Albertans4HealthResearch.ca

Racial and ethnic disparities in emotional support among older adults in Canada
University of Alberta

Background
Supporting older adults emotionally is key to maintaining their health and well-being. Multiple factors such as age, sex, marital status, medical conditions, social relationships have been demonstrated to influence older adults’ emotional support. Among these factors, racial and ethnic differences in older adults’ emotional support are particularly poorly examined in Canada, despite Canada’s increasing racial and ethnic diversity. Identifying racial and ethnic disparities in older adults’ emotional support is a prerequisite– and understanding which populations particularly lack emotional support will help to prevent associated adverse outcomes, including loneliness, anxiety, and low quality of life. This study will provide important knowledge that can be used to develop tailored interventions and inform policies to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in older adult’s emotional support, and related adverse health outcomes. Through this research project, we aim to identify ethnic disparities in emotional support among community residing Canadian older adults.

Roles and Responsibilities
Patient research partners will be involved as advisory group members. They will be involved in online discussion via Zoom. We will conduct one hour Zoom-based group discussion after obtaining the findings from the study, most likely between March – December 2023.

This project is looking for patient partners who meet all of the following criteria:
-who are Canadian older adult (65+ years of age) residing in community and of Black, Chinese, South Asian, and White ethnic background
-who are receiving support from either family/friend caregivers or formal caregivers
-who are comfortable participating in discussions (in English) via Zoom

Time Commitment
The expected timeframe for patient partner involvement in this project is from March 2023 to December 2023. We will conduct one Zoom based discussion anticipated to be one-hour long.

Compensation/Reimbursement
Patient partners will be offered an honorarium of $50 per person for their involvement in the discussion group in recognition of time and essential collaboration to this project.

For more information or to apply, please connect with
Rashmi Devkota
rdevkota@ualberta.ca