Balance, cognition and sensory abilities are key components involved when performing daily life activities. Healthy aging reduces cognitive resource capacity while hearing and vision demands compete for attentional resources used to maintain balance. However, the impact of dual-sensory loss is less understood, therefore this project examined how older adults’ balance performance would be impacted by increased cognitive load, hearing and simulated vision loss. Twenty-seven older adults aged 56 to 90 years (M = 74.74, SD = 9.51) were tested. Participants underwent standard sensory acuity and cognitive functioning tests and five balance conditions: (1) eyes closed, (2) normal vision (NV), (3) simulated low vision (LV), (4) NV and math task, (5) LV and math task. As the complexity of the task increased, participants’ balance performance worsened. Older adults with hearing impairment prioritized cognition over balance resulting in cognitive facilitation. This prioritization may increase the falls risk of older adults with hearing impairment, with greater severity being associated with increased medial-lateral sway. Finally, hearing aids have shown to improve postural stability, however among the 16 participants with hearing loss only one participant wore a hearing aid. Our results suggest the attentional demands from increased cognitive load and sensory loss lead to a decrease in older adults’ balance performance. Further, allocation of attention towards posture increased under simulated dual-sensory loss conditions, suggesting this dual-loss threatened stability. It is therefore important to consider prioritizing posture, especially in situations that threaten balance, and correcting hearing and vision loss to improve balance and maintain everyday functioning.
Rationale and Objectives
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and further exacerbated the social isolation often experienced by older adults. The importance of music as a wellness resource for older adults has also been well documented. Since the pandemic, online music and music therapy programs have emerged as potentially viable and physically safe ways to promote cognitive and mental health and reduce feelings of social isolation for older adults in various contexts. However, collaborative online music experiences have had to be adapted in order to accommodate sound latency issues. Furthermore, in music therapy, the aesthetic and relational components of music experiences typically contribute to the realization of positive therapeutic outcomes but we do not know how these components are best realized in an online format. Therefore, the purpose of this pilot study is to understand older adults’ perspectives on aesthetic, relational, and technological components of online group music activities.
Method
This study employs a qualitative descriptive design that incorporates content analysis techniques to analyze survey and interview data gathered via older adults’ participation in four online group music sessions.
Results and Conclusions
The results of this study are being used to design realistic parameters for quality online music experiences to be applied in future music therapy research and practice with older adults as well as in other online music making forums. Moving forward, even in a post pandemic world, quality and accessible online music experiences could offer a feasible social or therapeutic alternative for older adults who are socially/geographically isolated.
Experiencing a sense of belonging is a pervasive human need and an essential part of aging well (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Nolan, 2011). Ageist attitudes, stereotyping, and age-related life transitions can threaten older adults’ experiences of belonging (Nolan, 2011; Phelan, 2008). Research, however, has paid scant attention to how older adults negotiate these threats to experience a sense of belonging within their communities. In an effort to enhance our understanding about connections between belonging and aging, we invited members of an older adult community centre to participate in a focus group or individual interview exploring their personal meanings and experiences of belonging. Participants (n=49) ranged in age from mid-fifties to mid-nineties and varied in terms of gender, culture, socioeconomic background and health status. We used thematic analysis to analyse the data. Findings highlighted how age-related life transitions like retirement, widowhood, moving, and changes in health status had implications for participants’ identities, social positioning, sense of purpose, and social connections – all of which affected their sense of belonging as they aged. Factors identified by participants as contributing to their experiences of belonging include opportunities to feel a sense of purpose, feeling welcomed and accepted, having relationships and connections to others, and personal aspects such as motivation or desire to belong. We discuss these findings in relation to the essential role belonging plays in the well-being of older adults and argue that a better understanding of both threats and contributing factors will help identify ways to enhance belonging throughout the lifespan.
Non-profit organizations provide services, programs, and opportunities for connection and information-sharing, forming a vital component of the community care infrastructure that addresses the social needs of older adults living in the community. Despite this, the community non-profit sector remains overlooked in research and in policymaking, including in policies addressed to older adults. For instance, the Age-friendly Cities (AFC) program is a popular local policy approach intended to support older adults to age-in-place and which expects older adults, non-profit agencies, and local governments to work in partnership to design municipal aging policies and programs. While the design and implementation of AFC programs are reliant on non-profit agencies and voluntary labour, there is little research that explores the unique role of community non-profit agencies in local age-friendly policy and practice. This sector, chronically under-resourced, has borne the brunt of the responsibility to address issues of social isolation among older adults in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper highlights the results of a project that has sought to explore, though policy analysis, an environmental scan, and in-depth interviews with policy makers, community organizations, and older people themselves how non-profit organizations have supported older adults in the Montreal community during the pandemic. The purpose of this paper is to theorize the nature of the non-profit policy role and offer policy relevant and programmatic insights to ensure that these organizations are celebrated, supported and integrated into a much more fulsome age-friendly policy agenda and action plan moving forward.