Where Are All the Men? A Qualitative Review of the Barriers, Facilitators, and Recommendations to Older Male Participation in Health Promotion Interventions.

OBJECTIVE: Older men have lower participation rates than females in health promotion interventions. We conducted a qualitative review of 20 years of existing research across a variety of academic search databases to outline the barriers, facilitators, and recommendations for this imbalance. DATA SOURCE: A systematic search was conducted across Google Scholar, PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Academic Search Premier, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, and Web of Science from dates January 1, 2000 - December 31, 2020. STUDY INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION CRITERIA: Abstracts were screened based on: original research, English language, recruitment or participation, health promotion or health program, and male gender. DATA EXTRACTION: Of 1194 initial search results, 383 article abstracts were thoroughly screened for inclusion and 26 articles met inclusion criteria. SYNTHESIS: Included studies were coded and analyzed using Grounded Theory. RESULTS: Barriers included masculine gender roles as well as program scope, environment, and gender of the instructors and other participants. Facilitators included creating social groups of older males that participate in a variety of activities together, including hobbies and health promotion, over a long period of time. CONCLUSION: Health promotion interventions should involve men in all aspects of program planning and implementation, take into account men's existing relationships and interests to create gender-sensitive programming, and clearly delineate the benefits to participation.

Utilizing the "One Health" Model to Study Human Aging in Urban Environments.

The "One Health" concept has resulted in a rich research literature that integrates human and animal systems, with a focus on zoonotic diseases; however, this narrow focus is at the expense of one of the leading causes of global human mortality: non-infectious, chronic diseases. Here, we provide a viewpoint that applying the integrated One Health framework to public health issues such as the impact of stressful urban environments on the process of human aging has the potential to elucidate potential causal mechanisms that have previously gone unnoticed. Given the success of the One Health paradigm in studying human health in rural areas, we posit that this model would be a useful tool for studying human, animal, and environmental interactions in urban settings.

"With Age Comes Wisdom:" a Qualitative Review of Elder Perspectives on Healthy Aging in the Circumpolar North.

Cross-cultural research has shown marked variation in health outcomes across the world's older adult populations. Indeed, older adults in the Circumpolar North experience a variety of health disparities. 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.

Healthy ageing in the far North: perspectives and prescriptions.

Objectives: This study captured factors integral to healthy ageing in central Alaska. To date, conceptual models fail to meaningfully address how healthy ageing is impacted by location and context, particularly in remote or sparsely populated areas. The way "healthy", or "successful", ageing is defined in an extreme environment, and how that contrasts with global definitions of healthy ageing, has yet to be examined.Method: Residents of central Alaska aged 60 and older completed background demographics and several measures of personality and well-being and then engaged in a guided discussion.Results: Themes identified as important to healthy ageing were attitude/perspective, socialisation, sense of community, purpose and staying active, and independence. Challenges endorsed included service gaps, transportation, seasonality, cost of living, and isolation.Discussion: The current data parallels previous investigations of healthy ageing and provides a new understanding of the importance of resilience factors for those living in central Alaska.