Other Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Accessiblehomepro As An Educational Intervention: Preparing Occupational Therapy Students To Perform Home Safety Assessments, Laryn O'Donnell

Theses and Dissertations

The growing aging population of the United States urges occupational therapy practitioners to address the population's home safety needs. However, current occupational therapists need more resources and education to conduct comprehensive home safety evaluations. This study employed a pretest-posttest mixed methods design using occupational therapy students (n=17) to investigate the potential of AccessibleHomePRO as an educational intervention to enhance OT student knowledge of home safety assessments, perceived knowledge, which is known as the belief in your level of knowledge, and self-efficacy, which refers to the confidence in completing a task. AccessibleHomePRO (AHP) is a novel multifaceted assessment that leverages artificial …

Black American Men's Resiliency And Persistence To Grow Old: A Midwest Qualitative Study, Kimberly Ann Walker

Theses and Dissertations

AbstractAs Black American men continue to experience the highest premature morbidity and mortality, few studies have centered on the intersection of class (low-income) and race (middle-aged and older Black men) with multiple morbidity from a critical race approach in the Midwest region of the U.S. Middle-aged Black men have 31% higher death rate than their White counterparts. A qualitative study was conducted by a community health nurse in the spring of 2021 in a metropolitan city. Thirty-one, low-income Black American men were interviewed focusing on their understanding and perceptions of their complex comorbidities, symptom management for quality of life, short …

Senior Cohousing: The Social Architecture Of Cohousing, Community Design & Well Being, Michael Mandelman

Theses and Dissertations

The world is facing a situation without precedent, due to the anticipated growth in and increasing longevity of elderly people. Where and how people live is and can be a determinant of health. There is substantial research on inadequate housing for older people and its adverse effects on health. However, less is known about how senior cohousing affects the health of its residents. Further research is needed to improve strategies for senior living environments that promote social interaction and facilitate well-being. This study aims to bolster design and policy strategies by investigating how senior cohousing residents perceive how their living …

Memory-Based Viewing: A Potential Marker Of Pathological Aging, Jenna Blujus

Theses and Dissertations

Markers of cognitive impairment are needed to distinguish normal from pathological aging prior to the onset of clinical symptomology to improve Alzheimer’s disease (AD) treatment or prevention efforts. AD pathology is believed to develop years or even decades prior to diagnosis in medial temporal lobe subregions that provide input to the hippocampus (Braak & Braak, 1991), disrupting the ability of the hippocampus to bind individual elements of an experience to form cohesive memory representations. Eye movement behavior is a sensitive index of learning and effects of memory on eye movements have been shown to emerge rapidly (within 500-750ms of stimuli …

Memory-Based Viewing: A Potential Marker Of Pathological Aging, Jenna Blujus

Theses and Dissertations

Markers of cognitive impairment are needed to distinguish normal from pathological aging prior to the onset of clinical symptomology to improve Alzheimer’s disease (AD) treatment or prevention efforts. AD pathology is believed to develop years or even decades prior to diagnosis in medial temporal lobe subregions that provide input to the hippocampus (Braak & Braak, 1991), disrupting the ability of the hippocampus to bind individual elements of an experience to form cohesive memory representations. Eye movement behavior is a sensitive index of learning and effects of memory on eye movements have been shown to emerge rapidly (within 500-750ms of stimuli …

Replacing Sedentary Behavior With A Light Intensity Physical Activity In The Homes Of Older Adults, Nicholas Louis Lerma

Theses and Dissertations

Aging is positively correlated with time spent in sedentary behavior (SB), which has been found to be linked to premature mortality, cardiovascular disease risk, and functional limitations. Moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) is a potent stimulus for preventing and improving functional limitations in older adults, but less than 17% of the older adult population meets the recommended PA guidelines. While increased time spent in SB is detrimental to health in all, the impact among those that are physically inactive appear to be most pronounced. Recent evidence suggests increasing light-intensity physical activity (LPA) in these populations may provide health benefits and could …

The Association Between Physiologic Sources Of Pain And Sleep Quality In Older Adults And People With Dementia, Crystal-Rae Evans

Theses and Dissertations

The association between physiologic sources of pain and sleep quality in older adults and people with dementia was examined in this dissertation. Previous research illustrates multiple factors contribute to sleep quality outcomes. Musculoskeletal pain, respiratory distress, gastrointestinal discomfort, and genitourinary pain were examined in relation to sleep quality in older adults and people with dementia. No theory currently exists to guide this nursing research, therefore an illustration of pain and sleep quality in older adults and people with dementia was utilized. Descriptive data analysis and logistic regression were used to address the study aims. The findings from this research illustrate …

The Correlation Of Size Of Core Network And Frequency Of Contacts With Agitation And Positive Affect In Elderly With Dementia, Amal Ali Al Ghassani

Theses and Dissertations

In the country of Oman, care needs of older adults are primarily provided by family members in the home. The study was guided by socioemotional selectivity theory, the environmental vulnerability hypothesis, and the need-driven dementia-compromised behavior theories. The central premise was that the size of the person’s activities of daily living (ADL) core network and frequency of contact with the ADL core network would predict agitation and affect. A smaller core network with a higher frequency of contact may be better at identifying and treating the person’s unmet needs. A secondary premise was that the emotional closeness of the core …

Housing Adjustment Behaviors Of Korean Elderly Immigrants Residing In Affordable Housing: The Cultural Aspects Of Residential Experiences, Myounghee Jorn

Theses and Dissertations

The present study is an explorative study that employs mixed methods for examining the daily life patterns and housing adjustment behaviors of low-income elderly Korean immigrants residing in public housing in the Chicago metropolitan area. It particularly focuses on identifying the cultural practices of research participants and the influence of those cultural practices on using residential features, evaluating them, and developing coping responses to satisfy dwelling needs.

The study develops upon Canter’s theories of place (1977; 1991; 1997) and Weisman’s model of place (2001), and integrates Rapoport’s concepts of culture (1980; 2008) for exploring the residential experiences of elderly Korean …

Exploring The Costs And Values Of The Household Model In Long Term Care, Mark Alan Proffitt

Theses and Dissertations

As part of the culture change movement in long term care, nursing homes are transforming into person centered living settings that reject the previous medical emphasis that dominated the industry. The household model is one approach to achieve this goal by systemically altering the traditional nursing home’s organization, routines and physical setting with an emphasis on recreating familiar, domestic places for its residents. The household model is hallmarked by three key characteristics: 1) the creation of a smaller functional group of residents within the nursing home that is delineated by the environment (24 residents or less) with the 2) intent …

Age-Associated B Cell And T Helper Cell Dysfunction In Rhesus Macaques, Evan Knox Stalvig

Theses and Dissertations

The immune system undergoes drastic changes as we age, known as immunosenescence. An example of this is the dysfunction and subpopulation distribution changes of immune cells. Due to immunosenescence, the elderly have a higher risk of complications and rapid progression of new challenges to the immune system, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In an effort to determine the mechanism of dysfunction of humoral immunity due to age, I compared B cell and T cell responses to non-specific, mitogenic stimuli between aged and young adult rhesus macaque peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Analysis by flow cytometry revealed several differences in B …

Family Connections: The Impact Of Self-Disclosure, Solidarity, And Stereotyping On Relational Satisfaction In Grandparent-Adult Grandchild Dyads, Deanne Priddis

Theses and Dissertations

As life expectancy increases, the length of time in both the grandparent and adult grandchild role increase. The grandparent-adult grandchild relationship is integral to the health and preservation of the family system. The sample for this quantitative study included 62 grandparent-adult grandchild dyads, 124 individuals. Findings indicate that both the grandparents and the adult grandchildren experienced meaning and burden in the grandparent-adult grandchild relationship. The six different types of solidarity (affectual, consensual, structural, associational, functional, and normative) had varying associations with relational satisfaction for the grandparents and adult grandchildren. Although there are several self-disclosures in a close grandparent-adult grandchild relationship, …

Use Of Photobiomodulation In Osteoclast Formation: Possible Intervention For The Treatment Of Osteoporosis, Lisa Lauren Anderson-Antle

Theses and Dissertations

After critically examining the literature to gain a robust understanding for the pathogenesis of bone loss, specifically osteoporosis, the development of a possible new intervention to prevent or treat osteoporosis was explored. The purpose of this dissertation was to pilot test a new protocol designed to answer the broad research question: Does Near-Infrared Light Emitting Diode (NIR-LED) treatment affect Receptor Activator of Nuclear Factor Kappa-B Ligand (RANKL) induced osteoclastogenesis in a cell culture model?

Osteoporosis is defined as a disease characterized by low bone mass and structural deterioration of bone tissue, leading to bone fragility and an increased susceptibility to …

Immediate Early Gene Expression In Medial Prefrontal Cortex And Hippocampus As A Function Of Aging, Megha Sehgal

Theses and Dissertations

Normal aging is accompanied by cognitive decline that differs from other aging-related pathological states like Alzheimer's disease. With an increasing proportion of the world population falling in an age group of 65 years and above, a preventive gerontological approach would improve the quality of life in the elderly. Especially important in this regard is the early detection of cognitive decline, so that appropriate measures can be taken to prevent development of cognitive deficits. Impairment in cognitive flexibility, the ability to modify a previously learnt behavior, is one such measure of impairment across species in aged animals. Previous work from our …