Purpose
Self-neglect among older adults results in increased morbidity and mortality rates. Depression is strongly linked to self-neglect and when untreated severely complicates management of health and functional outcomes. The study aims to identify factors correlated with depression to inform approaches to service recruitment and retention that improve long-term outcomes.
Methods
The sample included urban community-dwelling older adults (n=96), 65-years of age and older with Adult Protective Services substantiated self-neglect. All participants completed a range of validated cognitive, functional and self-report demographic and clinical measures around health and mental health functioning.
Results
A secondary data analysis using multivariable logistic regression revealed that a positive screen for alcohol abuse, low self-rated health, and higher self-reported pain were associated with significantly higher odds of self-reported depression.
Implications
Further research is needed to understand the temporality between these correlates and depression and to inform prevention and intervention practices for self-neglecting older adults.
Drug use among older adults is a growing concern, particularly for the burgeoning Hispanic population. Older adults seeking drug treatment will double over the next decade to almost 6 million. Cultural factors influence drug use, and more specifically, Hispanic cultural values influence heroin use. This study explored Mexican-American injection drug users' adherence to traditional Hispanic cultural values and their impact on cessation. Ethnographic interviews endorsed contextualized influences of values on heroin use. Cultural values functioned dichotomously, influencing both initiation and cessation. Understanding the impact of cultural values on substance abuse is critical given the changing demographics in American society.
This article describes social capital in a cohort of 227 Mexican American men who are long-term injection heroin users. Social capital scores for current and former users were similar, suggesting equal absolute values of capital, but associated with illicit activities in current users and with cessation efforts in former users. Stable drug-using relationships provided high negative capital, whereas conventional relationships provided positive capital. Thus, social capital functions dichotomously in positive and negative contextualized roles. This study provides an alternative understanding of the dynamic interactions between individuals, environment, and drug abuse and can inform prevention and treatment interventions for an important demographic group.
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