Incorporating Older Adult Voice Into Meaningful Research – ‘It's About Time’

Abstract

Incorporating the voice of older adults into all phases of research has the potential to make findings more relevant and impactful. Beyond the direct benefit, researchers have an ethical obligation to elicit the contributions of older adults into their work. Recently, organizations such as the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute in the United States, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the National Institute of Health Research in the United Kingdom have stepped up to accelerate the incorporation of public and patient voice into research, resulting in innovative engagement strategies for involving stakeholders, including older adults in research. However, those who are physically and mentally capable are more often included in research than those with multiple chronic conditions or living with disabilities. The ability to incorporate older adult voice into research is possible and has provided tangible benefits to researchers. Older adults have expertise based on their lived experiences that can provide invaluable insights on how to conduct research with real-world applications. Programmes such as the Bureau of Sages have worked to implement and disseminate best practices and guidelines for incorporating the voice of older adults into research. Principles for engaging older adults include flexibility, mutual engagement of the older adult and the researcher, time for rapport building and partner development and increased focus on accessibility. By working to understand these principles and overcome challenges to incorporating older adult voice into research, research will be more meaningful and relevant to the public, and will inherently include a focus on translation of research into practice.

Citation

Eisenstein, A.R., Berman, R.L.H. and Abbott, K.M. (2023), "Incorporating Older Adult Voice Into Meaningful Research – ‘It's About Time’", O'Sullivan, R. (Ed.) Ethics and Integrity in Research with Older People and Service Users (Advances in Research Ethics and Integrity, Vol. 9), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 39-56. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2398-601820230000009003