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The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of three types of perceived healthiness (physical, psychological and economic health) on restaurant consumption activities among senior consumers.

Data were collected from 325 restaurant customers in the USA through a Web-based survey conducted by an online marketing research firm. Following previous studies’ categorization of senior consumers, this study distinguished between “senior consumers” (age 60 or older) and “younger consumers” (age 39 or younger) to better compare different age-related behaviors. A series of two-way ANOVA was conducted for dining-out frequency and the number of choice sets.

The results revealed that senior diners’ perceptions of healthiness are critical in determining senior consumers’ restaurant behaviors, such as information processing and purchasing behaviors. The results provide evidence that seniors with a positive perception of their physical and psychological status seek a greater number of alternative restaurant choices, which is actively related to purchasing frequency.

The managerial implications indicate that restaurant marketers should avoid stereotypes and instead rely on more recent and accurate information regarding today’s senior consumers.

The position taken in this study recognizes the need to enhance the understanding of senior consumers’ patterns regarding their perceived physical, psychological and economic health. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to investigate the impact of three types of health on seniors’ dining behaviors.

Senior CHAT (Consumer Health Awareness Training) improved health information literacy and promoted better health outcomes through basic computer instruction among senior citizens in a healthcare impoverished Louisiana parish. Librarians at a state university in southeast Louisiana partnered with senior citizen centers to promote National Library of Medicine databases in a project funded by National Network/Libraries of Medicine/South Central Region. This paper seeks to describe and discuss this initiative.

Librarians responded to a community assessment demonstrating the need for basic computer instruction and increased health information literacy among the 1,800 clients served by the Tangipahoa Voluntary Council on Aging (TVCOA). Senior CHAT included two series of hands‐on classes with 25 students. Seniors were instructed in the use of MedlinePlus and NIHSeniorHealth databases. TVCOA staff were trained to continue to assist seniors after the project's completion. A Senior Citizen Consumer Health LibGuide was created and is a project legacy. Participants also created updatable portable personal health profiles.

Pre‐ and post‐instruction surveys suggest seniors increased usage of the databases post‐instruction. Over 70 percent of senior participants were able to create a personal health profile.

The elderly are at risk of poor health literacy. As the USA moves to a consumer‐centric health care system, these individuals need technology skills to take an active role in health care‐related decisions.

The project promoted lifelong learning in the region and forged new community partnerships. Its value lies in its reproducibility in a variety of community settings and its alignment with US Healthy People 2020 initiatives.

The purpose of this study is to identify the health information needs of senior online communities (SOCs) users, which could provide a basis for improving senior health information services.

A total of 14,933 health-related posts in the two most popular senior online communities (Yinling and Keai) in China are crawled as a corpus. Based on the results of word frequency analysis, text classification is performed based on two aspects: medical systems (Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine) and topics. The health information needs of SOCs users are revealed from the composition, growth trends and popularity of health information. Finally, some key points of senior health information services are discussed.

The health information needs of senior users can be divided into four types: coping with aging, dietary nutrition, physical exercise and mental health. These needs are comprehensive and involve a variety of health issues. Users are mainly concerned with physical health issues. In terms of medical systems, the number of Western medicine posts is relatively larger, whereas traditional Chinese medicine appears more in posts on coping with aging and physical exercise. The health information needs of SOCs users are in a stable status. Both the medical systems and topics could have an impact on the popularity of health information, but the number of posts is inconsistent with the level of popularity.

This study combines multiple perspectives to identify the health information needs of seniors in China with a comprehensive overview.

This paper explores the relationship between health promotion and active aging among seniors in Malaysia. The specific objectives were to (1) identify the contributing factors for seniors undergoing full medical check-up and (2) to explore the association between selected active aging factors and health promotion behavior and beliefs.

The study used data from 662 seniors from three different states in Peninsular Malaysia. Logistic regression was used to identify significant determinants of full medical check-up, and chi-square statistics were used to explore the association of active aging and selected health promotion behavior and beliefs. Healthy aging was characterized by being employed or traveling outdoors for leisure.

Household income was found to be a significant barrier to seniors undergoing a full medical check-up. Overall, active seniors were more likely to have positive self-rated health, positive health responsibility and health promotion beliefs but were less likely to undergo a full medical check-up.

Given that cost of a medical check-up could be a barrier for seniors, authorities could consider subsidizing medical check-ups to promote early detection of disease. There is also a need for continuous effort to educate seniors on health risk factors and the importance of taking fuller responsibility for their own health.

This study examined the relationship between active aging and health promotion together, as both components are essential in enhancing the mental and physical well-being of seniors.

This study aims to increase awareness and educate the reader about health-care fraud targeting seniors in the USA to help stakeholders better understand, recognize and prevent this type of fraud.

This paper collects statistics on the current state of health care frauds committed against seniors, and examines related cases and laws.

The authors find this type of fraud is highly prevalent and expected to increase. Current laws preventing this fraud from occurring are multifold and complex. While prevention strategies through law enforcement have been somewhat successful, a reduction in resources may put seniors at an increased risk in the years to come.

Without additional prevention strategies, the problem will likely escalate with a growing population of older adults. This study encourages further research into effective prevention strategies and methods to fight health-care fraud against seniors.

Health-care fraud and its associated costs pose a significant threat to the society and economy of the USA. Reducing this fraud will not only reduce the costs to the US economy but also improve the physical and mental well-being of senior victims, reduce their mortality and hospitalization rates and improve the public trust placed to health-care providers.

This study highlights how health-care fraud is committed against seniors. With the projected trend of an aging US population, educating stakeholders, increasing awareness and applying tools to protect seniors will be important to reduce the absolute scope of this problem in the future.

This paper aims to investigate the influence of health beliefs and trust by senior adults as associated with the perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, for the acceptance of smart technology with a focus on smartwatch technology.

Structural equation modeling is used to conceptualize the model using survey data collected from 243 randomly selected senior adults 60+ years of age.

This paper presents that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trust and health belief are direct and indirect predictors of senior adults’ technology acceptance and intention to use smartwatch technology.

The study reveals the moderator effect of social influence on relation between perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and intention to use. The authors highlight the effect of health belief and trust on perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use and the role of intention to use smartwatch technology.

The authors contribute bridging developers of health technologists and senior adults as end-user perspectives. For marketing of health-care technology products, specifically smartwatch, to seniors, a focus on health beliefs and trust is essential to build, maintain and improve perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use.

The present study contributes empirical evidence to the literature on factors affecting the acceptance of the smartwatch technology by senior adults.

Within the context of health care reform and its evaluation, a major gap exists in relation to our understanding of the values which seniors hold regarding their health care. This paper reports on a modified participatory, ethnographic study of such values, using transcribed interviews with ten seniors from across Canada. Members of the National Advisory Council of Canada, most of whom are themselves seniors, participated in designing the study, carrying out the interviews and interpreting the results. Clusters of values were identified concerning health care services, service providers and the overall health care system. While the numbers involved in this study preclude generalizing to the population, a number of recommendations emerged from the study which could impact on future research and begin to influence health policy at local and national levels.

A six-month randomized controlled trial was conducted to examine the impact of a home-based nutrition and exercise intervention on functional capacity to prevent falls among rural seniors. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Men and women (n=134), aged 60 and older were assigned to one of four groups: exercise, nutrition, exercise-nutrition, and control. Participants in the exercise and exercise-nutrition groups performed a home-based exercise program (Home Support Exercise Program), and the nutrition and exercise-nutrition groups received a liquid nutritional supplement (Ensure®) for six months. Participants were assessed at baseline and six months on functional mobility, balance, flexibility and endurance.

There were significant group differences over time for functional reach and the Timed Up and Go test, with significant differences existing between exercise and nutrition-exercise, and exercise and nutrition groups respectively. Overall, the exercise group out-performed the other groups in terms of functional capacity and psychological well-being.

Improvement of functional health among rural seniors is achievable through the delivery of a home-based intervention focusing on exercise and nutrition.

The study also shows that the effective delivery of an intervention to successfully address a fundamental and persistent problem is possible using existing resources; however, it requires a commitment of focus and energy over considerable time.

The approach and findings helps seniors to age in place in a rural context. It shows feasibility of delivering a practical intervention in the rural setting through the health care infrastructure of home care.

Apart from the rural context, the study was innovative at many levels. Specifically, this intervention addressed a significant health issue (functional capacity, falls and injuries), involved frail rural seniors (often hard to reach through community-based programs), provided a feasible intervention (multiple component exercise program), used existing infrastructure (e.g. home care), and espoused community development principles (active involvement of community partners, researchers, and trainees). As well, the study had built-in mechanisms for monitoring and support through the involvement of home service workers who received training. This approach created a strong research to practice connection (another innovation) and was critical for the credibility of the investigation, as well as the sustainability of the intervention. Another innovation was the inclusion of a population health perspective as the study framework. From the population health perspective, this research addressed several determinants of health in rural and urban areas that include: physical environment (intervention within people’s home and rural context), social environment and social support networks (through existing infrastructures of home support workers), health services (availability of health promotion strategy delivered through the health care system) and personal health practices and coping skills (exercise).

Social isolation and loneliness are global issues experienced by many seniors, especially immigrant and refugee seniors. Guided by the five-stage methodological framework proposed by Arksey and O’Malley and more recently Levac, Colquhoun and O’Brien, the purpose of this paper is to explore the existing literature on social isolation and loneliness among immigrant and refugee seniors in Canada.

The authors conducted a literature search of several databases including: PubMed; MEDLINE; CINAHL; Web of Science; HealthStar Ovid; PschyInfo Ovid; Social Services Abstracts; AgeLine; Public Health Database, Google Scholar and Cochrane Library. In total, 17 articles met the inclusion criteria.

Based on the current literature five themes related to social isolation and loneliness emerged: loss; living arrangements; dependency; barriers and challenges; and family conflict.

Given the increasing demographic of aging immigrants in Canada, it is useful to highlight existing knowledge on social isolation and loneliness to facilitate research, policy and programs to support this growing population.

The population is aging around the world and it is also becoming increasingly diverse particularly in the high-income country context. Understanding and addressing social isolation is important for immigrant and refugee seniors, given the sociocultural and other differences.

Social isolation is a waste of human resource and value created by seniors in the communities.

The paper makes a unique contribution by focusing on immigrant and refugee seniors.

The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of a senior service advertising campaign designed to increase volunteerism and financial donations among bystanders.

A cross-sectional mail survey was administered to 2,500 adults; 384 usable responses were obtained. Survey responses were analyzed by level of exposure and involvement in senior care.

High-involvement individuals viewed the ads more favorably and exhibited stronger senior caretaking intentions. Low-involvement consumers were less likely to see their own potential contributions to senior care services as effective.

Characterizing involvement in terms of awareness, awareness involvement, perceived severity and perceived susceptibility, provides a starting point for future examinations of the relationship between involvement, perceived efficacy and various forms of promotion.

From a practitioner’s standpoint, this study identifies specific features of campaign design and audience profiling that might increase the effectiveness of bystander interventions. This study offers not only constructs that can be used for identifying particular audience subsets but also illustrates the practical ways in which perceived susceptibility and perceived response efficacy to a given issue can be addressed through a mass media campaign.

Snowballing healthcare costs coupled with an avalanche of baby boomers entering the elderly phase of the life cycle make the need for bystander involvement in the lives of seniors increasingly important.

With limited theoretical and practical guidance on how to motivate bystanders to engage in prosocial behaviors, health communicators and marketers are challenged to address a vast range of public health issues that require citizen engagement. The research reviewed and presented here indicates the hope for engaging the public to become active players in making the nation a safer and healthier place.