Spirituality and occupational therapy

The purpose of this study was to gain further understanding about Canadian and American OTS [occupational therapists] knowledge, understanding and interventions related to spirituality. [This is an excerpt from the abstract. For the complete abstract, please see the document.

SOEP as a Source for Research on Ageing: Issues, Measures and Possibilities for Improvement

Demographic change is a key consequence of the development of modern societies. The prolongation of life expectancy, shifts of mortality into later life and long-term low fertility rates cause essential changes in population structures - with an increase in the number and proportion of older people as a key feature. The changes in mortality patterns can be seen as a success of modern society. But demographic shifts imply new risks and challenges as well as opportunities for modern societies, as they affect individual life courses as well as societies as a whole. The present low birth rates also predict low birth numbers in the future, since the number of potential mothers decreases. At the same time, life expectancies are not expected to decrease. As a consequence, the relation between old and young people will change in Germany in the next decades. In 2050, just about half of the population will be of working age and more than 30 percent will be 65 years old or older. The number of the 20 to under 65-years-olds will decrease from 50 million to a figure between 35 and 39 million in the next 40 years (Federal Statistical Office, 2006). Furthermore, the working age population will undergo an ageing process, implying that in 2050, nearly 40 percent of the working-age population will be between 50 and 64 years old (Federal Statistical Office, 2006). In order to understand the labour market and the fiscal implications of these population trends, it is very illustrative to analyse the proportion of older individuals in relation to the working population, the so-called old-age dependency ratio. According to the Federal Statistical Office (2006) the old-age dependency ratio will grow from 32 percent in 2005 to 60 or 64 percent by 2050. This projection indicates that in 40 years, for every three persons of working-age in Germany there will be two persons receiving a pension. If we consider the age cut at 67, the results are not much more optimistic, indicating that increasing the legal retirement age alone is not a solution for the sustainability of the public pension systems and for the decrease in the labour force. The proportion of people of very old age is also growing. While the 80+ population was nearly 4 million in 2005, it will grow to 10 million by 2050 (Federal Statistical Office, 2006). This trend has inter alia, important consequences for health care provision. In this demographic context, interdisciplinary research of ageing and later life gains in relevance. Thus, research on ageing becomes an increasingly crucial task for major surveys like the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). As part of the "research infrastructure" they are called upon to invest in its potentials and attractiveness for research on ageing and later life.

The role of social network diversity in self-perceptions of aging in later life

While the link between self-perceptions of aging (SPA) and healthy aging is well established, less is known about the association between social factors and SPA. The present study investigated whether higher social network diversity is associated with more positive and less negative SPA and whether this association is moderated by age. We examined cross-sectional data from the German Ageing Survey of 2008 (DEAS; N = 6205, 40–85 years, 49.5% female). Network diversity was assessed as the number of social roles in an individual’s network (such as spouse, friend and colleague). Three domains of SPA were measured using the Aging-Related Cognitions Scale (AgeCog): ongoing development (positive SPA), social losses (negative SPA) and physical losses (negative SPA). We conducted multiple linear regression models and tested for a moderator effect of age using an interaction term of age and network diversity. Results showed that at higher ages older adults with higher network diversity reported more positive SPA related to ongoing development and more negative SPA related to social losses than those with less diverse networks, indicating that age has a moderating effect. We found no association between network diversity and negative SPA related to physical losses and no indication that age was relevant to this relationship. The present study adds to evidence on the role of social networks in SPA. Our findings suggest that in certain SPA domains and depending on age, network diversity is related to both more positive and more negative SPA, which emphasizes the importance of considering domain-specific SPA

Prevalence of living wills among older adults in Germany

Background: Living wills regulate medical decisions in emergency situations. Those who create a living will can have it registered voluntarily in the Central Register of Lasting Powers of Attorney. Little is known about the general prevalence of living wills. Methods: The German Ageing Survey is an ongoing, population-representative study. 4,185 people aged 50 and older were surveyed about living wills in 2020/2021. Results: 44.8 % of people aged 50 and older have a living will, women more often than men (50.1 % vs. 39.2 %), older people more often than middle-aged people. Educational differences do not exist. Conclusions: Living wills increase the autonomy in medical emergency situations because the patient’s wishes are specified in written form. People of all age groups should inform themselves about the significance of living wills and should seek advice about the contents, for example from the general practitioner or one’s own health insurance

Prevalence of loneliness among older adults in Germany

Background: Loneliness refers to the subjective perception of a mismatch between a person’s social needs and their actual personal relationships. In this paper, the prevalence of loneliness in the older population was examined based on current data. Methods: The German Ageing Survey is an ongoing, population-representative study. A total of 4,261 people 50 years of age and older were surveyed in 2020/2021 with regard to their experience of loneliness. Results: Overall, 8.3 % of the population 50 years of age and older feel lonely. The findings showed no differences between different age groups over 50 years of age, nor are there gender or educational differences. Conclusions: There was no evidence that older individuals living in private households experience loneliness more commonly than middle-aged individuals. Data from nursing home residents indicate that there may be a higher risk of loneliness