The Need for a Paradigm Shift in Approaching Ageing-Related Design Research and Practice

Global scientific trends in healthy aging in the early 21st century: A data-driven scientometric and visualized analysis

Background

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), healthy aging is the process of developing and maintaining the functional capacity for health in old age. A rapidly growing number of research studies on healthy aging have been conducted worldwide. The purpose of this research work is to explore global scientific landscape of healthy aging research over the last 22 years.

Methods

Scientific publications on healthy aging from January 1, 2000 to October 11, 2022 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) on October 11, 2022. A total of 6420 publications were included in the scientometric analysis. VOSviewer (1.6.18) was used to conduct scientometric and visualized analysis.

Results

The publication growth rate was 35.68 from 2000 to 2021. The United States of America (USA) led in both productivity and citations. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA was prominent in terms of both the highest citation count and the highest average citation count. The National Institute on Aging (NIA) and Evans, Michele K. were the most influential organization and author, respectively. Research hotspots in healthy aging were identified based on the co-occurrence analysis of keywords: (1) physical activity and mental health of older adults; (2) diseases impacting the health and lifespan of older adults; and (3) neuroscience. Our analysis indicates that gut microbiota, loneliness, frailty, mitochondria and resilience were the emerging themes in healthy aging research.

Conclusions

The quantity of annual publications on healthy aging has rapidly increased over the past 22 years, especially during 2018-2021. This analysis identified the status, trends, hot topics, and frontiers of healthy aging research. These findings will help researchers quickly understand the global representation of healthy aging research, influence resource dissemination, promote international collaborations, guide policy formulation, and improve health services for older adults.

Theoretical Models of Collaborative Partnerships in Arts-Health Care Practices for Older Adults

Although research investigating collaborative partnerships with older adults has been slow to develop, promoting user involvement and co-production is gaining interest in aging studies, with the aim of improving interactions between the different stakeholders involved, and toward the more effective delivery of care provisions and better community life for aging people. This is based on existing evidence that improved dynamics within collaborative and mutual learning processes can enhance the integration of new practices at different levels by generating novel creative approaches and practice frameworks for the delivery of quality care for older adults. This article presents the findings from a series of narrative interviews conducted with different stakeholders involved in arts-health practices in Finland and South Korea. Focusing on empirical perspectives of these stakeholders on arts-health practices-from planning to assessment-this study identifies vital components of co-producing and co-delivering arts-health practices for older adults and highlights the importance of utilizing their late-life creativity as active partners in such practices across cultural contexts. In addition to identifying three central stages of developing arts-health practices, two theocratical models are proposed to provide structural support for collaborative partnerships in arts-health practices, with the aim of promoting holistic care provisions for aging people through such practices.

Perspectives on creative well-being of older adults

The growing aging population has become a significant global issue in recent years, increasing the need for research that examines aging-related phenomena such as personal growth and development in later life. A major challenge in achieving this aim is the prevailing deficit perspective on aging, which is so pervasive that it often overshadows older adults' contributions to society and diminishes the opportunities encountered in older adulthood. Although perspectives on the nature of aging are gradually changing in a positive way, and the developments in medicine are improving health-related aspects of aging, it is still a worldwide challenge to eradicate negative stereotypes around aging. This article explores empirical perspectives on aging by analyzing diverse narratives gathered from open-ended interviews we conducted in Finland from 2019 to 2021. Focusing on their aging experiences and the value of a broad range of creative engagements and interventions that older adults have joined voluntarily, the study aims to provide a better understanding of personal perspectives of aging, the creative well-being of older adults, and the growing diversity of experiences within the older age group. Based on the findings of this study, we highlight the importance of promoting older adults' engagement in art-based interventions to enhance their creativity and well-being in later life, as well as fostering aging-friendly co-creative approaches in such interventions by involving the older adults themselves in the process.

Double-Bind of Recruitment of Older Adults Into Studies of Successful Aging via Assistive Information and Communication Technologies: Mapping Review

BACKGROUND

Two fields of research and development targeting the needs of the aging population of the world are flourishing, successful aging and assistive information and communication technologies (A-ICTs). The risks of ageist stereotypes emerging from how we communicate in both discourses are long known. This raises questions about whether using specific age criteria in the context of "aging deficits" can bias participation in, or compliance with, the research process by older adults who try to avoid age-related stigma.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to examine subject recruitment, study designs (based on age >65 years criteria), as well as discourses in research objectives and conclusions in health research on affordances of A-ICTs for older adults.

METHODS

A systematic mapping approach was used to characterize rationales, methods, stated objectives, and expected outcomes of studies indexed in PubMed and retrieved through the search logic (["Older Adults" OR Seniors OR Elderly] AND [ICT OR gerontechnology OR "Assistive Technology")] AND ("Healthy Aging" OR "Successful Aging" OR "healthy ageing" OR "successful ageing"). Inclusion criteria were as follows: the study should have recruited older participants (aged >65 years), been qualitative or quantitative research, and involved the introduction of at least one A-ICT for health-related improvements. Exclusion criteria were as follows: reviews, viewpoints, surveys, or studies that used information and communication technology for data collection instead of lifestyle interventions. Content, thematic, and discourse analyses were used to map the study characteristics and synthesize results with respect to the research question.

RESULTS

Of 180 studies that passed the search logic, 31 (17.2%) satisfied the inclusion criteria (6 randomized controlled trials, 4 purely quantitative studies, 9 focus groups, 2 observational studies, and 10 mixed methods studies). In all but one case, recruitment was pragmatic and nonrandom. Thematic analysis of rationales revealed a high likelihood of emphasis on the burdens of aging, such as rising costs of care (12/31, 39%) and age-related deficits (14/31, 45%). The objectives of the research fell under 4 categories: promotion of physical activity, acceptance and feasibility of robots and remote health monitoring systems, risk detection, and the future of A-ICTs in health care for older adults. Qualitative studies were more attentive to the nonageist research guidelines. Heterogeneity in the study results (both qualitative and quantitative) was not related to age but to individual agency, acceptance, and adherence. A combination of research strategies (participatory, longitudinal, playful, flexible, and need-based designs) proved successful in characterizing variations in study outcomes. Studies that documented recruitment dynamics revealed that fear of stigma was a factor that biased participants' engagement.

CONCLUSIONS

This review indicates that age is not an informative criterion for recruitment and retention of participants. Charting the dynamics of adoption of, and interaction with, A-ICTs is critical for advancing research and technology development.

Identifying and Addressing Implicit Ageism in the Co-Design of Services for Aging People

In a world with an increasingly aging population, design researchers and practitioners can play an essential role in shaping better future societies, by designing environments, tools, and services that positively influence older adults’ everyday experiences. The World Health Organization (WHO) has proposed a framework called Healthy Ageing, which can be adopted as the basis for designing for an aging society. There are, however, many challenges in achieving this goal. This article addresses one of these challenges identified by WHO, which is overcoming ageism as a form of discrimination based on age. In contrast with most other types of discrimination, ageism is not always easy to detect and overcome because of its generally implicit nature. This paper investigates adopting storytelling as a method for detecting implicit ageism and proposes a co-design process that utilizes this method to better address older adults’ needs and requirements. The use of this method is discussed through two example case studies aimed at improving the design of assistive services and technologies for aging people. The findings from these case studies indicate that the proposed method can help co-design teams better identify possible implicit ageist biases and, by doing so, try to overcome them in the design process.