Journal Articles
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7915
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Item "It's Just [Complicated] Sleep": Discourses of Sleep and Aging in the Media.(Oxford University Press, 2023-12) Breheny M; Ross I; Ladyman C; Signal L; Dew K; Gibson RThe media are influential in shaping beliefs and attitudes on aging and health-related behaviors. Sleep is increasingly recognized as a key pillar for healthy aging. However, the role of media representations of sleep is yet to be assessed with regard to discourses of aging. Texts from New Zealand's main free online news source were collated using key words "sleep" together with "aging," "older," "elderly," or "dementia" between 2018 and 2021. Contents of 38 articles were interpreted using critical discourse analysis. Discursive constructions described an inevitable decline of sleep with aging, including impacts of both physiological decline and life stage transitions; sleep's role as both a remedy and risk for ill health and disease; and the simplification of solutions for self-managing sleep juxtaposed alongside recognition of its complexity. The audience of these complex messages is left in the invidious position of both pursuing sleep practices to prevent age-related decline, whilst also being told that sleep degradation is inevitable. This research demonstrates the complexity of media messaging and the fraught options it offers: good sleep as both a reasonable achievement to strive for and as impossibly idealistic. Findings mirror two predominant health identities available to older people, as responsible for resisting aging or as falling into inevitable decline. This reveals additional expectations around appropriate time use and behaviors with aging. More nuanced messaging that goes beyond sleep as a resource for health and waking productivity is recommended. Acknowledging the complexity of sleep, aging, and society could be the starting point of such adaptation.Item Food, nutrition and cancer: perspectives and experiences of New Zealand cancer survivors(New Zealand Medical Association, 2021-11-12) Peniamina R; Davies C; Moata'ane L; Signal L; Tavite H; Te Morenga L; McLean RAIM: This research sought to understand and describe cancer survivors' perspectives and post-diagnosis experiences of food and nutrition, with a particular focus on barriers to healthy eating, health equity, and Māori and Pacific perspectives. METHOD: Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with cancer survivors from three different ethnic groups (Māori, Pacific Peoples, and New Zealand European). Thematic analysis was undertaken to identify both similar and contrasting experiences and perspectives in relation to topics of interest. Data analysis also sought to identify any trends indicating differences between ethnic groups. RESULTS: Limited awareness of the role nutrition has in cancer recovery or prevention, combined with little or no access to nutrition advice/support, meant that healthy dietary change was not a focus for some cancer survivors in this study, whereas others invested considerable time and money accessing nutrition information and support outside of cancer care services. Financial limitations (eg, cost of healthy food and low income) and lack of practical support were also important barriers to post-diagnosis healthy eating. CONCLUSION: There is a need for more widely available cancer-specific nutrition advice and support in New Zealand. Interventions to address financial barriers and increase access to cancer-related nutrition advice and support have the potential to improve cancer outcomes and reduce inequities in cancer outcomes.