New York: Sarayu Nandikonda of Syosset High School and Her Insights

Hi! I'm Sarayu and I am 15 years old, attending high school in New York. My interests include microbiology and neuroscience. One day, I hope to become a research oncologist or a neurologist. In my free time, I like to cook, watch many different kinds of movies, spend time with my friends and family, and travel to many different destinations.

Reviewed Article: The relationship between health-promoting lifestyles and depression in the elderly: roles of aging perceptions and social support by Wei Zhou, Defeng Chen, Zijing Hong, Hang Fan, Shen Liu and Lin Zhang

Main Argument & Findings:

The objective of this article is to address the influence of health-promoting lifestyles, any type of aging perceptions, social supporting and other psychosocial factors that may have an impact on elderly depression. Aging perception and various types of social support can be heavily influential to the mental well being of the elderly as age-wise depression can later increase the risks of developing neurodegenerative diseases like dementia (Zhou et. al, 2021). This journal article conducted a cross-sectional survey among hundreds of elderly people in various districts in China to asses their lifestyles, their social support, and any societal pressures that may hurt them mentally or emotionally. One of the results of this study was how a healthy-promoting lifestyle with little stress or hardship, frequent exercise and movement, and an emphasize on mental health and wellbeing showed significant improvement in preventing or decreasing elderly depression. Around 31.8% of the elders surveyed showed a positive health-promoting lifestyle, and these elders were the ones in the survey who were of the least risk of elderly depression and later had lower risk of developing any kind of neurodegenerative disease (Zhou et. al, 2021).

This article impacted my understanding of neurodegenerative diseases in the elderly as it specified the important of maintaining a happy and balanced life as you get older, and the important of mental healthy and a state of happiness. Initially, I believed that the cause for neurodegenerative diseases was due to genetics, protein accumulation, or metabolic factors, but now I understand that social support and mental health also plays an influential role in preventing cognitive decline later in life.

Importance for Youth:

The information from this article is important for the youth to acknowledge as they can play a subsequent role in the social support and mental health of the elderly. The youth is the new generation, and together the youth can help their elders in their time of need and make sure that the elders' health, both physical and mental, is well, to prevent them from being at high risk of cognitive decline. This article encourages a positive and healthy lifestyle for elders which includes the youth actively helping elders, whether it is with simple household chores to help them at home, or whether it is spending time with grandparents to make sure they are always cared for and acknowledged.

What I Learned: 

From this article, I have learnt the importance of mental health in elders as it prevents neurodegenerative diseases and how proper social support can also prevent any cognitive decline later in life. There are many causes for cognitive decline in the elderly some of which can't be controlled such as genetics, but the aspects that can be controlled such as social support, age perceptions and health-promoting lifestyles, can be manipulated to effectively try and prevent any neurodegenerative diseases. I have learnt the significance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, especially emotionally, in the elderly to prevent cognitive decline. Using the information from this article, I will further help my community and my elders by supporting them with simple but important tasks to show how I care for them. Also spending time with grandparents and making an effort is a crucial aspect of social support and encouragement.

Citations:  Zhou, W., Chen, D., Hong, Z., Fan, H., Liu, S., & Zhang, L. (2021). The relationship between health-promoting lifestyles and depression in the elderly. Quality of Life Research, 30(3), 721-728.