Defining Healthy Aging in the Circumpolar North

In collaboration with Dr. Jen Peterson, Assistant Professor of Pyschology at UAF, the lab has engaged in a systematic meta-analysis of the literature on qualitative definitions of "healthy aging" across the Circumpolar North. Because aging is a biological process rooted in sociocultural context, there exists great variation in the ways older adults define and experience healthy, or “successful,” aging in their communities. The aim of this analysis was to synthesize qualitative research among older residents (aged 50+ years) in the Circumpolar North to identify a definition of healthy aging common in the region. A thorough review was conducted across a variety of academic search databases for peer-reviewed, qualitative studies conducted among community-dwelling older adults. The search strategy initially identified 194 articles; 23 articles met the inclusion criteria. Included studies were coded and analyzed using Grounded Theory to examine underlying themes of healthy aging in the Circumpolar North. The findings reveal the importance older adults place on respect, their relationship to the land, and psychosocial resilience into multidimensional models of healthy aging. This research also highlights the need for increased translational research with populations in the Circumpolar North that are under-represented in the literature.

A systematic search was conducted for peer-reviewed articles across Google Scholar, PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Academic Search Premier, PsycARTICLES, Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection, Web of Science, and Arctic Health databases for articles published between January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2018. The following search words were used: healthy aging or successful aging, and perspectives, perceptions, or qualitative research, and Circumpolar North, Arctic, Subarctic, Canada, Finland, Denmark, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, or Alaska.

Included studies were published in English and comprised of qualitative research that may have included narratives, experiences, and/or lay perspectives on healthy or successful aging among community-dwelling older adults. Studies were selected if they included people over age 50 years old as interviewees or key informants. “Elder” is defined differently in many immigrant and Indigenous communities of the Circumpolar North. Therefore five articles in this analysis (Collings, 2000, 2001; Hopkins et al., 2007; Torres, 2001, 2003) included individuals as young as 35-40 years old because that cutpoint made the most sense in those communities between “young” and “old.” Since participants in these studies included individuals over the age of 50 they were included in this analysis.

Studies were excluded from this analysis if participants were recruited from nursing homes and institutional settings because those individuals might have complicating medical conditions or social restrictions that could affect their viewpoints. Although these individuals do have important perspectives to be investigated in future research, they are currently outside the scope of this analysis. Review studies, articles dedicated to syntheses of professionals’ experiences and perceptions, and studies that quantitatively or objectively tried to measure seniors’ successful aging using a medical model were also excluded. Because this process involved many different search iterations and a careful reading of every abstract, 194 articles were assessed for eligibility by the first author, resulting in a total of 23 included articles. The second author then replicated these searches to verify that all possible articles were included.

 

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