1. Assessment details
Length: 1500 words +/- 10%
Weighting: 40%
Submission due date: Wednesday 28th August by 2359
Learning outcomes assessed –
LO1 critically analyse the concept of healthy ageing and its promotion at an individual and community level
LO2 understand experiences of ageing and how these are impacted by biopsychosocial, spiritual and cultural factors
2. Assessment instructions
This assessment requires you to prepare a literature review focused on the topic of healthy ageing.
A literature review “re-views” or looks again at what others have said, done, or found in a particular area of study. The purpose of conducting a literature review is to find out what is currently known (and reported) about a topic or issue. A literature review is not an annotated bibliography ie a summary of each article. It requires analysis (critical appraisal) of each article but this must be followed by synthesis of the information, so as to reveal the current state of knowledge on the topic.
The purpose of this written assignment is to enable students to synthesise ideas, themes, controversies and recommendations found in the literature on healthy (or successful) ageing in order to realise understanding of the knowledge and ideas which have been established on this topic.
To assist you in the preparation of this assessment you are provided with
•A case scenario which gives context to the literature review
•4 topic areas related to healthy ageing
•A selection of current, relevant literature for review
•Guidelines and resources for completing the literature review
DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS
1. Read the case scenario provided
2. Choose one of the following four topic areas as the focus of your literature review
•Social interaction and healthy ageing
•Gingko biloba, cognition and ageing
•Physical activity, resistance training and ageing
•Overweight, weight loss and ageing
3. Access the 4 journal articles listed in the chosen topic area through ACU library.
4. Skim read each article then read in detail
5. Analyse each article
•You may find it useful to structure your analysis of each article using the Critical Appraisal Tool to which you were introduced in HLS122 Evidence for Practice in year 1. This tool has been provided as a resource – available below
•Or you may like to use a summary table to assist you with the analysis and synthesis of the information contained in the literature. A summary table lists the characteristics of each article under the same discrete headings, such as “method” and “results”. This can help you to see terns and common elements among the articles being reviewed and also provides structure for the synthesis. A template of a summary table has provided below
6. Synthesise the information about the literature based on your appraisal
7. Write your literature review based on your synthesis of the literature. Write in an essay format - introduction, body, conclusion, reference list.
3. Guidelines for literature review structure
This is provided as a guide only.
You are required to present your literature review in an essay format.
You are required to use APA referencing style in your essay and to include a reference list at the end of your essay.
Introduction
Give an outline of:
•The topic
•why you are writing the review, why the topic is important
•the scope of the review — what aspects of the topic will be discussed
•definitions (if needed)
•the organisation or structure of the review.
Body
This is where you will present your summary (synthesis) and evaluation of the literature. Focus on analysis and comparison, not description.
Use the information extracted from your analysis/ critical apprasial of each article to present a synthesis of the information. You need to decide on a structure for the presentation of this information – will it be theme-based? Or methodologically-focused? Or outcomes-focused? Remember, you do not want it to simply describe the content of each article.
The body may include paragraphs on:
•historical background – especially any outstanding research, researchers or seminal events related to the topic
•key themes or concepts in the research findings and/or conclusions
•relationships or patterns related to the topic which are evident across the various articles
•areas of agreement and/or disagreement on the topic
•approaches to research design
•strengths and weaknesses in the research or the articles
Here you may also refer back to the case scenario and consider what the literature review synthesis reveals about the topic which may help the client in the case scenario make decisions about what action to take to promote his own healthy ageing.
Conclusion
Your conclusion should summarise:
•the topic and main themes in the literature
•the main agreements and disagreements in the literature
•any gaps or areas for further research
•your overall perspective on the topic
4. The case scenario
Frederic Arum is 78 years old, Australian-born man of French ancestry who lives in his own home in Drummoyne, a Sydney suburb, and has lived there for the past 40 years. He is a widower, having lost his wife to cancer 10 years ago, and has 5 adult children and numerous grandchildren ranging in age from 5 – 23 years. He is a retired university professor and quite active in his retirement – he is a member of a local choir which practices once a week and perform at community events and venues about once a month; he plays golf at least once a week; he maintains his large garden with the help of a gardener once a fortnight. He sees a lot of his family and every Sunday his daughter hosts lunch for the whole family. He looks after his own home, although he has recently started using a cleaner once a week.
He has always enjoyed good health although has had his share of colds and flus and emotional ups and downs over the years. It was a difficult time when he lost his wife but it made him more determined to make the most of the “time he has left”. He has recently started to have a bit of joint pain and stiffness, which is slowing him down at times and he has noticed that his memory has been unreliable at times. “Signs of old age” he tells himself, but he hopes it doesn’t get any worse. He mentions these changes to his GP at his next appointment, and asks what he can do to slow down or even stop these ageing changes getting any worse. The GP suggests he -
0.Start weight bearing exercise (lifting weights) twice a week using an experienced trainer as this “strengthens the muscles and the mind”
0.Lose some weight to reduce “pressure” on his joints. At 180cm tall and 90.5kg Frederic is overweight and could lose about 10kg to move into the ideal weight category according to BMI. The GP suggests a lower calorie diet of 1800kcal/day as a reliable method to lose weight safely.
0.Join a club, socialise more as this has “been shown to promote health at all ages”
0.Take 120mg twice a day of ginkgo biloba to improve your memory and help prevent AD
Frederic isn’t so keen on going on a diet, although he would like to lose that extra 10kg. As for lifting weights, well, he thinks he just might end up doing himself an injury if he starts with that nonsense. He is keen to get relief from his joint pain however and thinks maybe it would be nice to meet some new people.He asks his GP what sort of evidence she has that if he does these 4 things his joints might stop aching and his unreliable memory improve.
The GP provides some scientific journal articles to Frederic and suggests he read them to get an “understanding of the evidence we have for recommending these activities to you”. Then he can come back for another visit to have a chat about it and make some decisions.
5. Topic areas and associated journal articles for review
Social interaction and healthy ageing
0.Hodge, A., English, D., Giles, G. & Flicker, L. (2013). Social connectedness and predictors of successful ageing. Maturitas, 75, 361-366
0.Han, KH., Lee, YJ., Gu, JS., Oh, H., Han, JH. & Kim KB. (2015). Psychosocial factors for influencing healthy aging in adults in Korea. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 13(31)
0.Kim, DE. & Young, YJ. (2017). The reciprocal causal relationship between social activities and health with reference to the cognitive function level among community-dwelling older adults: A cross-lagged panel analysis. Journal of the Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing, 28(1), 13-22
0.Cherry, K., Walker, E., Brown, J., Lamotte, L., Su, J., Jazwinski, M…. Frisard, M. (2013). Social engagement and health in younger, older, and oldest-old adults in the Louisiana Healthy Aging study. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 32(1), 51-75
Ginkgo and cognition
0.Vellas, B., Coley, N., Ousset, PJ., Berr Long-term use of standardised ginkgo ut, G., Dartigues, JF., Dubois, B., …. Andrieu, S. (2012).biloba extract for the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease (GuidAge): a randomised placebo-controlled trial. The Lancet, 11, 851-859
0.Zhang, HF., Huang, LB., Zhong, YB., Zhou, QH., Wang, HL., Zheng, GQ. & Lin, Y. (2016). An Overview of systematic reviews of Ginkgo biloba extracts for mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 8(276)
0.Yakoot, M., Salem, A. &Helmy, S. (2013). Effect of memo[R], a natural formula combination, on Mini-Mental State Examination scores in patients with mild cognitive impairment. Clinical Interventions in Aging, 8, 975-81
0.Kandiah, N., Ong, P., Yuda, T., Ng, LL., Mamum, K., Merchant, R…. Ihl, R. (2019). Treatment of dementia and mild cognitive impairment with or without cerebrovascular disease: Expert consensus on the use of Ginkgo biloba extract, EGb 761. CNS Neuroscience and Therapeutics, 25, 288-98
Physical activity and resistance training
0.Daskalopoulou, C., Stubbs, B., Kralj, C., Koukounari, A., Prince, M. & Prina, A. (2017). Physical activity and healthy ageing: A systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal cohort studies. Ageing research reviews, 38, 6-17
0.Vasiliadis, HM. & Belanger, M. (2018). The prospective and concurrent effect of exercise on health related quality of life in older adults over a 3 year period. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 16(15)
0.Fisher J., Steele, J., Gentil, P., Giessing, J. & Westcott, W. (2017). A minimal dose approach to resistance training for the older adult: the prophylactic for aging. Experimental Gerontology, 99,80-86
0.Li, Z., Peng, X., Xiang, W., Han, J. & Li K. (2018). The effect of resistance training on cognitive function in the older adults: a systematic review of randomized clinical trials. Aging Clinical and Experimental research, 30, 1259-1273
Overweight and weight loss
0.Batsis, J., Gill, L., Masutani, R., Adachi-Mejia, A., Blunt, H., Bagley, P., Lopez-Jimenez, F. & Bartels, S. (2017). Weight Loss Interventions in Older Adults with Obesity: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials Since 2005. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 65(2), 257-68
0.Jura, M. & Kozak, L. (2016). Obesity and related consequences to ageing. AGE, 38(23)
0.Locher, J., Goldsby, T., Goss, A., Kilgore, M., Gower, B. & Ard, J. (2016). Calorie restriction in overweight older adults: Do benefits exceed potential risks? Experimental Gerontology, 85, 4-13
0.Waters, D., Ward, A. & Villareal, D. (2013). Weight loss in obese adults 65 years and older: A review of the controversy. Experimental Gerontology, 48, 1054-1061
6. Useful resources
This section includes a number of resources that should be of use to you when preparing your literature review
6. Useful resources
6.2. HLSC122 Critical Appraisal Tool
This critical appraisal tool is provided as an aid which you might like to use when analysing each of the 4 articles. That is, you might find it useful to use these sub-headings to analyse or appraise each of the 4 articles you have to review for this assignment.
You are not required to use this tool.
Consider the strengths and limitations (critically appraise) each research paper using the following questions.
•Authorship
Consider the strengths and limitations of the authors’ expertise, based on their cited qualifications and affiliations and whether there might be possible conflicts of interest or possible grounds for bias in the paper.
•Research Questions, aim or hypothesis
Identify the research question/s, aim or hypothesis underpinning the research and discuss the author’s justification/s as to why their study was needed. In considering the authors' justifications consider whether -
1. the significance of the research topic or problem is identified
2. the current state of research on the topic is discussed
3. gaps in the current research/ literature on the topic have been identified
•Research Design
Identify the research design and consider whether the choice of design is appropriate for answering the stated research question, aims or hypothesis.
•Research Methods
Identify the methods the researchers used for selecting study participants, collecting the data and data analysis.
•Results and limitation of the study
Identify the results, conclusions and limitations of the research.
6. Useful resources
6.3. Summary table template
This summary table can be used as an aid in analysing each of the articles you have to review for this assignment. For each article, you fill in the information under each of the sub-headings as comprehensively as you can. You can add sub-headings if you wish. This will assist you in identifying similarities and differences across the articles as well as the main themes or results arising from the research. This information can then be used to help determine how to structure and build your synthesis of the articles as a whole.
Click on the link below to view the example summary table from Nita Bryant, Ph.D. Behavioral & Social Sciences Research Librarian. James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University
https://guides.library.vcu.edu/ld.php?content_id=41272848