Purpose: Older adults generally have an increased need for health care information. Whereas some use the Internet to look for this information, others use more traditional sources. This study gathered data from older adults to determine their health information needs, the perceived usefulness of sources of health information, and if there are…

Purpose: Turnover among direct-care workers (DCWs) continues to be a challenge in long-term care. Both policy makers and provider organizations recognize this issue as a major concern and are designing efforts to reduce turnover among these workers. However, there is currently no standardized method of measuring turnover to define the scope of the…

Geographical, economic, social and cultural barriers to accessing services in rural areas are widely reported. Less widely discussed are dilemmas posed by individual and community reluctance to address sensitive health issues. This article, focusing on the highly sensitive area of mental health, and employing a participatory action approach,…

This study evaluated the effect of a transformative learning (TL) intervention on functional health literacy and diabetes knowledge in older African Americans. Twenty participants from senior community centers completed a six-session intervention. The short-form Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (s-TOFHLA), Literacy Assessment for…

This article presents the results of research to identify factors contributing to the development of interest in employment in gerontological social work by undergraduate social work students who are diverse in age, ethnicity, immigration history, race, and life experiences. Recruitment and support of interest in gerontological social work of…

Purpose: This study attempts to determine the associations between postdischarge environmental (PDE) and socioeconomic (SES) factors and early readmission to hospitals. Design and Methods: This study was a cohort study using the 2001 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey and Medicare claims for the period from 2001 to 2002. The participants were…

Purpose: To examine how cognitive speed of processing training affects driving mobility across a 3-year period among older drivers. Design and Methods: Older drivers with poor Useful Field of View (UFOV) test performance (indicating greater risk for subsequent at-fault crashes and mobility declines) were randomly assigned to either a speed of…

Purpose: The purpose of this research is twofold. The first purpose is to utilize a new methodology (Bayesian networks) for aggregating various quality indicators to measure the overall quality of care in nursing homes. The second is to provide new insight into the relationships that exist among various measures of quality and how such measures…

Two studies were conducted to reexamine the psychometric properties of two major scales measuring attitudes toward older adults. The Kogan Attitudes Toward Old People Scale (Kogan OP Scale; Kogan, 1961b) was administered to a sample of 512 college students in Study One. The refined version (Polizzi & Millikin, 2002) of the Aging Semantic…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to describe an innovative online system to support long-term-care decision making. Design and Methods: The Long-Term Care Choices tool is a web-based system that uses expert opinion and structures decision making. Results: The system has been well accepted, and most users find it easy to use. Implications:…

This study examined adult age differences on five tests of divergent thinking: associational fluency, expressional fluency, ideational fluency, word fluency, and consequences. Our hypothesis was that young adults ( M = 20.53, n = 60) would score higher than old adults (M = 72.10, n = 60) under standard timed test conditions, but old adults would…

Purpose: Given concerns about end-of-life care for many nursing home (NH) residents, this study sought to understand factors influencing hospice referral or nonreferral as well as timing of referral. Design and Methods: We conducted semistructured interviews with personnel from seven participating NHs and two hospices. We interviewed NH directors…

Although religion has not been a mainline topic of empirical inquiry in the gerontological social work literature, there has been growing recognition in the past two decades of the health protective effects of religious involvement on both physical and psychological well-being. Depression interferes with both individual and social functioning that…

Gerontologic research in the past 40 years has shown that caring for an older, disabled person affects the health and well-being of the caregiver. This important contribution led to a wide range of programs and services designed to buffer caregivers from the effects of stressors. Many of these programs have been quite innovative. Although…

Purpose: We sought to characterize self-neglect definitively as a geriatric syndrome by identifying an association with functional impairment. Design and Methods: We performed a cross-sectional home evaluation of 100 community-living older adults referred by Adult Protective Services for geriatric self-neglect and 100 matched adults from a…