TOPIC

Older adults research

Everything we have read on older adults. Each paper is summarised from the full article rather than its abstract, so the limitations are in there too, and the funding wherever the paper declares it.

881 PAPERS · PAGE 13 OF 18 · NEWEST FIRST

• RNQualitative2026What are the barriers and facilitators to advance care planning with older people in long-term care facilities? A qualitative study.Journal of clinical nursingIn Chinese long-term care, families and staff often avoided death talk, residents' spontaneous end-of-life wishes were interrupted, and guardians' decisions were legally uncertain. Nurses may need to capture these talks, assess readiness, and clarify palliative options.
• RNSurvey2026Factors Associated with Advance Care Planning Engagement Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of clinical nursingOlder adults with higher anxiety or decisional conflict engaged less in advance care planning. Depression showed no association. Decisional conflict mediated the link between anxiety and reduced engagement, suggesting clarity in care options is key.
• RNSystematic Review2026Virtual reality-based reminiscence therapy for older adults to improve psychological well-being and cognition: A systematic review.Journal of clinical nursingOlder adults generally enjoyed virtual reality reminiscence and had little cybersickness, but effects on anxiety, depression and cognition were mixed. It may help recall personal memories, not prove broader cognitive or mood benefits.
• RNQualitative2025Nurse-sensitive quality and benchmarking in hospitals striving for Magnet® or Pathway® designation: A qualitative study.Journal of advanced nursingManagers in German hospitals seeking Magnet or Pathway designation found nurse-sensitive data scarce. Pressure ulcer and fall tracking was inconsistent. They identified clinician buy-in, academic nursing staff, and electronic records as prerequisites for any meaningful benchmarking.
• RNSystematic Review2025Care quality and safety in long-term aged care settings: A systematic review and narrative analysis of missed care measurements.Journal of advanced nursingThere is no established gold standard for measuring missed care in long-term aged care. Most tools rely on staff self-report, and evidence is too weak to recommend one.
• PTOTSLPRNSystematic Review2026Perceptions and Experiences of Animal-Assisted Interventions for People Living With Dementia: A Qualitative Evidence Synthesis.Journal of clinical nursingPeople with dementia often engage with animal-assisted interventions after initial hesitation, driven by prior positive experiences with animals. Success depends on flexible, individualized sessions and staff training to manage sensory overload, fall risks, and behavioral challenges in care homes.
• PTOTSLPRNOther2025Palliative Home Care Based on Clinically Relevant Scientific Measures: A Cross-Sectional Study.The American journal of hospice & palliative carePatients with heart failure and dementia and their caregivers rated symptoms similarly, but caregivers reported more concern about pain and information needs. Higher patient symptom scores predicted worse heart health and greater caregiver burden. The practical problems item did not agree between pairs.
• RNCohort2025Multi-Level Factors Influencing eHealth Literacy Among Chinese Older Adults: A Longitudinal Study.Journal of advanced nursingOlder Chinese adults with chronic conditions, lower education, rural residence, or who live alone had persistently lower eHealth literacy over six months. Those with more internet experience, better self-rated skills, and social support for online health use had higher literacy. Access alone does not guarantee effective use.
• RNCohort2024Warfarin Versus Non-Vitamin K Inhibitors Medications and Cognitive Disease Progression in Atrial Fibrillation.The Journal of cardiovascular nursingWarfarin and newer anticoagulants showed no difference in how quickly patients with atrial fibrillation progressed from normal thinking to dementia. Switching between these drug classes is not supported by evidence of a cognitive benefit.
• PTOTRNOther2026Gender Differences in Disease Burden, Symptom Burden, and Quality of Life Among People Living With Heart Failure and Multimorbidity: Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of advanced nursingOlder women with heart failure and multimorbidity reported higher disease burden, more pain, tiredness, nausea and lack of appetite, and worse quality of life than men. The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot explain causes or show what treatment helps.
• RNSystematic Review2026Sociodemographic Disparities in the Use of Hospice by U.S. Nursing Home Residents: A Systematic Review.The American journal of hospice & palliative careNursing home residents who were male, non-White, or in rural facilities were less likely to use hospice in studies accounting for other factors. Evidence was old and mixed, so these findings should not be treated as proof of why use differs.
• PTOTRNCohort2025SANTANA Cohort: Study on Frailty in Institutionalised Older Adults and Its Relationship With Gordon's Functional Health Patterns.Journal of advanced nursingIn 1245 nursing home residents, frailty was present in 25% at baseline and 51.7% after 5 years. Nurses' activity-exercise and social-relationship assessments tracked frailty, but the study did not test whether this changes patient care.
• RNSurvey2026Successful Aging and Happiness Level in the Elderly: The Mediating Role of General Self-Efficacy.Journal of clinical nursingIn nursing home residents, higher self-efficacy was linked to both greater happiness and more successful aging. Self-efficacy partially explained the link between aging well and happiness. This association does not prove that boosting self-efficacy causes better outcomes.
• RNOther2026Race and Ethnicity, Neighborhood Social Deprivation and Medicare Home Health Agency Quality for Persons Living With Serious Illness.The American journal of hospice & palliative careSeriously ill older adults in the US were less likely to receive home health care from high-quality agencies if they were Black, had Medicaid, or lived in more socially deprived neighborhoods. The gap by race did not depend on neighborhood deprivation.
• RNCohort2025Enhancing Adverse Event Reporting With Clinical Language Models: Inpatient Falls.Journal of advanced nursingFine-tuned BERT models and GPT-4 with tailored prompts could detect inpatient falls from nursing notes, and note review found 30% to 91% more unreported falls.
• PTRNRCT2025Digital Health Technologies to Promote Healthy Eating and Physical Activity and Reduce Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease in Older Adults: A Pilot Study.The Journal of cardiovascular nursingOlder adults at cardiovascular risk reduced calorie intake and increased activity over 12 weeks with counseling, a handbook, a scale, a blood pressure monitor, a transmitter, a Fitbit, and MyFitnessPal. The group receiving texts showed more activity and greater weight loss.
• RNCohort2026The Development of a Model to Predict Cognitive Decline Within 12 Months in Home Care Clients.Journal of clinical nursingA model using routine home-care assessments flagged clients without a dementia diagnosis who were likely to decline cognitively within 12 months. It was moderately accurate, so it can prompt further review rather than diagnose decline.
• PTRNOther2026Associations Between Frailty, Family Functioning, and Quality of Life in Adolescents With Congenital Heart Disease: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of advanced nursingAdolescents with congenital heart disease who were frail or had moderate or severe family dysfunction reported lower quality of life. Frailty was especially linked to exhaustion and reduced activity in those with worse heart function.
• OTRNPilot2025A Multi-Method Study to Develop and Pilot Test an Interprofessional Transitional Care Model for Frail Older Adults - AdvantAGE.Journal of advanced nursingAn interprofessional transitional care model, with nurse-led home visits, was piloted in 62 frail older adults; 14 were readmitted. It refined the model but did not test whether it reduces readmissions.
• RNSystematic Review2026Registered Nurse-Led Assessments in Australian Residential Aged Care Homes: A Scoping Review.Journal of advanced nursingAustralian aged care nurses use many different assessment approaches, but evidence that they reduce residents' emergency transfers or hospital admissions is mixed. Programmes often combine education, decision support and equipment, so one component cannot be credited.
• RNCohort2025Older Adults With Cardiovascular Disease and Their Care Partners: An Analysis of Care Needs, Care Activities, and Care Partner Stress and Mental Health.The Journal of cardiovascular nursingOlder adults with cardiovascular disease often need help with mobility, self-care, medications, and medical visits. Their unpaid care partners do many tasks and report stress, pain, and anxiety or depression symptoms. Ask who is helping, but this study did not test whether that changes outcomes.
• RNOther2026Multi Perspective Considerations for Health Smart Home: Early Phase Exploratory Study.Journal of advanced nursingHome care nurses, support workers, older adults and families saw smart-home sensors as useful for spotting changes in daily routines, but worried about privacy, alerts and unclear roles.
• RNSurvey2026The Relationship Between the Level of Satisfaction of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Loneliness, Happiness and Life Satisfaction in Elderly Individuals.Journal of clinical nursingOlder adults in Turkey who reported more loneliness also reported less satisfaction of their basic and social needs; those who were happier or more satisfied with life reported more needs satisfaction. This does not prove one causes the other.
• PTOTSLPRNQualitative2026Clinical Implications for Management of Falls in Hospital Patients with Communication Disability After Stroke: A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis.Journal of advanced nursingHospital falls after stroke often go unexplained when severe aphasia prevents patients describing what happened. Staff documented communication problems as cognition, used equipment, and missed adapted education. Multidisciplinary plans, family support and speech-language input suggest safer falls prevention.
• RNSystematic Review2026Nurse Practitioner-Sensitive Outcome Measures in Older Person Care: A Scoping Review.Journal of advanced nursingNurse practitioner-sensitive outcomes for older adults are not measured consistently. The review found varied outcome measures across included studies, so it cannot show what nursing care changed.
• RNOther2026Individual and Institutional Factors Associated With Urinary Incontinence Among Nursing Home Residents: A Multilevel Analysis.Journal of advanced nursingIn nursing homes, urinary incontinence was associated with residents' cognitive impairment, neurological disease and older age. Facility staffing, ownership and environment were not associated.
• RNCohort2026Relationship Between Health Literacy, Health Protective Behaviour, Quality of Life and Social Health in Older Adults Living in the Community.Journal of clinical nursingOlder adults had an average social health score of 50.48 ± 8.98 on a scale from 5 to 125. Lower scores were linked to older age, higher health literacy, lower quality of life, living alone, living with children, higher education and poor health perception.
• RNSurvey2026Advance Care Planning Engagement of Older Adults in the Emergency Department.The American journal of hospice & palliative careOlder emergency department patients rated advance care planning engagement 4.1 of 5, but only 37 (40%) had talked to doctors about end-of-life wishes. They preferred clinician conversations over websites or videos.
• RNOther2025Changes in Health Risks, Daily Activities, and Antipsychotic Use After Humanitude Care for People With Dementia: A Retrospective Study.Journal of clinical nursingIn 67 people with dementia, fall risk improved and antipsychotic use decreased after Humanitude care, but pressure ulcer risk and some daily tasks worsened. This before-and-after study cannot show the care caused the changes.
• OTRNSurvey2025Examining the Relationship Between Daily Activity Levels and Elder Abuse and Neglect: Bringing Light on Elder Abuse.Journal of advanced nursingDaily-activity dependence was not linked to elder abuse in 448 older adults in Turkey. Psychological abuse was most common, and family conflict or poor self-rated health were associated with higher abuse risk.
• RNCohort2025Nonlinear Relationship Between Vital Signs and Hospitalization/Emergency Department Visits Among Older Home Healthcare Patients and Critical Vital Sign Cutoff for Adverse Outcomes: Application of Generalized Additive Model.Clinical nursing researchAmong older home healthcare patients, hospitalization or ED visits were linked to a U-shaped risk pattern. Heart rate above 83.24 was linked to a sharp rise in modeled risk; critical points were 120.36 for systolic and 72.00 for diastolic pressure.
• RNSurvey2026Care Needs of Community-Dwelling Older Adults Living in Poverty and Their Relationship With Other Biopsychosocial Variables: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of advanced nursingHalf of older adults living in poverty had unmet needs for money and food budgets. Lower independence, higher loneliness, and poorer quality of life were linked to fewer met care needs. Assessing these social and functional factors is essential for this population.
• RNSystematic Review2026Palliative Care for People With Very Severe to Extreme Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD): A Scoping Review.Journal of advanced nursingAgitation in people with very severe BPSD in hospital was often treated with antipsychotics or restraint without checking pain, constipation, infection or delirium. Look for unmet needs, use behavioural and pain tools, and involve families and palliative care early.
• RNCohort2025Assessing and Managing Pain in Dementias: Insights From Interdisciplinary Text Message Communications.Pain management nursing : official journal of the American Society of Pain Management NursesPain was mentioned less often in nursing home transfer texts about residents with dementia. Pain words and medication mentions were lower than in texts about residents without dementia.
• RNOther2025Digital Dementia Education and Training for Informal Carers: A Scoping Review.Journal of clinical nursingEighteen studies mapped digital dementia education for informal carers using online platforms, video calls, apps and SMS. They reported outcomes such as knowledge, self-efficacy, stress, burden and quality of life, but did not test whether these tools work.
• RNRCT2025Interactive AI Routines for Pain Symptoms and Loneliness in Older Adults.Pain management nursing : official journal of the American Society of Pain Management NursesOlder adults living alone with chronic musculoskeletal pain did not report less pain severity after 12 weeks of voice-assistant routines combining meditation, games, music, and jokes. Pain interference, loneliness, and depression decreased in some groups, but no untreated control.
• RNOther2026Pain Assessment and Management Among Nursing Home Residents Living With Dementia.Pain management nursing : official journal of the American Society of Pain Management NursesIn nursing home residents with dementia, 74% had pain assessed with the wrong tool, and only three assessments used an observation tool appropriately. Pain was rarely recorded, but that may reflect poor assessment rather than good control.
• RNNarrative Review2026Social Frailty in Heart Failure: Concept, Impact and Preventive Strategies.Journal of advanced nursingHeart failure patients often have social frailty: inadequate support, loneliness or engagement. In cohorts it was linked to higher death and readmission risk, and poorer self-care, but no tested strategy for heart failure was shown.
• RNNarrative Review2025The Role of Technology Use in the Context of Social Isolation Among Immigrant Older Adults.The Canadian journal of nursing research = Revue canadienne de recherche en sciences infirmieresImmigrant older adults used technology to stay connected when local contact was hard, but language, low education, cost and digital skills limited access. This review does not show that technology or nurse screening improves isolation.
• RNCohort2026Model Predicting Positive Aspects of Caregiving Among Family Cares of Persons With Dementia: A Longitudinal Cohort Study.Journal of advanced nursingFamily carers of people with dementia reported more positive aspects of caregiving when they had confidence in controlling upsetting thoughts and getting respite, and when they reframed the situation. Active dementia management strategies did not predict this.
• PTOTRNMeta-Analysis2026Effects of Psychosocial Interventions on Loneliness Amongst Long-Term Care Residents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of advanced nursingFace-to-face group activities lasting under eight weeks cut loneliness in long-term care residents. Lifestyle activities like laughter, gardening and exercise worked better than psychological therapies. Virtual visits with family showed no benefit.
• RNSystematic Review2025How Do Spouses Experience Living Alone After Their Partner With Dementia Moves Into a Care Home?Journal of clinical nursingSpouses left at home after a partner with dementia enters a care home often describe loss, guilt and grief. Visiting can feel like duty, surveillance or relieving loneliness. Some report practical relief, yet many feel unable to move on.
• RNOther2026Regular Medications Administered to Older Adults in Aged Care Facilities: A Retrospective Descriptive Study.Journal of clinical nursingIn Australian aged care, 78% of older adults were administered five or more regular medications daily. Paracetamol and laxatives were most administered, and quetiapine was given to 6%. This shows medication burden, not whether these medicines should be stopped.
• RNSurvey2025Employment Status, Decision-Making, and Sleep Among Hispanic and Latinx Dementia Family Caregivers: A Secondary Data Analysis.Western journal of nursing researchHispanic and Latinx caregivers involved in more everyday decisions for relatives with dementia slept less each night. Full-time work alone was not associated with sleep, but the link between more decisions and shorter sleep was weaker among those employed full-time.
• RNSystematic Review2025Inclusion of Informal Carers in the Care of Older Adults in the Emergency Department: An Integrative Review.Journal of clinical nursingCarers of older adults in emergency departments provide vital baseline information and emotional support, but often feel excluded by restrictive policies or busy staff. Successful inclusion requires clear communication, carer education, and flexible visitation policies to ensure safe care and discharge.
• RNMeta-Analysis2026The Association Between Caregiver Psychosocial Factors and Depressive Symptoms in People With Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of advanced nursingCaregiver distress and lower caregiver quality of life showed the strongest links with more depressive symptoms in people with dementia; caregiver anxiety and relationship quality did not.
• RNQualitative2026Feasibility and Acceptability of the Smarthealth Intervention for Dementia Caregivers. A Qualitative Analysis of a Single-Group Pilot Study.Journal of advanced nursingTen dementia caregivers found the voice-based stress system useful for noticing stress and calming down, but alerts often came at bad times, messages felt generic, and setup or technical problems made participation burdensome. It did not test whether stress fell.
• RNSurvey2026Positive and Negative Appraisals and Quality of Life Among Family Caregivers of Adults With Formal Long-Term Care Needs: An Exploration of Model Using Structural Equation Modelling.Journal of clinical nursingAmong family caregivers, feeling caregiving was rewarding was linked to less burden; burden was strongly linked to lower quality of life. Nurse support, care-service satisfaction, secondary caregivers, and home-visit nursing were linked to more rewarding feelings.
• RNOther2025Translation, Adaptation, and Criterion Validation of the Family Caregiver Assessment Tool for French-Speaking Cardiovascular Patients in Canada (FAM-CAM-Fr).The Canadian journal of nursing research = Revue canadienne de recherche en sciences infirmieresIn 100 cardiovascular inpatients, the French caregiver FAM-CAM-Fr detected 58% of diagnosed delirium cases and rarely raised false alarms. Use it to add family observations, not to replace nurse assessment.
• RNCohort2026Predictors of Pressure Injuries in Older Residents Living in Nursing Homes in Sri Lanka: A Prospective Multi-Site Cohort Study.Journal of advanced nursingIn Sri Lankan nursing homes, having a pressure injury at baseline and having more medical devices were the only factors that predicted a new pressure injury in the final analysis. Check skin and device placement closely.