Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults

Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 317
Release: 2020-05-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0309671035

Social isolation and loneliness are serious yet underappreciated public health risks that affect a significant portion of the older adult population. Approximately one-quarter of community-dwelling Americans aged 65 and older are considered to be socially isolated, and a significant proportion of adults in the United States report feeling lonely. People who are 50 years of age or older are more likely to experience many of the risk factors that can cause or exacerbate social isolation or loneliness, such as living alone, the loss of family or friends, chronic illness, and sensory impairments. Over a life course, social isolation and loneliness may be episodic or chronic, depending upon an individual's circumstances and perceptions. A substantial body of evidence demonstrates that social isolation presents a major risk for premature mortality, comparable to other risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, or obesity. As older adults are particularly high-volume and high-frequency users of the health care system, there is an opportunity for health care professionals to identify, prevent, and mitigate the adverse health impacts of social isolation and loneliness in older adults. Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults summarizes the evidence base and explores how social isolation and loneliness affect health and quality of life in adults aged 50 and older, particularly among low income, underserved, and vulnerable populations. This report makes recommendations specifically for clinical settings of health care to identify those who suffer the resultant negative health impacts of social isolation and loneliness and target interventions to improve their social conditions. Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults considers clinical tools and methodologies, better education and training for the health care workforce, and dissemination and implementation that will be important for translating research into practice, especially as the evidence base for effective interventions continues to flourish.

Maintaining Safe Mobility in an Aging Society

Maintaining Safe Mobility in an Aging Society
Author: David W. Eby
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2008-12-22
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1040172512

By 2030, 20 percent of the world's drivers, 60 million in all, will be over the age of 65. Consequently, safe and efficient mobility for older adults is a complex and pressing issue. Maintaining Safe Mobility in an Aging Society addresses the complexities surrounding the booming number of aging drivers and practical solutions for sustaining safe tr

Improving the Safety of Older Road Users

Improving the Safety of Older Road Users
Author: Jane C. Stutts
Publisher: Transportation Research Board
Total Pages: 113
Release: 2005
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 0309097525

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 348: Improving the Safety of Older Road Users examines programs and policies in place across the country to improve the safety and mobility of older road users. The report documents a range of strategies and related programs under way in roadway engineering, driver licensing, public information and education, and enforcement and adjudication.

Perspectives and Strategies for Promoting Safe Transportation Among Older Adults

Perspectives and Strategies for Promoting Safe Transportation Among Older Adults
Author: David W. Eby
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 302
Release: 2018-11-27
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 0128123265

Promoting Safe Transportation among Older Adults: Perspectives and Strategies provides a concise, comprehensive, and up-to-date resource on safe mobility for an aging population. The book offers an interdisciplinary perspective for understanding and influencing the behavior of older adults with regard to their safe transportation. It is organized around the professions and disciplines that have a stake in the safe transportation of older adults and the role they play at each stage of their mobility needs. The book also addresses the various strategies that have been used to help keep older adults safe and mobile. Readers will find great insights on key issues related to aging and mobility, giving them an overarching framework for how to maintain safe mobility into older adulthood. The book enables readers to understand the perspectives of the critical groups of people involved in keeping older people safe and explores existing strategies by which an aging individual can maintain safe mobility. - Utilizes a multidisciplinary, evidence-based approach for examining the complexities of transportation for older adults - Offers an integrated, overarching narrative for understanding the key issues of safety and mobility in our aging society - Written by leading transportation and health scholars - Offers insights into the perspectives of all the stakeholders, such as hands-on transportation and health practitioners, students of varying levels, researchers and policymakers

Handbook of Assessment in Clinical Gerontology

Handbook of Assessment in Clinical Gerontology
Author: Peter A. Lichtenberg
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 753
Release: 2010-08-20
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0080959725

New trends in mental healthcare practice and a rapid increase in the aged population are causing an explosion in the fields of clinical gerontology and geropsychology today. This comprehensive second edition handbook offers clinicians and graduate students clear guidelines and reliable tools for assessing general mental health, cognitive functioning, functional age, psychosocial health, comorbidity, behavior deficits, and more. Psychopathology, behavioral disorders, changes in cognition, and changes in everyday functioning are addressed in full, and a wide range of conditions and disorders common to this patient population are covered. Each chapter provides an empirical review of assessment instruments, assessment scales in their totality, a review of how these instruments are used with and adapted for different cultural groups, illustration of assessments through case studies, and information on how to utilize ongoing assessment in treatment and/or treatment planning. This combination of elements will make the volume the definitive assessment source for clinicians working with elderly patients. - The most comprehensive source of up-to-date data on gerontological assessment, with review articles covering: psychopathology, behavioral disorders, changes in cognition, and changes in everyday functioning - Consolidates broadly distributed literature into single source, saving researchers and clinicians time in obtaining and translating information and improving the level of further research and care they can provide - Chapters directly address the range of conditions and disorders most common for this patient population - i.e. driving ability, mental competency, sleep, nutrition, sexual functioning, demntias, elder abuse, depression, anxiety disorders, etc - Fully informs readers regarding conditions most commonly encountered in real world treatment of an elderly patient population - Each chapter cites case studies to illustrate assessment techniques - Exposes reader to real-world application of each assessment discussed

Advances in Human Aspects of Transportation

Advances in Human Aspects of Transportation
Author: Neville A Stanton
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 1166
Release: 2017-06-22
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3319604414

This book discusses the latest advances in research and development, design, operation and analysis of transportation systems and their complementary infrastructures. It reports on both theories and case studies on road and rail, aviation and maritime transportation. The book covers a wealth of topics, from accident analysis, vehicle intelligent control, and human-error and safety issues to next-generation transportation systems, model-based design methods, simulation and training techniques, and many more. A special emphasis is given to smart technologies and automation in transport, as well as to user-centered, ergonomic and sustainable design of transport systems. The book, which is based on the AHFE 2017 International Conference on Human Factors in Transportation, held on July 17–21, Los Angeles, California, USA, mainly addresses transportation system designers, industrial designers, human–computer interaction researchers, civil and control engineers, as well as vehicle system engineers. Moreover, it represents a timely source of information for transportation policy-makers and social scientists dealing with traffic safety, management, and sustainability issues in transport.

Transport, Travel and Later Life

Transport, Travel and Later Life
Author: Charles Musselwhite
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2017-11-21
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 1787146235

This book, set within a social gerontology and transport behaviour studies paradigm, examines current debates and issues around transport for older people and its relationship to health and wellbeing for individuals and society as a whole.

Future of Intelligent and Extelligent Health Environment

Future of Intelligent and Extelligent Health Environment
Author: Renata Glowacka Bushko
Publisher: IOS Press
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2005
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1586035711

Human body and the world in which it functions is a changing complex adaptive system. We are able to collect data about it, but the challenge is to infer local dynamics from that data. Intelligent Caring Biomechatronic Creatures and Healthmaticians have a better chance of inferring the dynamics that needs to be understood than human physicians.