This workshop will cover all phases of research, from how to settle on an impactful but feasible project, co-design and respectful partnerships with older people, networking with relevant community organisations, common pitfalls in methodology and data write-up, targeting the right journal and audience for your work, and tips for setting the stage for your next career move in the field.

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Inaugural Healthy Ageing Initiative
HDR Workshop: Ageing Overview
Dr. Nancy A. Pachana, FAPS, FASSA
Director, Healthy Ageing Initiative
The University of Queensland
Brisbane, Australia

2. We acknowledge the Turrbal/Jagera people as
Traditional Owners and their custodianship of
the lands on which we meet today.
We pay our respect to their Ancestors and
their descendants, who continue cultural and
spiritual connections to Country.
We recognise their valuable contributions to
Australian and global society, and their
positive model of later life engagement.
Acknowledgement of Country

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Everyone is the age of their
heart.
--Guatemalan Proverb

4. 1. Settling on a topic: impact and feasibility considerations
2. Co-design and respectful partnerships in this space
3. Ethical considerations
4. Pitfalls in methodology and write-up
5. Targeting journals, co-authorship
6. Next steps: mentoring, post-degree opportunities, professional
societies
7. YOUR BURNING QUESTIONS?
Topics Covered

5. A global collaboration, aligned with the last ten years of
the Sustainable Development Goals, that brings
together governments, civil society, international agencies,
professionals, academia, the media, and the
private sector to improve the lives of older people, their
families, and the communities in which they live.

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7. • Nancy’s story
• Your story!
1. Settling on a topic
For if men are sensible and good-tempered, old age is easy enough to bear; if not, youth as well as age
is a burden. -Plato’s Republic

8. • Know your older person!
2. Co-design and respectful partnerships

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https://cdpc.sydney.edu.au/news/involving-consumers-in-research/

12. • Know your potential collaborators!
• Seek further clarification and information from any number of people
(gerontological researchers at other institutions, older adults, peak
bodies, organisations specialising in older people, fellow researchers
with technical, if not discipline-specific, knowledge).
2. Co-design and respectful partnerships

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14. 3. Ethics

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3. Ethical Dilemmas? Examples
• Cognitively testing everyone over 65, or assuming lack of capacity
or requiring proof of capacity for those over 65+
• Arbitrary age limits on research studies
• Can’t use the internet (75% of those aged 65-75 use the internet
regularly in Australia)

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17. • goal to describe researchers' experiences submitting ethics proposals
focused on older adult populations/persons with dementia, to HRECs
• N = 157 (73% female) from AUS and USA; mean age of 46 (±13)
• inductive content analysis of responses revealed a range of
encounters with ethical review panels spanning positive, negative,
and neutral experiences
• Positive interactions with the committees reinforced researchers' need
to carefully construct their research approaches with persons with
dementia in particular.
Study results

18. • informed consent and information requirements (61.1%)
• participants' vulnerability, particularly for those with cognitive
impairments (58.6%) {vulnerable groups status to change}
• participant burden (44.6%)
• data access (29.3%)
• adverse effects of data collection/intervention (26.8%)
• study methodology (25.5%)
Issues Encountered

19. • committees being overly focused on legal risk
• not always hearing the voice of older research participants, both
potential and actual
• inability to move forward on studies, as well as loss of researchers
and participant groups from gerontological and clinical research as a
result of negative interactions with ethics committees
• study methodology (25.5%)
Concerns raised

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21. Key Points
• Research to improve the quality of care for people living with dementia
requires representation from people experiencing all stages of the
condition (i.e. mild, moderate, severe).
• Previous work has shown that researchers may avoid involving people
with dementia in their studies due to negative HREC experiences.
• There is a difference between capacity to provide informed consent and
ability to provide perspectives that are valid for each individual. Providing
the opportunity for a person with dementia to participate in research and
offering support to do this is a matter of human rights.

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Breakout Table Question #1: 10 minutes
• What are you main questions with ethics?
• What would make life better?
Immoderate youth hands on a worn-out body to old age.
– On Old Age, Cicero

23. • Looking at ageing as the problem
• Age assumed to be causal
• Ignoring positives (example of caregiving)
• Ignoring intersectionality (also recruiting in too narrow a range)
• Use the right tools
• Reporting age differences as a finding without clear rationale
• Ageism and its effects
4. Pitfalls in Methodology & Write-up

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25. Stereotype Embodiment Theory
1. Ageist stereotypes are internalised from childhood via multiple mechanisms
(e.g. media) and continue throughout the lifespan.
2. They operate unconsciously, and are unquestioned for the greater part of
one’s life.
3. These stereotypes increase in power as they become more self-relevant, a
convenient but sinister explainer of all variance.
4. Three pathways allow ageist stereotypes their influence on health and
wellbeing: PSYCHOLOGICAL (e.g. self-esteem); BEHAVIOURAL (e.g.
neglect of health behaviours; BIOLOGICAL (e.g. cortisol and stress)

26. Measuring Ageism
WEISS & DIEL (2021) (N)EBA
• To a large extent, a person’s age biologically determines his or
her abilities.
• Aging is an irreversible biological process and cannot be
influenced.
• Age is just a number and does not say much about a person.
• No matter at what point in life, you can always influence your
own ageing.

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Internalised ageism: 7.5 years of life lost
Levy et al (2002). Longevity increased by positive
self-perceptions of aging. J Personality & Soc
Psych, 83, 261-270).

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Terms for older adults
• Avoid using terms such as “seniors,” “elderly,” “the aged,” “aging dependents,” and similar “othering” terms
because they connote a stereotype and suggest that members of the group are not part of society but
rather a group apart (see Lundebjerg et al., 2017; Sweetland et al., 2017)
• Gerontologists may use combination terms for older age groups (e.g., “young-old,” “old-old,” “oldest old”);
provide the specific ages of these groups when introducing them in your paper, and use the group names
only as adjectives, not as nouns (i.e., refer to “young-old individuals,” not to “the young-old”). When
contrasting older adults with adults of other ages, describe that other age group specifically (e.g., young
adults vs. older adults, middle-aged adults vs. older adults).
• Use “people with dementia” or (better) “persons living with dementia”
https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/bias-free-language/age

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30. Pachana, N.A. & H.-W. Wahl. (in
press). Healthy aging: Current
and future frameworks and
developments. In G. Asmundson
(Ed.), Comprehensive Clinical
Psychology. Oxford, UK:
Elsevier.

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Every man desires to live long,
but no man would be old. --Jonathan
Swift (1667–1745)

32. • How to know where to have your conversations
• Writing gets easier as does submissions
• Co-authorship should be discussed early
5. Targeting Journals, Co-authorship

33. Gerontology and Geriatrics Gerontology

34. • PREPARE for job interviews and especially for JOB TALKS
• Mentoring NETWORK
• POST-DOCS vs other options
• Professional societies, community groups
• Making room for life
6. Next steps: mentoring, post-degree
opportunities, professional societies

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BUT IS RATHER SPECIFIC TO THE US CONTEXT PRE-COVID….

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Breakout Table Question #2:
• What are your 3 MAIN goals as a researcher?
• What are your 3 MAIN identities in 10 years?
MAKE A PIE CHART FOR
EACH QUESTION……

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The afternoon knows what the
morning never suspected. --Swedish
Proverb
Thank you!
Nancy is at:
n.pachana@psy.uq.edu.au