Network Aging Research, 9144Heidelberg University, Germany.
Bavarian Care and Nursing Authority, Amberg, Germany.
Res Aging. 2021 Oct-Dec;43(9-10):416-427. doi: 10.1177/0164027520949090. Epub 2020 Sep 10.
Older adults are often exposed to elderspeak, a specialized speech register linked with negative outcomes. However, previous research has mainly been conducted in nursing homes without considering multiple contextual conditions. Based on a novel contextually-driven framework, we examined elderspeak in an acute general versus geriatric German hospital setting. Individual-level information such as cognitive impairment (CI) and audio-recorded data from care interactions between 105 older patients ( = 83.2 years; 49% with severe CI) and 34 registered nurses ( = 38.9 years) were assessed. Psycholinguistic analyses were based on manual coding (κ = .85 to κ = .97) and computer-assisted procedures. First, diminutives (61%), collective pronouns (70%), and tag questions (97%) were detected. Second, patients' functional impairment emerged as an important factor for elderspeak. Our study suggests that functional impairment may be a more salient trigger of stereotype activation than CI and that elderspeak deserves more attention in acute hospital settings.
老年人经常会接触到老年言语，这是一种与负面结果相关的特殊言语变体。然而，以前的研究主要是在养老院进行的，没有考虑到多种情境条件。基于一个新颖的情境驱动框架，我们在德国的一家急性综合医院和老年医院环境中考察了老年言语。我们评估了 105 名老年患者（年龄 = 83.2 岁，49%患有严重认知障碍）和 34 名注册护士（年龄 = 38.9 岁）之间的个体水平信息（如认知障碍）和护理互动的音频记录数据。基于手动编码（κ =.85 至 κ =.97）和计算机辅助程序进行心理语言分析。首先，发现了 61%的弱化词、70%的集合代词和 97%的附加疑问句。其次，患者的功能障碍成为老年言语的一个重要触发因素。我们的研究表明，功能障碍可能比认知障碍更能引发刻板印象的激活，而在急性医院环境中，老年言语值得更多关注。
