Older people--United States

The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between mental, physical, and social activity, and episodic memory (EM) of cognitively intact older persons. The specific aims were (a) to describe the relationship between EM and mental, physical, and social activity, (b) to describe the role of gender, marital status, and race on EM, (c) to describe the moderating effects of each activity on the relationship between each of the remaining two activities and EM, and (d) to describe the moderating effects of gender, marital status, and race on the relationship between each activity and EM. Two theoretical frameworks: Cognitive Reserve Theory (Stern, 2002) and Theory of Nursing as Caring (Boykin & Schoenhofer, 1993) guided the study.
This study was designed as a correlational and retrospective secondary analysis of data sets from the Health and Retirement Study. The sample consisted of 3,903 cognitively intact persons who were 50 years and older and completed immediate and delayed recall tests in the 2016 HRS and the 2015 Consumptions and Activities Mail Survey. Descriptive statistics included the means for age: 67 (SD 9.54), education:13.85 (SD 5.89), and total cognition 16.86 (SD 3.11). The sample was predominantly Caucasian (78.3%), female (59.8%), and married (60.9%).

Over the past century, the elderly have been a growing proportion of the total population in the United States. Due to this, geographers have given increasing amount of attention to the study of the elderly. One of the areas where geography has made substantial contributions is in examining the concentration and spatial distribution. Two processes effect the spatial distribution: aging in place and migration. Historically, the origin and destination streams of interstate migrants have been highly concentrated; however, the destinations are now becoming more diffuse.