Page 16 - Ageing and Dementia: A compendium of New Zealand research literature

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P.S.D.V. Prasadarao, PhD
Mental Health for Older people/The Institute of Healthy ageing, Waikato Hospital, Hamilton.
In line with the global trends, the New Zealand population is ageing. As people grow older, there is an
increased risk of developing dementias. There have been several people working with persons, and
families/whãnau affected by dementias in New Zealand. A wide range of health professionals including
clinicians, policy makers as well as consumers have specific information needs. They need information
on the effectiveness, meaningfulness, feasibility and appropriateness of studies conducted within New
Zealand. An integrative review is integral to the evidence informed practice in the area of health. Such a
review attempts to examine the available literature which including searching, collating, and assessing
the studies to establish conclusive evidence which could be drawn from such literature.
Current understanding of the existing literature on dementias and related conditions in New Zealand is
meagre. It is important that persons working in this area well informed about the existing
biopsychosocial literature within New Zealand. In this project we attempted to collate, summarise and
synthesize the existing biopsychosocial and cultural literature available in New Zealand on ageing and
dementias. Such an attempt certainly has significant implications within the wider community of
professionals, clinicians and researchers as well as policy makers working with ageing and dementias.
Such an approach will provide insight into what has been done thus far in this important area of health
in New Zealand and will provide some significant leads into understanding the gaps existing in the
literature, thus the future search needs of this country.
In this project, we systematically reviewed the existing biopsychosocial and cultural literature on ageing,
dementias and related conditions in New Zealand. Attempts were made to identify the available
literature in the context of New Zealand. A comprehensive search was conducted using the following
sources: