Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

Learning and health for older adults, a systematic review of research

Little has been done to map the field regarding the relations between older adults institutionalized and organized learning and health. The aim of this systematic literature review, is to get a deeper understanding of the relations and to further identify the research gaps in this field. The review can work as a starting point for further research designs. 

The methodological guidance for this review is set out by Systematic approaches to a successful literature review (Booth et al., 2016) and Systematic Mapping and Analysis of Research Topographies, SMART (Nilholm, 2017). To find suitable keywords the ”Pearl growing model” (Booth et al., 2016) has been used. It is the process of using a relevant article, to search for other relevant articles and keywords. 

Then the thesaurus in the database ERIC were used to find more search terms. All search terms have been combined with the Boolean operators OR, AND to make a suitable number of searches in the three databases, Scopus, Web of Science and ERIC. In total, 45 studies from were analyzed. The inclusion criteria for the study are.

• It must be empirical.
• The analysed learning must be organised or institutionalized. The learning context must not be created just for this study.
• The aim of the article must involve the relation between health/wellbeing and learning for older adults.
• The participants in the study must be older adults or older people. Other age groups can be included, if the older adults can be analysed as a separate group. However, the age range vary. In international studies the definition of older adults often starts at 50. But it is important that the participants are described as older by the researcher. 

After the selection of relevant articles, conceptual analysis was applied to identify different definitions and concepts used to describe health and learning, and also the relation between them. Guiding analytical questions are: How are learning and health defined and what concepts have been used to explain them. What are the connections between older adults’ health and learning? What kind of learning takes place in different learning contexts?

The results of the systematic review show a shortcoming in the field regarding explanations of the learning taking place in different contexts, and no deeper understanding regarding different learning processes when older adults engage in learning activities is given. The field further uses different concepts to define health. Most of the research have been quantitative in their attempts to measure health and wellbeing. They have found a connection between older adults learning and health in terms of for example higher psychological wellbeing and quality of life. The results also demonstrate that more research need to be done regarding the learning processes in different contexts. There is also a need for more qualitative research about how learning contributes to older adults’ health and how health can be understood in a wider more salutogenic perspective.