Join us in attending our doctoral student, Brittany Jones’ qualifying paper defense on Wednesday, May 29 at 1:30PM PST in Room 245C (Research Commons) or Zoom: https://washington.zoom.us/j/96855385388/ Meeting ID: 968 5538 5388.
Title:
Older Adults without Care Partners: A Scoping Review of their Precarities, Outcomes and Interventions
Date/Time & Location:
May 29, 2024, at 1:30pm PST
Room 245C (Research Commons) and/orhttps://washington.zoom.us/j/96855385388/ Meeting ID: 968 5538 5388
Abstract:
Demographic changes in rates of living alone, migration, and having no living partner, spouse, or children are leaving more older adults without the typical “informal” care partners that are the backbone of care provision. This, alongside the growing number of older adults aging into and with disability and most countries’ reliance on informal rather than formal care may lead to a care gap in future decades. Older adults without care partners are likely in a precarious position and face adverse consequences. However, our knowledge is limited by scholars’ focus on one or more proxies for having no available care partner, such as living alone or having no available kin. Using the Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines and PRISMA-ScR protocol, we conducted a scoping review of nine databases to map the current peer-reviewed evidence regarding this population’s precarities, outcomes, and interventions using the Health Equity Promotion Model (HEPM) as our guiding framework. Our comprehensive search strategy resulted in 5100 unique articles, 33 of which met our inclusion criteria. Three independent reviewers screened and extracted data, and the first author used deductive content analysis with the pre-specified HEPM framework. Fifteen studies reported precarities related to environmental/structural forces, and psychological, social, behavioral, and biological processes, which were identified across a similar number of studies. Twenty-four studies reported adverse health and well-being outcomes with more focus on biological than psychological outcomes (19 versus 8). Four studies tested interventions, and reported environmental/structural, psychological, social, behavioral, and biological effects. Only 13 of the 33 reviewed studies set out to explicitly study older adults without care partners, and no studies focused on marginalized sub-groups. This scoping review highlights our lack of understanding of the populations’ distinctive precarities and outcomes, and the vital research needed to develop and test interventions that effectively address this growing population’s unique needs.
Congratulations to Brittany in reaching this milestone in the PhD program!
