UT News, January 20, 2004
By Rebecca Maggard
According to a study sponsored by the Urban Affairs Center, there is a direct positive link between giving institutionalized senior citizens the opportunity to act as a mentor and teacher for young people and improvements in the senior's general health.
The study, "Remembering the Good Old Days Can Improve the Quality of Senior Adults," was led by Drs. Thomas tatchell and Timothy Jordan, assistant professors of public health in the College of Health and Human Services. According to Jordan, the study demontrated institutionalized seniors who received transmissive reminiscence therapy (TRT) reported significant improvements in general health, social functioning, energy level and general well-being. TRT is a therapeutic approach tehat puts seniors into meaningful teaching roles by having them transmit knowledge, life lessons and moral instruction to the young via storytelling and oral history.
"The scientific literature is very clear about the strong association between mental and physical health. Many institutionalized seniors experience a lcak of autonomy, power, freedom and usefulness and may become depressed as a result," Jordan said. "Because of teh study's results, we peopose that one-on-one TRT may prove to be a valuable, simple, safe, inexpensive and easily replicable therapeutic modality for this growing population."
For the study, approximately 100 nursing home residents from the Toledo area were divided into two groups, anexperimental groups and a control group. Trained UT student facilitators met with the experimental group once a week for five weeks and prompted the seniors to recount past experiences and share their personal wisdom.
Those that did receoive the therapy reported significant improvements in several areas of their health. Those who did not experienced no significant positive changes in any area of health over the sam etime period and reported significant negative changes in tow areas: general health and an increase in bodily pain.
According to Tachell, the next step in this line of research is to attempt to rule out that the increase in general health, social functioning, energy level and general well-being was not caued by a social-interaction effect. "We have a study in progress to determine if it was indeed the therapy and not just human interaction that made the difference," Tachell said. "If we can prove that, it is likely that TRT will be more widely adopted."
For a copy of the study, visit the Urban Affairs Center web site at http://uac.utoledo.edu.