| Title |
Does life story work improve psychosocial well-being for older adults in the community? A quasi-experimental study
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
BMC Geriatrics, May 2018
|
| DOI | 10.1186/s12877-018-0797-0 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Claudia K. Y. Lai, Ayumi Igarashi, Clare T. K. Yu, Kenny C. W. Chin |
| Abstract |
Previous studies have demonstrated that life story work has positive effects when used on older adults. This study aimed to examine the effect of life story work on the general mental well-being, self-esteem, and life satisfaction of older adults by comparing two groups - one with and one without depressive symptoms. A quasi-experimental design was adopted in this study. One hundred and twenty-three adults aged 60 or above were recruited from community centers through convenience sampling. They were allocated into two groups based on their level of depressive symptomatology as measured by the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). The intervention was to produce a written life story with pictures and memorabilia in four to six semi-structured sessions facilitated by trained volunteers. The outcome measures included general mental well-being (General Health Questionnaire, GHQ), life satisfaction (Life Satisfaction Scale Index A, LSI-A), and self-esteem (Rosenberg's Self-esteem Scale, RSES). Data were collected at baseline (T0), immediately post-intervention (T1), and at the 3-month follow-up (T2). Generalized estimating equations were used to examine the effect of the intervention on the outcomes. There was a significant interaction effect between the two groups at T1 (β = 0.244, p < 0.05) with improvements in the GHQ observed in the group with depressive symptomology. No significant time and interaction effects were seen on the LSI-A and RSES. The Friedman test was also used to examine whether the intervention itself would have any effects on the GDS score, with two groups combined. A reduction in the mean GDS score was found to be close to reaching a level of significance (χ2 = 5.912, p = 0.052). The findings of this study provided some preliminary evidence that life story work was effective at improving the general mental well-being of community-dwelling older adults with depressive symptomology. Because older adults with different levels of depressive symptoms might respond differently to life story work interventions, our findings offer interesting directions for future studies - for instance, on what population would benefit the most from Life Story Work and what would be the mechanism that renders Life Story Work effective. |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 82 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 82 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Master | 10 | 12% |
| Lecturer | 7 | 9% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 7 | 9% |
| Student > Bachelor | 6 | 7% |
| Professor > Associate Professor | 5 | 6% |
| Other | 15 | 18% |
| Unknown | 32 | 39% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Psychology | 12 | 15% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 11 | 13% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 8 | 10% |
| Social Sciences | 6 | 7% |
| Engineering | 3 | 4% |
| Other | 8 | 10% |
| Unknown | 34 | 41% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 13. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 14 February 2021.
All research outputs
#2,443,689
of 23,056,273 outputs
Outputs from BMC Geriatrics
#615
of 3,248 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#53,568
of 327,737 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Geriatrics
#21
of 57 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,056,273 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 89th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,248 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 9.4. This one has done well, scoring higher than 81% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 327,737 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 83% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 57 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 63% of its contemporaries.