Participation of People With Impairments in Seniors' Organizations: Conditions and Limitations on Inclusion

Influence of Hearing Loss on Social Participation in Older Adults: Results From a Scoping Review

This study aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the influence of hearing loss on social participation in older adults and including its facilitators and barriers. Following the rigorous methodological framework of scoping studies, nine multidisciplinary databases were searched with 44 keywords. Published mainly in the last decade, 41 studies using primarily a quantitative cross-sectional design were selected. Older adults with hearing loss have been found to have difficulty maintaining relationships and social activities. While social support and engaged-coping strategies were major facilitators of social participation, barriers included greater hearing loss, communication difficulties, comorbidities and reduced mental health. To better promote the social participation of older adults, early detection of hearing loss, holistic assessment, and interprofessional collaboration must be considered. Future research is necessary to better address the stigma related to hearing loss in older adults and challenges of early detection, and to propose innovative solutions to develop interprofessional collaboration.

Ageing in Context: An Ecological Model to Understand Social Participation Among Indigenous Adults in Chile

The social participation of older adults occupies a central position in international discourse regarding ageing, the ecological model makes it possible to examine and assess the different factors that influence the understanding of what encourages social participation by older adults. This study used the ecological model to analyse how personal, community and environmental factors are related to satisfaction with social participation among Chilean older adults, a majority of whom are indigenous, living in rural areas (n = 800). The results confirmed that satisfaction with social participation was related to personal factors (feelings of depression, functioning into basic activities of daily living (ADL) and autonomy), community factors (perceived social support from social group) and environmental factors (accessibility of physical setting within the village). Our findings confirmed a high level of social participation among indigenous adults, with rural and indigenous surroundings appearing to be a factor that protects and promotes social integration.

Optimizing older adult co-researchers’ involvement in PAR: proposed evaluation tool

Purpose

This paper aims to share a practical evaluation tool intended to guide and support the participation of older people in PAR projects. Participatory action research (PAR) studies with older adults have been increasing over the past ten years. Scientific evidence provides key principles for PAR projects to achieve meaningful participation by older people; however, respecting the ideals of PAR is not always straightforward.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a case study that evaluated the involvement of nonacademic researchers in a PAR project using an evaluation tool derived from a literature review of PAR undertaken with this population (Corrado et al., 2020). The study goals were first to assess the assets and limits of the older co-researchers’ participation within the PAR project, and second to provide a revised version of the evaluation tool to support future PAR with older people. First, the authors designed an evaluation tool for nonacademic participation in PAR studies by older people that covers three main themes: older people positioned as prominent research partners; symmetrical power relations between academic and nonacademic researchers; and commitment regarding inclusiveness and long-term collaboration. Second, the authors performed an evaluation using this tool within the Active Aging with Dignity PAR Project.

Findings

Third, the authors used the results of this experiment to suggest improvements for an enhanced version of the evaluation tool aiming at supporting fuller involvement of older nonacademic researchers in PAR studies.

Originality/value

To the authors’ knowledge, this evaluative tool is a methodological innovation in gerontology.