Journal of applied gerontology : the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The Effects of Integrated Attention Training for Older Chinese Adults With Subjective Cognitive Complaints: A Randomized Controlled Study.
Early intervention to reduce cognitive decline and preserve functioning is a compelling public health issue. Because impaired attention occurs early in the process of cognitive impairment, focusing training strategies upon attention may be a potential intervention to prevent further cognitive decline. We sought to test the effects on cognitive performance and daily functioning of a new cognitive training program that focuses on attention. ⋯ The IATP showed domain-specific effects but had no effects on global cognition or functioning. It could not show a superior benefit in cognition and functioning when compared with non-specific mental stimulation in a group format. Further studies are needed to determine the role of attention in cognitive training.
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Parents and children are linked across the life course, and they share common experiences. This article focuses on the bereavement experience of adult children's loss of a first parent during adulthood and examines the downward influence of emotional closeness with a surviving parent on adult children's depressive symptoms following loss. ⋯ Multilevel lagged dependent variable models indicate that an emotionally close relationship with a surviving parent is related with fewer post-bereavement depressive symptoms when a mother survives a father, but not vice versa. This analysis extends the theory of linked lives and highlights the mutual influence parents and children exert, as well as the complex role of gender in shaping family relationships.
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Comparative Study
Ownership Status and Length of Stay in Skilled Nursing Facilities: Does Endogeneity Matter?
In 1998, Medicare implemented the Prospective Payment System for post-acute care provided by skilled nursing facilities. This system paid a fixed price per day above the cost of care, creating an incentive to provide longer length of stays to increase revenues. ⋯ Based on the financial incentives inherent in the reimbursement system, we develop a conceptual framework that argues for-profits will provide a greater number of days of care to increase profits relative to not-for-profits. We find significant differences in length of stay by ownership, but once patient selection into a facility is accounted for using two-staged residual inclusion, there is no statistical differences in length of stay between for-profit and not-for-profit facilities.
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The authors examined the role of social desirability in 445 participants' responses to self-reported measures of ageism across two studies. In Study 1, college students and community adults completed the Relating to Older People Evaluation (ROPE) and a short form of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (M-C SDS). ⋯ Ageist attitudes were correlated with negative ageist behaviors in Study 2. Implications for current views on ageism and strategies for reducing ageist attitudes and behaviors in everyday life are discussed.
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The aim of this study was to explore the link between neglect and ageism in health care provision for older persons. Semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted with 30 registered nurses with at least 2 years' experience in 10 long-term care facilities in Israel. ⋯ Three main themes emerged: ageism and neglect as the everyday routine (neglect is built into institution life on the platform of ageism); how the institutional system promotes neglect--between institutional and personal ageism (the ways institutions promote neglect in the shadow of ageism); from vision to reality--how neglect can be prevented in an ageist reality. The attempt to demonstrate the link between ageism and neglect and suggesting how to include them as interrelated phenomena in health care provision programs could promote older persons' quality of life.