Effectiveness of a lifestyle intervention in promoting the well-being of older people - Essay Example

Effectiveness of a lifestyle intervention in promoting the well-being of independently living older people While there is no need for justification of occupational therapy intervention for older adults due to the obvious necessity, it is still important to note that currently there is a number of studies that investigate the problematic of this issue. Among such studies, there is an article by Clark, Jackson, Carlson et al. (2012) that evaluated the relevance and efficiency of a lifestyle intervention for this particular group of population.

Not only the study confirms the positive impact of the OT intervention but it also delivers the idea of readiness as one of the factors that are obligatory for the practice of this intervention becoming a working mechanism. This idea is crucial not only because it is justified by the authors but because it deals with application of the theoretical concept on practice. The question that is posed through it is whether older adults, as well as government and administrative agents would be able to accept the changes and utilize the tool of lifestyle intervention for improvement of the well-being of elderly people.

Currently, it seems that there is still lack of understanding, especially from older adults about the relevance of this OT practice. This is demonstrated by the number of dropout subjects who were not ready for the changes to happen despite the positive results foreseen. (Clark, Jackson, Carlson et al., 2012, p. 788) In this regard, the questions that are to be addressed are not only within the theoretical area of research but also within increasing the awareness among the patients about the usability of the lifestyle intervention and accepting its positive impact.

These questions warrant further research as they would allow the practice to become applicable in real-life situations. This would bring benefits to both older adults as well as other stakeholders including researchers, younger populations, government and administrative agents, etc. References Clark, F., Jackson, J., Carlson, M., Chou,C.-P., Cherry, B. J., Jordan-Marsh, M., Knight, B. G., Mandel, D., Blanchard, J., Granger, D. A., Wilcox, R. R., Lai, M. Y., White, B., Hay, J., Lam, C., Marterella, A.

, & Azen, S. P. (2012). Effectiveness of a lifestyle intervention in promoting the well-being of independently living older people: Results of the Well Elderly 2 Randomised Controlled Trial. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 66, 782-790.