Journal of Applied Gerontology

This article focuses on the attitudes of community-dwelling elderly persons toward the use of electronic memory aids. Questionnaire data from 100 elderly volunteers indicate that more than one half were interested in an electronic memory device for at least one purpose. Those who said that they would use the device had higher levels of education, used more household electronic devices, were more likely to have someone available to help them use a device, and had more health problems than those who preferred to not use it. Most would use a memory aid to monitor medications and remember appointments, followed by remembering addresses and phone numbers. The expected use, design, preferred methods of instruction, and concerns about the device varied. Study results suggest the need to develop devices with different degrees of flexibility and complexity. Future studies should evaluate training methods to use such technology.

Walking is a fundamental motor skill that significantly affects the level of independence in older adults today. Changes in gait and obstacle avoidance strategies have been well documented in the literature, and falling has been shown to be one of the most significant health care concerns in the elderly population today. Falls are a major contributor to the increasing morbidity rates seen in the older population, and in many cases, alterations in gait or stepping ability have played a significant role. This reviewexamines the specific changes seen in gait and obstacle avoidance in the elderly population and some of the underlying changes seen in sensory capability that play a role in safe and efficient ambulation in older adults. Normal gait (unassisted ambulation) will be presented, followed by an examination of the literature that has examined changes in performance factors associated with gait and obstacle avoidance strategies.

This exploratory study investigated the experiences that older adults infected with HIV/AIDS had accessing medical and social services, and compared their experiences to those of younger infected adults. Thirty-four individuals between ages 30 and 65 were interviewed, and data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The study found that overall, older adults aged 50-plus were able to access the medical and social services they needed to cope with being infected. Most study participants reported positive experiences with accessing medical services. Like younger adults, older adults accessed a variety of medical services and organizations, although to a slightly lesser degree. Older adults also accessed a variety of social and emotional supports and social organizations to a similar or greater degree than younger adults. The older adults’ positive and directive attitude, knowledge of the disease, and available supports, in addition to living in the gay community, explain their ability to access services.

Housing with supportive services is an important long-term sector, but information about care provision to residents in these settings is largely unavailable. The role of individual characteristics versus facility identity in determining how care is provided is completely unexplored. Data from 60 facilities in a single state were used to investigate the degree to which individual characteristics and facility identity determined how much care was provided to residents. Individual characteristics had the greatest impact on the amount of direct care time received by individuals. Care that was dementia oriented (i.e., cueing), however, was more strongly affected by the identity of the facility than by individual characteristics. These results have important implications for how consumers should think about seeking, and policy makers should think about supporting, care for those with impaired cognitive status who utilize housing with supportive services.

Whether older adults can maintain their independent living in community depends on their level of intellectual functioning. This study identified psychosocial factors contributing to five dimensions of intellectual abilities including verbal meaning, word fluency, spatial orientation, inductive reasoning, and number skill, which were measured by the Chinese version of the Primary Mental Abilities Scale. The respondents were 207 Hong Kong Chinese adults aged 60 years or older, and they were interviewed face to face. In hierarchical regression analyses, the authors found that the majority of variance of five intellectual abilities was accounted for by sociodemographic variables. Moreover, education was consistently associated with all five intellectual abilities, and the Lubben Social Network Scale was also significantly related to all five abilities except verbal meaning. Self-rated visual functioning was also related to respondents’ performance in three intellectual tests including word fluency, spatial orientation, and inductive reasoning.