. Annual falls were less frequent when both flexibility areas were involved, particularly the upper body area. The positive impact of upper and lower body flexibility on annual falls suggests that physical flexibility improves the dynamic range of movements, reducing the risk of falling. Furthermore, physical flexibility seems to be associated with improvement in sleep and emotional regulation. Providers can utilize this information and incorporate it into their daily practice in an effort to prevent falling in the elderly and subsequently improve their quality of life.
What Happens When Species Meet in Dementia? : Cultural Gerontology, Critical Posthumanism, and The (Re)imagining of Human-Animal Relations in Older Age
Virtual Poster Nicholas Jenkins
Recent years have witnessed growing interest in the potential for animal assistance and pet therapies to promote health and wellbeing amongst older people living with dementia. Such interventions tend to be grounded in liberal humanist assumptions, which serve to position nonhuman animals (e.g. dogs, fish, horses) as instruments and vehicles in the transmission of health benefits to older people. Drawing on empirical data from the Dementia Dogs Pilot in Scotland, UK (2012-2016) as well as theoretical frameworks developed through the writings of Donna Haraway, this paper advances a post-anthropocentric, critical posthumanist understanding of human-nonhuman relations in older age. As will be argued, such an approach involves seeing human-animal relationships in dementia as symbiotic entanglements within which processes of becoming are at stake. Based on this discussion, the paper concludes by exploring the potential for trans-species affinity (as an ontological-epistemological-ethical framework) to advance social justice in dementia and the forth age, offering a more radical alternative to that of dominant liberal humanist policy and practice frameworks.
Insight-Meditation Yoga : Mindfulness, Stress Reduction, and Good Health through Yoga Practice
Virtual Poster Wiphawan Limphaibool
Every society in the world is facing an inevitable challenge – a growing elderly population based on longer life expectancy. A deterioration of physical, emotional, social health takes place through the natural aging process. This raises an important question about promoting happiness and good health within the elderly community. Yoga is a effective and safe method of increasing the flexibility and strength. Mindfulness may also be used to promote emotional and cognitive benefits. The objective of this study is to consider effective methods of bringing mindfulness through yoga practice (e.g., using principles of yoga that have been refined from the traditional Indian concept), in combination with mindfulness, which is a significant element of Buddhist tradition to promote well-being of elderly people. The Insight Meditation Yoga (IN-MY) is an intervention study that created a series to maximize benefits and minimize risks for elderly. IN-MY is comprised of insight meditation (or Vipassana in Buddhism), muscle contraction and relaxation, yoga poses for peace of mind, and deep relaxation, which has been adjusted to fit the elderly subjects. This practice is aimed at benefiting the aging society through self-administration of interventions.
Aging, Ritual, and Ikigai (Life Purpose) in Postmodern Japan: How the Japanese are Redefining Rituals of Aging, Death, and Dying
Virtual Poster Dianne Daugherty
Once fixed in the popular imagination – both in and outside Japan – as an enviable model of economic prowess and, famously, reverent to the aged where the young esteem and take care of their elders, Japan in the early twenty-first century now offers another image to itself and the world: a survivor of a generation’s long recession and a nation with the largest and fastest-growing aging population. Plagued also by below population replacement birth rates, Japan is coping not only with a continuing uncertain economic future as the number of younger workers decreases, but also with a “graying” future that some scholars have referred to as a “seismographic wave” that will alter not only the economic landscape but the cultural one as well. Complicating the matter are conflicting perceptions of how the aged are characterized in society today. Sometimes forgotten or seen as a burden on families and society they are vital to the sustenance of communal and ancestral bonds. Lest we forget, they were the builders of Japan’s economic miracle, yet are the ones effected most negatively by its continued decline. They occupy an uncertain space wedged between the gift and curse of longevity. This sense of uncertainty and ambivalence contributes to feelings of anxiousness expressed by the aged as they negotiate end of life decisions. Often wrought with inter-generational tensions, there is a stimulus and response in exploring new ways of thinking about how to update ritual forms that function more effectively in a changing and graying Japan.
