نشریه سالمندشناسی
سال هشتم شماره 2 (پیاپی 29، تابستان 1402)

 Musical stimuli affect emotions, cognition, and other human characteristics, in health or disease. Today, an increasing number of healthcare centers, rehabilitation facilities, and daily programs for older adults recognize music therapy as a Non-invasive and sustainable intervention useful intervention. This systematic review was conducted to investigate the applications of music therapy among older adults.

The present study was conducted with the aim of a systematic review of the effects of music therapy on older adults, following the principle of PRISMA and the descriptive-analytical method. For this purpose, a standard search was conducted in reliable reference databases, based on the keywords: music therapy, Music activity, nonpharmacological therapy for Elderly, and elderly, in articles published between 2010 and 2023. After the final screening, the full text of 19 articles was extracted and analyzed.

 Based on the interpretation of the qualitative findings (content) of the articles, it was determined that the effects of music therapy on older adults can be placed in three areas: neurological and psychological, sensory-motor, and social. Singing, playing music, and playing instruments are useful for improving physical and mental health, sensory-motor rehabilitation, treating depression, improving sleep quality, reducing feelings of loneliness, improving Alzheimer's symptoms, improving verbal communication, and also improving the quality of life of older adults.

 The present study showed that music therapy has significant effects in old age. Therefore, to improve and increase the cognitive, psychological, and health functions of older adults, taking into account the cultural and social facilities in medical and health centers, music therapy interventions can be effectively and timely used by trained professionals.

Adult day services are one of the more popular long-term care options for older adults. The aim of this study was to determine the beliefs of the elderly regarding the perceived benefits and barriers of participation in adult day care centers in Tehran.

In this cross-sectional study (descriptive- analytical type), 194 older adults who referred to adult day care centers were selected by consensus method. The data was collected by a research-made questionnaire. Finally, the data was analyzed by SPSS software and t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient and one-way ANOVA tests.

The average age of the elderly studied was 74.9 years (SD=7.25). The mean scores of the perceived barriers and perceived benefits to participation in centers were 57.66 (SD= 10.59) and 71.35 (SD= 11.82) respectively. The majority of the elderly believed that participating in centers had some benefits such as receiving positive feelings from the center personnel, increasing physical strength and strengthening muscles by doing sports in the center and using the experiences of people similar to them. The lack of time to attend the center regularly, the low quality of services during to COVID-19 pandemic and the problems of transportation from home to the center were recognized as barriers to participating in adult day care centers. Illiterate participants had more perceived advantages than participants with university education degree (P=0.047). Single participants had more advantages for participating in centers than married participants (P<0.001). In addition, unemployed participants (currently) had fewer barriers to participate in adult day care centers than employed participants (P<0.001).

According to the advantages of these centers, periodic identification of the perceived barriers of the participation in these centers and try to remove them may help to increase the physical, social and psychological health of this group as well as their caregivers.

Iran is in the transition phase of the age structure, and ensuring the health of the elderly in the next several decades will be one of the most critical challenges of the health system. The present study aimed the relationship between social wellbeing of Elderly based on intimate attitudes with mediating role of positive feelings towards spouse.

The present study was descriptive- correlation. The statistical population included all elderly in Tehran in 2021. 298 people from this community were selected by available sampling method and, they answered the questionnaires of Intimacy Attitude Scale (Amidon, Kumar & Treadwell, 1983), Social Well-Being Questionnaire (Keyes, 2004), and Positive Feelings Questionnaire (O'Leary, Fincham & Turkewitz, 1975). Data were analyzed using path analysis of structural equation and by Amos software.

The findings showed that direct effect social wellbeing on intimate attitudes is significant (P <0.05). The results of the mediating role of positive feelings towards spouse also showed that positive feelings have a significant mediating role between intimate attitudes with social wellbeing (P <0.05).

The results of this study showed that the intimate attitudes directly, and positive feelings towards spouse indirectly has been effective on the social wellbeing of elderly. Therefore, it is suggested that mental health clinics pay attention to intimate attitudes and positive feelings towards spouse in review elderly's social wellbeing.

Memory, one of the main cognitive functions, is known to decline with age. Serious games have been used to improve memory in the elderly. The Purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of serious games in improving verbal and non-verbal memory.

All international databases of PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, ISI, Web of Knowledge and Embase were reviewed and searched based on keywords related to the study objectives until March 2023. The Present study was conducted based on the PRISMA 2020 checklist and Google Scholar search engine was also used to find related articles. Mean differences (95% confidence interval) were calculated using fixed effect model. Stata/MP v.17 software was used to perform meta-analysis

After reviewing the abstracts of 624 articles, 105 articles were selected for full text review, of which 11 articles were included in the meta-analysis. The difference in the mean verbal memory score between the serious game group and the control group was 0.40 (MD, 0.40, 95% CI 0.30, 0.50; P>0.001). The difference in the average non-verbal memory score between the serious game group and the control group was 0.47 (MD, 0.40, 95% CI 0.37, 0.57; P<0.001).

Serious games have the Potential to improve verbal and non-verbal memory in elderly People with cognitive impairment. Serious games should be offered as an adjunct to existing Proven and safe interventions rather than a complete replacement until stronger evidence is available.

 Improper lifestyle is one of the influential factors in the occurrence of chronic diseases, including high blood pressure. Health literacy is an important factor for people to better understand their health management. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between health literacy and lifestyle in the elderly with hypertension.

 The present study was a descriptive-analytical study that was conducted on 210 elderly people with hypertension who referred to specialized clinics under Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences using a simple random method. The tools of data collection were health promoting lifestyle questionnaires (HPLP2) and health literacy of Iranian cattle (HELIA). Data analysis was done with SPSS version 23 software and Pearson correlation and regression tests.

The average age of the elderly was 67 years, of which 54.8% were men. The results of statistical analysis showed that 62% of the samples had a favorable lifestyle and 58% had sufficient health literacy. Men's lifestyle and health literacy had higher average scores than women (p<0.003). In the examination of the average scores of health literacy and lifestyle, a significant relationship was observed with the variables of employment status, education level, place of residence and the number of drugs consumed (p<0.05). A statistically significant correlation was seen between the variables of health literacy and lifestyle (p>0.001).

Increasing health literacy is an important step in improving lifestyle. It seems necessary to carry out educational-counseling interventions to improve the lifestyle of the elderly

Aging care ethics by nurses have a particular importance, but its extent is different in clinical nurses. The aim of this study was to examine ethics in nurses care of elderly patients in the western Golestan province.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2017. The study population consisted of 183 nurses working in centers sheltered western Golestan University of Medical Sciences that took care of elderly patients. Quota sampling method was performed in 3 cities. Quotas on the number of nurses in each hospital were different. Data collection tools included demographic information and questionnaire for the Ethical Treatment of elderly care. Data were analyzed with SPSS version 16, descriptive statistics, chi-square test, and Spearman, Friedman and ordinal regression with the significant level of p< 0.05.

Total number of 142 cases (77.6%) nurses was female. The average ethics was 63.4±13.1 (IQR=15). The 158 individuals (86.3%) were in the moderate and high level of ethics. Cooperation and empathy (Mean Rank=5.4) had the highest area of ethics based on the Friedman test. Kindness and valuating the patient aspect (P=0.0001, OR=5.91) had the most effective areas in ethics based on ordinal regression. A Chi-square test showed the significant relationship between ethics and gender (P=0.003), marital status (P=0.005), the nurses ward (P=0.013), and employment (P=0.001).

The study showed that the ethics of nurses in the care of elderly patients was moderate and high. The ethics of care can be improved by developing evaluation systems, moderating non-essential activities of nurses, gender proportionality between patients and nurses and focusing on patient education.

As one of the important goals of advanced technologies, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in aging has managed to significantly improve the healthcare for older adults. This technology has been successful in precise data analysis, prognosis of diseases, providing individualized health recommendations, facilitating medication management, monitoring exercises, and even implementing social interactions for older adults. Thanks to great achievements, ranging from promoting safety to presenting tools for domestic support and medical care, AI has turned into an attractive and effective technology in aging. Nevertheless, using AI in aging, some specific issues such as privacy protection, ethics in the employment of data, and appropriate management of information should be taken to account. Hence, paying attention to the ethical and humanitarian aspects carries immense weight. In general terms, the development of AI in the field of aging, demonstrates the noticeable capacity of technology to improve older adults׳ lives. Given the rise in elderly population, these innovations will lead to the provision of better facilities in the service of older adults’ health and welfare. 

One of the many complications and problems that the elderly experience due to the aging process is dependency in activities of daily living and also a decrease in the sense of hope. The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of leisure time physical activity program on activities of daily living and hope in the elderly.

This study is a randomized clinical trial type intervention on 60 elderly people randomly selected from two health centers in Mashhad who met the inclusion criteria and the health of the participants to participate in the intervention was approved by the medical group of the health center. It was done. For this purpose, first, before the intervention, questionnaires of demographic information, independence in performing daily activities of Barthel and Snyder hope scale were completed from the samples in person and through interviews.Then group leisure activities were performed in 8 sessions, once a week (8 weeks), and each session lasted at least 45 minutes. Two weeks after the completion of the intervention in the experimental group, questionnaires were completed by someone other than the researcher in both groups. The collected data was analyzed and reported using SPSS-V25 software and relevant statistical tests.

The mean and standard deviation of the age of the research units in the intervention group was 68.30 ± 3.31 and in the control group was 68.33 ± 2.85 years. The demographic and main variables of the study were compared and tested in the two intervention and control groups, and the two groups were homogeneous in terms of demographic variables, the amount of hope and the amount of activities of daily living.In the post-intervention stage, the mean and standard deviation of the hope score in the intervention group was 49.36±3.12 and in the control group was 46.96±5.32. The independent t-test showed that after the intervention, the hope score in theintervention group was significantly higher than the control group (P=0.03). The average score of activities of daily living in the post-intervention phase was 95.33 ± 4.40 in the intervention group and 92.36 ± 5.86 in the control group. The independent t-test showed that after the intervention, the score of activities of daily living in the intervention group was significantly higher than the control group (P=0.031).

The results of this study generally indicate that the physical activities of the elderly in their free time can play a significant role in the state of their activities of daily living and hope, therefore, it is recommended to the relevant planners and officials to provide The facilities increase the level of functional independence and hope among the elderly in the community.