The spiritual dimension in the elderly from the model of gerotranscendence and its approach from Occupational Therapy: a literature review

Abstract

Introduction: The field of the study of ageing is familiar with a theoretical framework known as gerotranscendence. Gerotranscendence understands old age as the final stage of a natural progression towards maturity and wisdom. Old age is thus a stage of introspection understood as spirituality explained in a religious context. Objective: To verify from the scientific literature the implementation of gerotranscendence and its fundamental aspects within the occupational therapy framework. Methodology: Bibliographic study carried out by a previous study of Google Trends to know the data traffic. It uses databases specialised in health sciences (Pubmed, Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL complete, LILACS, Medes, CUIDENplus, Cuidatge, Cochrane Library, Trip medical database, Epistemonikos and IBECS) in the area of psychology (Psicodoc, PsycArticles, PsycBooks, PsycInfo and Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection), and multidisciplinary (Google Scholar, Web of Science and Scopus) based on a Boolean/phrase exploration (operators: AND, OR, NOT). Specialised thesauri (MeSH, DeCS and HONselect) are used using keywords in Spanish and English: gerotranscendence, nursing, and occupational therapy. The use of databases and a target-based screening system results in the specific study of six articles. Results: Gerotranscendence has a consolidated bibliography in English but is almost nonexistent in Spanish. Among the studies in Spanish, there are solid studies with results that propose an alternative to the materialistic models that propose an approach that is reduced to the biomedical paradigm. These studies propose an ethics of needs and a user-centred approach, where spirituality (internal religion) and external religious experience are essential. Conclusion: Occupational therapy must remember the theoretical models centred on the person so that they can get out of the biomedical corset to which they belong but to which they are not reduced. It seems necessary to carry out more theoretical approaches and quantitative and qualitative studies that reveal the operability of implementing models that holistically understand the phenomenology of ageing, as is the case of gerotranscendence.