A Health Education Program to Increase Hope and Improve Energy Balance among Seniors in the Urban Subarctic

Health education has been shown to improve dietary and physical activity behaviors for older adults, resulting in increased quality of life; however, changes appear difficult for older adults to maintain. This project uses preliminary data from a pilot project to: create a curriculum using asset-based, positive, hope-based healthy aging messaging; create rigorous program evaluation measures; and improve the research environment at UAA by substantially involving undergraduate students throughout the project.

Health Education Program

Improv to Improve: An Improvisational Communications Training Program for Dementia Caregivers in Anchorage

Improv to Improve is a novel training for dementia caregivers to build resilience and improve social caregiving situations. Family caregivers will learn and practice communication techniques to build skills around accepting the unexpected, dealing with uncertainty, and responding positively to their loved ones with dementia in a fun and social environment.

Improv to Improve

Aging in Anchorage: A Service-Learning Undergraduate Project to Assess Community Needs

In order to learn more about service availability in Anchorage, the gaps in these services, and the services required by aging members of the community, an ethnographic approach is being utilized through collaboration with the Anchorage Aging & Disability Resource Center.

Aging in Anchorage

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.

Defining Healthy Aging

Healthy Aging in the Circumpolar North Using Concept Mapping

The research question: how do older adults conceptualize healthy aging in Anchorage, and what are the barriers and facilitators to aging well in this urban subarctic environment? This question is being addressed with research objectives using Concept Mapping (CM) methodology.

Concept Mapping

Friendships Forged in Fitness: An Ethnography of Women's Social Experiences At A Local Fitness Center

This proposed project is an ethnographic exploration of the social relationships created and maintained in the context of water-based fitness classes (water aerobics) at a local community center (YMCA) that is attended by a diverse group of older adults.

Friendships Forged in Fitness

Bringing Community Wellness Breaks to Low-Income Seniors

The Healthy Aging Lab is conducting a joint project that will benefit the students of three different, but closely related departments: health sciences (HS), dietetics & nutrition (DN), and health, physical education, and recreation (HPER) to bring a health promotion program to low-income seniors (aged 50+ years) in an diverse, East Anchorage housing community for low-income seniors (aged 50+).

Community Wellness Breaks