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Journal of Nursing Research

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October 2024 - Volume 32 - Issue 5

• Editor-in-Chief: Yeur-Hur Lai, PhD, RN, FAAN Yea-Ing Lotus Shyu, PhD, RN, FAAN
• Online ISSN: 1948-965X
• Ranking: 35/191 Nursing
• Impact Factor: 2.4 5-year Impact Factor: 2.5

​From the Editor

Announcement: The Journal of Nursing Research (JNR) has grown significantly over the past 30 years, becoming more international and having an increasing impact on nursing care. As the second official journal of the Taiwan Nurses' Association, JNR was launched as a Chinese-only publication in 1993. Reflecting the strong commitment of its editorial staff to enhancing nursing science and healthcare worldwide, JNR began publishing in English in June 2001. The dedication of its editorial board and worldwide network of reviewers and researchers earned JNR's indexing in Science Citation Index (SCI) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) in 2012 and increasing recognition as an internationally respected nursing journal.

As an SCI- and SSCI-indexed journal, JNR has seen its influence on the international nursing society grow in its rising readership and growing submissions base. To enhance international knowledge dissemination and interactions, JNR has operated as an open-access, article-processing-charge-free academic journal since 2019. Through multifaceted efforts and rigorous review, JNR today has a proven impact, with a readership spanning nearly 200 countries. The success of JNR is also shown in its impact factor, indicating a growing number of JNR citations in the literature. JNR is continuing to grow and improve and is expected to be one of the top journals contributing to nursing science and the healthcare system in the next decade.

Call for Papers: The Taiwan Nurses Association has published  The Journal of Nursing Research ( JNR ) in English since June 2001 as a vehicle to expand the Association’s international perspective and promote academic exchange with nursing professionals overseas. As editor of JNR , I welcome the submission of manuscripts of relevance and interest to those concerned with the conduct or results of nursing-related research. You are encouraged to submit original articles addressing research into the practice, theory, or philosophy of nursing. All articles published in JNR will be peer-reviewed. Please e-mail the journal editorial office: [email protected]

Sincerely, Yeur-Hur Lai Yea-Ing Lotus Shyu

Editor-in-Chief, The Journal of Nursing Research Taiwan Nurses Association www.twna.org.tw

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Best Nursing Research Topics for Students

What is a nursing research paper.

• What They Include
• Choosing a Topic
• Best Nursing Research Topics
• Research Paper Writing Tips

Writing a research paper is a massive task that involves careful organization, critical analysis, and a lot of time. Some nursing students are natural writers, while others struggle to select a nursing research topic, let alone write about it.

If you're a nursing student who dreads writing research papers, this article may help ease your anxiety. We'll cover everything you need to know about writing nursing school research papers and the top topics for nursing research.  

Continue reading to make your paper-writing jitters a thing of the past.

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A nursing research paper is a work of academic writing composed by a nurse or nursing student. The paper may present information on a specific topic or answer a question.

During LPN/LVN and RN programs, most papers you write focus on learning to use research databases, evaluate appropriate resources, and format your writing with APA style. You'll then synthesize your research information to answer a question or analyze a topic.

BSN , MSN , Ph.D., and DNP programs also write nursing research papers. Students in these programs may also participate in conducting original research studies.

Writing papers during your academic program improves and develops many skills, including the ability to:

• Select nursing topics for research
• Conduct effective research
• Analyze published academic literature
• Format and cite sources
• Synthesize data
• Organize and articulate findings

About Nursing Research Papers

When do nursing students write research papers.

You may need to write a research paper for any of the nursing courses you take. Research papers help develop critical thinking and communication skills. They allow you to learn how to conduct research and critically review publications.

That said, not every class will require in-depth, 10-20-page papers. The more advanced your degree path, the more you can expect to write and conduct research. If you're in an associate or bachelor's program, you'll probably write a few papers each semester or term.

Do Nursing Students Conduct Original Research?

Most of the time, you won't be designing, conducting, and evaluating new research. Instead, your projects will focus on learning the research process and the scientific method. You'll achieve these objectives by evaluating existing nursing literature and sources and defending a thesis.

However, many nursing faculty members do conduct original research. So, you may get opportunities to participate in, and publish, research articles.

Example Research Project Scenario:

In your maternal child nursing class, the professor assigns the class a research paper regarding developmentally appropriate nursing interventions for the pediatric population. While that may sound specific, you have almost endless opportunities to narrow down the focus of your writing. 

You could choose pain intervention measures in toddlers. Conversely, you can research the effects of prolonged hospitalization on adolescents' social-emotional development.

What Does a Nursing Research Paper Include?

Your professor should provide a thorough guideline of the scope of the paper. In general, an undergraduate nursing research paper will consist of:

Introduction : A brief overview of the research question/thesis statement your paper will discuss. You can include why the topic is relevant.

Body : This section presents your research findings and allows you to synthesize the information and data you collected. You'll have a chance to articulate your evaluation and answer your research question. The length of this section depends on your assignment.

Conclusion : A brief review of the information and analysis you presented throughout the body of the paper. This section is a recap of your paper and another chance to reassert your thesis.

The best advice is to follow your instructor's rubric and guidelines. Remember to ask for help whenever needed, and avoid overcomplicating the assignment!

How to Choose a Nursing Research Topic

The sheer volume of prospective nursing research topics can become overwhelming for students. Additionally, you may get the misconception that all the 'good' research ideas are exhausted. However, a personal approach may help you narrow down a research topic and find a unique angle.

Writing your research paper about a topic you value or connect with makes the task easier. Additionally, you should consider the material's breadth. Topics with plenty of existing literature will make developing a research question and thesis smoother.

Finally, feel free to shift gears if necessary, especially if you're still early in the research process. If you start down one path and have trouble finding published information, ask your professor if you can choose another topic.

The Best Research Topics for Nursing Students

You have endless subject choices for nursing research papers. This non-exhaustive list just scratches the surface of some of the best nursing research topics.

1. Clinical Nursing Research Topics

• Analyze the use of telehealth/virtual nursing to reduce inpatient nurse duties.
• Discuss the impact of evidence-based respiratory interventions on patient outcomes in critical care settings.
• Explore the effectiveness of pain management protocols in pediatric patients.

2. Community Health Nursing Research Topics

• Assess the impact of nurse-led diabetes education in Type II Diabetics.
• Analyze the relationship between socioeconomic status and access to healthcare services.

3. Nurse Education Research Topics

• Review the effectiveness of simulation-based learning to improve nursing students' clinical skills.
• Identify methods that best prepare pre-licensure students for clinical practice.
• Investigate factors that influence nurses to pursue advanced degrees.
• Evaluate education methods that enhance cultural competence among nurses.
• Describe the role of mindfulness interventions in reducing stress and burnout among nurses.

4. Mental Health Nursing Research Topics

• Explore patient outcomes related to nurse staffing levels in acute behavioral health settings.
• Assess the effectiveness of mental health education among emergency room nurses .
• Explore de-escalation techniques that result in improved patient outcomes.
• Review the effectiveness of therapeutic communication in improving patient outcomes.

5. Pediatric Nursing Research Topics

• Assess the impact of parental involvement in pediatric asthma treatment adherence.
• Explore challenges related to chronic illness management in pediatric patients.
• Review the role of play therapy and other therapeutic interventions that alleviate anxiety among hospitalized children.

6. The Nursing Profession Research Topics

• Analyze the effects of short staffing on nurse burnout .
• Evaluate factors that facilitate resiliency among nursing professionals.
• Examine predictors of nurse dissatisfaction and burnout.
• Posit how nursing theories influence modern nursing practice.

Tips for Writing a Nursing Research Paper

The best nursing research advice we can provide is to follow your professor's rubric and instructions. However, here are a few study tips for nursing students to make paper writing less painful:

Avoid procrastination: Everyone says it, but few follow this advice. You can significantly lower your stress levels if you avoid procrastinating and start working on your project immediately.

Plan Ahead: Break down the writing process into smaller sections, especially if it seems overwhelming. Give yourself time for each step in the process.

Research: Use your resources and ask for help from the librarian or instructor. The rest should come together quickly once you find high-quality studies to analyze.

Outline: Create an outline to help you organize your thoughts. Then, you can plug in information throughout the research process. 

Clear Language: Use plain language as much as possible to get your point across. Jargon is inevitable when writing academic nursing papers, but keep it to a minimum.

Cite Properly: Accurately cite all sources using the appropriate citation style. Nursing research papers will almost always implement APA style. Check out the resources below for some excellent reference management options.

Revise and Edit: Once you finish your first draft, put it away for one to two hours or, preferably, a whole day. Once you've placed some space between you and your paper, read through and edit for clarity, coherence, and grammatical errors. Reading your essay out loud is an excellent way to check for the 'flow' of the paper.

Helpful Nursing Research Writing Resources:

Purdue OWL (Online writing lab) has a robust APA guide covering everything you need about APA style and rules.

Grammarly helps you edit grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Upgrading to a paid plan will get you plagiarism detection, formatting, and engagement suggestions. This tool is excellent to help you simplify complicated sentences.

Mendeley is a free reference management software. It stores, organizes, and cites references. It has a Microsoft plug-in that inserts and correctly formats APA citations.

Don't let nursing research papers scare you away from starting nursing school or furthering your education. Their purpose is to develop skills you'll need to be an effective nurse: critical thinking, communication, and the ability to review published information critically.

Choose a great topic and follow your teacher's instructions; you'll finish that paper in no time.

Joleen Sams is a certified Family Nurse Practitioner based in the Kansas City metro area. During her 10-year RN career, Joleen worked in NICU, inpatient pediatrics, and regulatory compliance. Since graduating with her MSN-FNP in 2019, she has worked in urgent care and nursing administration. Connect with Joleen on LinkedIn or see more of her writing on her website.

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Online Research Guide for Nursing Students

• Conducting Online Research
• Research Tools

Evaluating Sources

• Organizing Research

Are you ready to earn your online nursing degree?

Effective online nursing research skills can make a tremendous difference for your academic success in nursing school and throughout your career. Medicine and nursing change rapidly, and knowing how to conduct nursing research online keeps your skills and knowledge current.

Successful research includes both how to use nursing literature search engines and how to analyze the information you find. This helps you distinguish between reliable information that supports evidence-based nursing and misleading information that can influence your ability to care for patients.

This guide can help you find and effectively use the best nursing research websites and other research tools, whether you need a writing guide for nurses , continuing education coursework, or just hope to increase your knowledge in the field.

Conducting Online Research for Nursing Students

You can conduct most of your nursing research online, but some sources may not be available online. For example, your school library may subscribe to print journals not published on the internet. Many important books only exist in print.

Your school or hospital librarian is an invaluable resource to help you find materials online or in print. If your school or hospital doesn’t have a specific book or article, the librarian might be able to get it through an interlibrary loan service.

You can use only online nursing research tools if the most significant publications on a topic are available online. Otherwise, consider using print resources too.

Refining Your Search Results

When conducting online research, you must filter out unreliable sources and locate search results relevant to your topic. Fortunately, Google searches and other nursing literature search engines have tools to help you narrow your research to get the most reliable results.

In addition to open web searches, you can use the specialty nursing literature search engines listed below.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar has special features to make it easier to find the most relevant professional literature on a topic. Besides letting you refine your search by date, it displays related articles or other articles by the author. If the piece is available in full-text online, Google Scholar links to the page. If not, you can search to see if your library has the article or can get you a copy.

Google Scholar also tells you how many other papers cite a particular source. While this doesn’t necessarily mean that an article has reliable and current information, it does demonstrate the article’s influence.

The search engine also offers tools to help you manage your research projects and write papers. You can create a citation in several standard formats and save an article to a list. You can make as many lists as you like, such as one for different topics or assignments.

If you want to follow a specific topic, refine your search to give you preferred results, and then select “create alert.” You will then receive emails with new articles as Google Scholar indexes them.

Online Research Tools

Google reigns as the most popular search engine, but many other online resources exist. Students may use several search engines and databases geared specifically toward academic searches. Many of these sites offer free or discounted services to students. Your school’s library may also provide access.

The list below describes some of the most common resources for academic research, including some sites that focus on online research for nurses.

General Academic Research Tools

• BASE : Bielefeld Academic Search Engine offers results in a variety of academic disciplines. About 60% of the indexed documents are available for free. Results must meet BASE’s high academic standards for relevance and quality.
• CGP : The Catalog of U.S. Government Publications allows users to search official documents published by the U.S. government, including current and historical sources.
• CIA World Factbook : The Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook provides information on 267 countries and other entities around the world. This information includes maps and data on each entity’s history, people, geography, government, and economy.
• ERIC : The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences hosts ERIC. This database uses a formal review process to decide which scholarly articles, papers, reports, and other documents to include in its index.
• iSeek Education : This resource compiles scholarly materials from noncommercial providers, including university and government sources. The searchable service allows users to bookmark items they wish to refer to later.
• National Archives : This searchable catalog includes descriptions for 85% of the National Archives’ holdings, including documents, web pages, pictures, audio files, and videos. Users can also view more than two million digitized copies of government records.
• OCLC : The OAIster catalog pools open-access resources from libraries, museums, archives, and cultural heritage organizations.
• CORE : CORE collects open-access research materials from sources around the world and indexes them in a searchable database. The public can use CORE free of charge.

Nursing Research Tools

• CINAHL Complete : The Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature offers a large database of research material for nurses and students. The site provides full-text access to resources, including journals, care sheets, and continuing education modules.
• MedScape : Medscape provides the latest medical news, research updates, case studies, continuing education opportunities, and disease and drug information for healthcare professionals around the world.
• National Institute of Nursing Research : Part of the National Institutes of Health, the NINR provides support for nursing research. The website hosts information on research conducted through their programs.
• Nursing Reference Center : The Nursing Reference Center features various resources for nurses, including care sheets about diseases and treatment options, drug information, information on treating patients from diverse cultural backgrounds, patient handouts, and lessons about diseases and conditions.
• PubMed : PubMed is a searchable database operated by the U.S. National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. The site provides abstracts and full-text articles from journals, books, and other publications about life science and medicine.
• Sigma Repository : The Sigma Repository boasts an open-access database of nursing research and practice materials created by nurses. Sigma Theta Tau International, the nursing honor society, sponsors this free resource.

When you conduct research on the web, you must evaluate the reliability of your sources. If your information comes from an untrustworthy source, the quality of your research will suffer and the data you gather may lead to incorrect conclusions.

When you need to determine an online information source’s reputation, you can ask yourself some questions to help evaluate its quality. The questions below include tips from Georgetown University and the University of Chicago Press.

Who Is the Author?

Find the name of the article’s author or creator. Then locate the author’s credentials to determine whether their education and experience qualifies them to speak as an authority on the topic. You also can search for the author’s other works or more information about them.

If the source does not list an author, look at the domain to see whether it belongs to a reputable entity.

What Is Its Purpose?

Look at the article and the hosting site. Who is the intended audience? Is the information for academics and experts or the general public? Why was it written and posted? Is it intended to inform or educate the reader, or does it attempt to persuade the reader to view a topic in a certain way? Is it meant to sell a product or service?

A noncommercial source that intends to educate the reader without persuasion is most likely to be reliable.

Does It Look Professional?

When you view the website and read the article, take note of any errors in grammar or spelling. The site’s content should appear clean and organized. Poorly organized content and errors in the text indicate unprofessionalism, as does the use of profanity.

If the site emphasizes images over text or appears to focus on selling products or services, it may not be a reliable source for scholarly information.

Is It Objective?

Academic sources should show objectivity and must not present opinions as hard data. Consider whether the information is fact or opinion. Does the author show any bias? Is the information officially endorsed or approved by an organization? If so, determine whether the organization takes an official position on the issue at hand.

Is It Current?

When researching science and medical topics, students must find the most current information. Scientific knowledge progresses rapidly, and new research appears frequently.

Check the publishing date listed on your source. If it is more than a few years old, look for more current sources on the same topic. If a website has not been updated recently, this also may indicate information is outdated.

What Sites Does It Link To?

The links featured in your source may provide clues about the information’s reliability. The links should relate to the site’s purpose or the topic at hand. In most cases, a source should link back to research which supports the text. Students may find this information within the text or in a references list.

Test the links to make sure they work. If the links are broken, the information may be old or outdated.

Organizing Your Research

You will most likely browse a large amount of information as you conduct research online. To avoid becoming overwhelmed, you must remain organized before, during, and after your search. Remember that you must cite all your sources accurately.

If you develop a consistent system for locating and organizing your information, your research efforts will be more efficient and accurate. Below are a few basic tips to help you manage and organize your online research.

Online Tools to Manage Your Research

• EasyBib : This tool helps you improve your writing, take notes, avoid unintentional plagiarism, and add citations in your choice of style. Options include MLA, APA, and Chicago. EasyBib offers basic services and MLA citations for free. Users pay a monthly fee for additional access.
• Endnote : This software package manages references and bibliographies. EndNote provides research tools and allows teams to share documents, files, and other materials. The software offers student pricing.
• Mendeley : Designed for science and technology research, Mendeley helps store and organize research documents and files. Mendeley manages citations and lets users connect with others in a research network.
• RefWorks : This web-based reference management tool stores the user’s reference database in an online portal. Some universities grant their students free access to RefWorks.
• Zotero : This free, open-source software helps users find research materials and organize their information. Zotero manages citations, documents, and other research materials.

Citing Online Resources for Nursing Students

When you write a research paper or create a research presentation, you must follow a consistent format and include a bibliography of all the sources you used. Several popular editorial styles exist. Science and social science disciplines, including nursing, most frequently use the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, commonly known as APA style .

Alternatively, some institutions require AMA style , created by the American Medical Association. The style you use depends on the institution you attend. These editorial styles establish a consistent format for researchers to follow when publishing their work. They cover aspects of writing, such as punctuation, accepted abbreviations, headings, and formatting for statistics and tables.

Style also dictates a specific format for listing citations, including the order in which the information must appear and the punctuation required. This formatting makes it easy for readers to retrieve sources that may interest them.

Several examples of APA style from the Purdue Online Writing Lab appear below. You can find an expanded list of such examples on the Purdue website.

Articles From Online Periodicals

What is a doi.

When an article is published electronically, the publisher assigns a unique digital object identifier (DOI) to it. The DOI provides a permanent identification code and internet link for the article. APA style recommends that you include the DOI in any citation for which it is available. See the examples below.

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number , page range. doi:0000000/000000000000 or http://doi.org/10.0000/0000

Brownlie, D. (2007). Toward effective poster presentations: An annotated bibliography. European Journal of Marketing, 41 , 1245-1283. doi:10.1108/03090560710821161

Without DOI

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number . Retrieved from https://www.journalhomepage.com/full/url/

Kenneth, I. A. (2000). A Buddhist response to the nature of human rights. Journal of Buddhist Ethics, 8 . Retrieved from https://www.cac.psu.edu/jbe/twocont.html

Newspaper Articles

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Title of Newspaper . Retrieved from https://www.homeaddress.com/

Parker-Pope, T. (2008, May 6). Psychiatry handbook linked to drug industry. The New York Times . Retrieved from https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/

Electronic Books

Last name, A. A. (n.d.). Title . Available from https://www.urlofebook.com/full/url/

Davis, J. (n.d.). Familiar birdsongs of the Northwest . Available from https://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio? inkey=1-9780931686108-0

The AMA Manual of Style details official guidelines for writing and citing medical research. The style is maintained by the American Medical Association. The examples below originate from the Arizona Health Sciences Library website and the USciences website .

No Author Name Provided

Name of organization. Title of specific item cited. URL. Accessed date.

International Society for Infectious Diseases. ProMED-mail Website. https://www.promedmail.org. Accessed April 29, 2004.

Author Name Provided

Author A. Title. Name of website. URL. Updated date. Accessed date.

Sullivan D. Major search engines and directories. SearchEngineWatch Website. https://www.searchenginewatch.com/links/article.php/2156221. Updated April 28, 2004. Accessed December 6, 2005.

Online Journal Article With Six or Fewer Authors — DOI Included

Author A. Title. Name of online journal. URL. Publication year;volume(issue):page numbers. doi.

Florez H, Martinez R, Chakra W, Strickman-Stein M, Levis S. Outdoor exercise reduces the risk of hypovitaminosis D in the obese. J Steroid Biochem Mol Bio . 2007;103(3-5):679-681. doi:10.1016 /j.jsbmb.2006.12.032.

Online Journal Article With Six or More Authors — DOI Not Included

Author A. Title. Name of online journal. URL. Publication year;volume(issue):page numbers. Access date.

Siris ES, Miller PD, Barrett-Connor E, et al. Identification and fracture outcomes of undiagnosed low bone mineral density in postmenopausal women: results from the National Osteoporosis Risk Assessment. JAMA. 2001;286(22):2815-2822. https://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/286/22 /2815. Accessed April 4, 2007.

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Digital Commons @ USF > USF Health > College of Nursing > Theses and Dissertations

Nursing Theses and Dissertations

Theses/dissertations from 2023 2023.

Psychological Distress, Resilience, and the Impact on Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Survivors With Taxane-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy , Lauren Schwab

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

Emotional Intelligence-Driven End-of-Life Care Simulation for Undergraduate Nursing Students: A Quantitative and Qualitative Study , Nasreen M. Alghamdi

Medication-Assisted Treatment Versus 12-Step Group Therapy: A Comparative Analysis of Adherence and Abstinence In Patients With Opioid Use Disorder , Derrick C. Glymph

The Maternal Oral Microbiome Throughout Pregnancy , Rebecca Koerner

A Theoretical Framework for Understanding Breast Cancer Survivor's Post-treatment Lived Experiences in an Educational Program: A Qualitative Data Analysis , Katherine Jinghua Lin

Sexual Dysfunction and Sexual Distress in Lymphoma Patients: A Mixed Methods Pilot Study , Dorothie S. Durosier Mertilus

Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies, the Gut Microbiome, and Peripherally Circulating Cytokines in Pregnant Hispanic Females , Tina Susanna Mutka

A Mixed Methods Analysis of Maternal-Infant Feeding Interactions Between Dyads with Opioid Exposure , Kailey T. Rinaldi

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

Quality of Life of Older Adults with Complicated Grief Receiving Accelerated Resolution Therapy: A Mixed Methods Study , Tina M. Mason

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

In Post-Extubated Patients What are the Preferred Methods of Communication During Their Experience of Endotracheal Intubation with Mechanical Ventilation , Lanette Dumas

The Effect of Hope on the Relationship between Personal and Disease Characteristics and Anxiety and Depression in Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer , Sharon B. McNeil

Predictors of Nonadherence to Radiation Therapy Schedules Among Head and Neck Cancer Patients , Jennifer Lynn Miller

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

Perceived Discrimination and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Blacks: A Secondary Data Analysis of the Heart SCORE Study , Marilyn Aluoch

Exploration of Gratitude in Cardiovascular Health: Mediators, Medication Adherence and Psychometrics , Lakeshia A. Cousin

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Fatigue-related Symptom Clusters and their Relationship with Depression, and Functional Status in Older Adults Hospice Patients with Cancer. , Suzan Fouad Abduljawad

Genetic Moderation of Pain and Fatigue Symptoms Resulting from the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Breast Cancer Program , Carissa Bea Alinat

The Moderating Effect of Religion on Death Distress and Quality of Life between Christian Cancer patients in the United States with Muslim cancer patients in Saudi Arabia , Doaa Almostadi

Prevention of Post Intensive Care Syndrome-Family with Sensation Awareness Focused Training Intervention: A Randomized Controlled Trial Pilot Study , Paula L. Cairns

Assessing Abstinence in Infants Greater Than 28 Days Old , Genieveve J. Cline

The Relationship Between Sleep Quality and Motor Function in Hospitalized Older Adult Survivors of Critical Illness , Maya N. Elías

The Role of Migration-Related Stress in Depression Among Haitian Immigrants in Florida: A Mixed Method Sequential Explanatory Approach , Dany Amanda C. Fanfan

The Effect of Depression, Inflammation and Sleep Quality on Risk for Cardiovascular Disease , Catherine L. O'Neil

Adapting SafeMedicate (Medication Dosage Calculation Skills software) For Use In Brazil , Samia Valeria Ozorio Dutra

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

The Relationship Between Total Neuropathy Score-reduced, Neuropathy Symptoms and Function. , Ashraf Abulhaija

Validation of the Electronic Kids Dietary Index (E-KINDEX) Screening Tool for Early Identification of Risk for Overweight/Obesity (OW/OB) in a Pediatric Population: Associations with Quality of Life Perceptions , Patricia A. Hall

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

The Effectiveness of an Intervention Designed to Improve Chlorhexidine (CHG) Bathing Technique in Adults Hospitalized in Medical Surgical Units , Janette Echemendia Denny

Levels of Distress Among Women Veterans Attending a Women’s Health Specialty Clinic in the VA Healthcare System , Debbie T. Devine

Examination of the Use of Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) in the Treatment of Symptoms of PTSD and Sleep Dysfunction in Veterans and Civilians , Marian Jevone Hardwick

Investigating the Mutual Effects of Depression and Spiritual Well-being on Quality of Life in Hospice Patients with Cancer and Family Caregivers Using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model , Li-Ting Huang

The Change in Nutritional Status in Traumatic Brain Injury Patients: A Retrospective Descriptive A Retrospective Descriptive Study , Dina A. Masha'al

Exploring the Relationship Between Severity of Illness and Human Milk Volume in Very Low Birth Weight and Extremely Low Birth Weight Infants Over Six Weeks , Shannon Leigh Morse

Cardiovascular Disease Risk Scores and Novel Risk Factors in Relation to Race and Gender , Johanna Wilson

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

A Comparative Evaluation of the Learner Centered Grading Debriefing Method in Nursing Education , Marisa J. Belote

Sleep, Depressive Symptoms and Cognition in Older Adults and Caregivers of Persons with Dementia , Glenna Shemida Brewster

The Relationship between Hearing Status and Cognitive Performance and the Influence of Depressive Symptoms in the Older Adult , Julie A. Daugherty

Basal Salivary Oxytocin and Skin to Skin Contact among Lactating Mothers of Premature Infants , Jessica Marie Gordon

The Relationship Between Nurses' Emotional Intelligence and Patient Outcomes , Mary Kutash

Sexual Functioning and Body Image in Younger Breast Cancer Survivors , Carly Lynn Paterson

Cognitive Load of Registered Nurses During Medication Administration , Sarah Faith Perron

A Comparison of Quality of Life between Intense and Non-Intense Treatment for Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia and High-Risk Myelodysplastic Syndrome , Sara Marie Tinsley

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

Acculturation, Self-Efficacy and Breastfeeding Behavior in a Sample of Hispanic Women , Ivonne F. Hernandez

Knowledge and Acceptance of HPV and the HPV Vaccine in Young Men and Their Intention to be Vaccinated , Brenda Renee Jasper

The Relationships Between Sleep Disturbances, Depression, Inflammatory Markers, and Sexual Trauma in Female Veterans , Ellen Marcolongo

Examination of Possible Protective Effect of Rhesus D Positive Blood Factor on Toxoplasma-related Depressive Symptoms in Pregnancy , Lisa Lynn Parnell

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practice of Primary Care Nurse Practitioners Regarding Skin Cancer Assessmnets: Validity and Reliability of a New Instrument , Debra Michelle Shelby

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

Knowledge and Practice of Reproductive Health among Mothers and their Impact on Fetal Birth Outcomes: A Case of Eritrea , Winta Negusse Araya

Race/Ethnicity, Subjective and Objective Sleep Quality, Physical and Psychological Symptoms in Breast Cancer Survivors , Pinky H. Budhrani

Factors Predicting Pap Smear Adherence in HIV-infected Women: Using the Health Belief Model , Crystal L. Chapman Lambert

The Relationship Between Socioeconomic Status and Body Mass Index on Vitamin D Levels in African American Women with and without Diabetes Living in Areas with Abundant Sunshine , Shani Vann Davis

Predictors of Quality of Life in Patients with Cutaneous T cell Lymphoma , Darcie Marie Deaver

Relationship between dysphoric moods, risk-taking behaviors, and Toxoplasma gondii antibody titers in female veterans , Allyson Radford Duffy

Prenatal Stress, Depression, and Herpes Viral Titers , Pao-Chu Hsu

Factors Associated with Fear of Breast Cancer Recurrence Among Survivors , Jean Marie Lucas

Sickle Cell Disease: The Role of Self-Care Management , Nadine Matthie

Factors Influencing Vaccination Decisions in African American Mothers of Preschool Age Children , Chauntel Mckenzie Mcnair

The Strong Black Woman, Depression, and Emotional Eating , Michelle Renee Offutt

Development of an Investigator-designed Questionnaire Concerning Childbirth Delivery Options based on the Theory of Planned Behavior , Chun-Yi Tai

Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

The Mediating Effect of Distress Caused by Constipation on Predictors of Quality of Life of Hospice Patients with Cancer. , Abdel Alkhalouf

Testing a Model of Bacterial Vaginosis among Black Women , Jessica Brumley

The Effect of Tight Glycemic Control on Surgical Site Infection Rates in Patients Undergoing Open Heart Surgery , Sierra Gower

Development of a Tool for Pressure Ulcer Risk Assessment and Preventive Interventions in Ancillary Services Patients , Monica Shutts Messer

Hospice Nurses- Attitudes and Knowledge about Pain Management , Amie Jacqueline Miller

Theses/Dissertations from 2011 2011

Literacy and Hazard Communication Comprehension of Employees Presenting to an Occupational Health Clinic , Christine Bouchard

A Meta-Analysis of Cultural Competence Education in Professional Nurses and Nursing Students , Ruth Wilmer Gallagher

Relationship Between Cancer-Related Fatigue and Depression: A Pilot Study , Gloria Michelle Guess

A Comparison of Oncology and Non-Oncology Nurses in Their Knowledge of Cancer Pain Management , Nicole Houle

Evaluating Knowledge and Attitudes of Graduate Nursing Students Regarding Pain , Eric Bartholomew Jackson

Bone Marrow Transplant Nurses' Attitudes about Caring for Patients Who are Near the End of Life: A Quality Improvement Project , Leslie Lauersdorf

Translation and Adaptation of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) Scale Into Tigrigna Language for Tigrigna Speaking Eritrean Immigrants in the United States , Mulubrhan Fisseha Mogos

Nurse Manager Emotional Intelligence as a Predictor to Registered Nurse Job Satisfaction and RN Perceptions of the Practice Environment and the Relationship to Patient, Nursing and Hospital Outcomes , Jacqueline Cecilia Munro

The Relationship of Mid-Pregnancy Levels of Cytokines, Stress, and Depression with Gestational Age at Delivery , Melissa Molinari Shelton

Prophylactic, Risk-Reducing Surgery in Unaffected BRCA-Positive Women: Quality Of Life, Sexual Functioning and Psychological Well-Being , Sharon Tollin

Theses/Dissertations from 2010 2010

The Relationship Between FAM5C SNP (rs10920501) Variability, Metabolic Syndrome, and Inflammation, in Women with Coronary Heart Disease , Jennifer L. Cline

Women’s Perceptions of Postpartum Stress: A Narrative Analysis , Nancy Gilbert Crist

Lived Experience: Near-Fatal Adolescent Suicide Attempt , Phyllis Ann Dougherty

Exploring the Relationships among Work-Related Stress, Quality of Life, Job Satisfaction, and Anticipated Turnover on Nursing Units with Clinical Nurse Leaders , Mary Kohler

A Comparative Study of Knowledge of Pain Management in Certified and Non-Certified Oncology Nurses , Sherrie A. LaLande

Evaluating Knowledge and Attitudes of Undergraduate Nursing Students Regarding Pain Management , Jessica Latchman

Evaluation of Oncology Nurses' Knowledge, Practice Behaviors, and Confidence Specific to Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy , Rebecca Denise McAllister

Moderating the Effectiveness of Messages to Promote Physical Activity in Type 2 Diabetes , Rachel E. Myers

Factors Affecting the Process of Clinical Decision-Making in Pediatric Pain Management by Emergency Department Nurses , Teresa A. Russo

The Correlation Between Neuropathy Limitations and Depression in Chemotherapy Patients , Melissa Thebeau

Theses/Dissertations from 2009 2009

Fatigue Symptom Distress and Its Relationship with Quality Of Life in Adult Stem Cell Transplant Survivors , Suzan Fouad Abduljawad R.N., B.S.N.

Nursing Advocacy and the Accuracy of Intravenous to Oral Opioid Conversion at Discharge in the Cancer Patient , Maria L. Gallo R.N., O.C.N.

Transitional Care for Adolescents with HIV: Characteristics and Current Practices of the Adolescent Trials Network Systems of Care , Patricia Gilliam

The Effect of Ethical Ideology and Professional Values on Registered Nurses’ Intentions to Act Accountably , Susan R. Hartranft

Falls in Bone Marrow Transplant Patients: A Retrospective Study , Lura Henderson R.N., B.S.N.

Predictors of cancer caregiver depression symptomatology , Henry R. Rivera

Psychosocial outcomes of weight stigma among college students , Sabrina Joann Robinson

The Experience of Fatigue and Quality of Life in Patients with Advanced Lung Cancer , Andrea Shaffer

The Relationship Between Uncertainty in Illness and Anxiety in Patients With Cancer , Naima Vera

Shifting Paradigms: The Development of Nursing Identity in Foreign-Educated Physicians Retrained as Nurses Practicing in the United States , Liwliwa Reyes Villagomeza

Theses/Dissertations from 2008 2008

Prostate Cancer Screening Intention Among African American Men: An Instrument Development Study , Susan Anita Baker

The Geriatric Cancer Experience in End of Life: Model Adaptation and Testing , Harleah G. Buck

Communication Systems and HIV/AIDS Sexual Decision Making in Older Adolescent and Young Adult Females , Rasheeta D. Chandler MS, ARNP, FNP-BC

Relationship of Anger Trait and Anger Expression to C-Reactive Protein in Post-Menopausal Women , Rosalyn Gross

Identifying Patients with Cancer at Risk of Experiencing a Fall While Hospitalized , Joann M. Heaton

Modulation of Monocyte-Derived Dendritic Cell Maturation and Function by Cigarette Smoke Condensate in a Bronchial Epithelial Cell Co-Culture Model , Alison J. Montpetit

Cancer Patients with Pain: Examination of the Role of the Spouse/Partner Relationship In Mediating Quality of Life Outcomes for the Couple , Mary Ann Morgan

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Institute of Medicine (US) Division of Health Care Services. Nursing and Nursing Education: Public Policies and Private Actions. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1983.

Nursing and Nursing Education: Public Policies and Private Actions.

• Hardcopy Version at National Academies Press

Appendix 8 Nursing Research: Definitions and Directions

In order to provide further insight into the need for, philosophy, and scope of nursing research this appendix presents a position statement issued by the Commission on Nursing Research of the American Nurses' Association. It is quoted here in its entirety: 1

Recent years have seen a growing awareness among the public that valuable resources are finite and their use must be carefully considered. In this context, increasing attention is being given to the relative cost of various strategies for utilizing health care resources to meet the present and emerging needs of the nation. Concurrently, nurses are assuming increased decision-making responsibility for the delivery of health care, and they can be expected to continue to assume greater responsibility in the future. Therefore, the timeliness and desirability of identifying directions for nursing research that should receive priority in funding and effort in the 1980s is apparent.

The priorities identified below were developed by the Commission on Nursing Research of the American Nurses' Association, a nine-member group of nurses actively engaged in research whose backgrounds represent considerable diversity in preparation and experience. The priorities represent the consensus of the commissioners, developed through a process of thoughtful discussion and careful deliberation with colleagues.

Accountability to the public for the humane use of knowledge in providing effective and high quality services is the hallmark of a profession. Thus, the preeminent goal of scientific inquiry by nurses is the ongoing development of knowledge for use in the practice of nursing; priorities are stated in that context. Other guiding considerations were the present and anticipated health problems of the population; a historic appreciation of the circumstances in which nursing action has been most beneficial; nursing's philosophical orientation, in which emphasis is on a synthesis of psychosocial and biomedical phenomena to the end of promoting health and effective functioning; and projections regarding the types of decisions nurses will be making in the last decades of the twentieth century. New, unanticipated problems will undoubtedly confront the health care resources of the country; yet it is clear that many of the problems of the future are already manifest today. New knowledge is essential to bring about effective solutions. Nursing research directed to clinical needs can contribute in a significant way to development of those solutions.

• Definition of Nursing Research

Nursing research develops knowledge about health and the promotion of health over the full lifespan, care of persons with health problems and disabilities, and nursing actions to enhance the ability of individuals to respond effectively to actual or potential health problems.

These foci of nursing research complement those of biomedical research, which is primarily concerned with causes and treatments of disease. Advancements in biomedical research have resulted in increased life expectancies, including life expectancies of those with serious injury and those with chronic or terminal disease. These biomedical advances have thus led to growth in the numbers of those who require nursing care to live with health problems, such as the frail elderly, the chronically ill, and the terminally ill.

Research conducted by nurses includes various types of studies in order to derive clinical interventions to assist those who require nursing care. The complexity of nursing research and its broad scope often require scientific underpinning from several disciplines. Hence, nursing research cuts across traditional research lines, and draws its methods from several fields.

• Directions for Research

Priority should be given to nursing research that would generate knowledge to guide practice in:

Promoting health, well-being, and competency for personal care among all age groups;

Preventing health problems throughout the life span that have the potential to reduce productivity and satisfaction;

Decreasing the negative impact of health problems on coping abilities, productivity, and life satisfaction of individuals and families;

Ensuring that the care needs of particularly vulnerable groups are met through appropriate strategies;

Designing and developing health care systems that are cost-effective in meeting the nursing needs of the population.

Examples of research consistent with these priorities include the following:

• Identification of determinants (personal and environmental, including social support networks) of wellness and health functioning in individuals and families, e.g. avoidance of abusive behaviors such as alcoholism and drug use, successful adaptation to chronic illness, and coping with the last days of life.
• Identification of phenomena that negatively influence the course of recovery and that may be alleviated by nursing practice, such as, for example, anorexia, diarrhea, sleep deprivation, deficiencies in nutrients, electrolyte imbalances, and infections.
• Development and testing of care strategies to do the following: Facilitate individuals' ability to adopt and maintain health enhancing behaviors (e.g. alterations in diet and exercise). Enhance patients' ability to manage acute and chronic illness in such a way as to minimize or eliminate the necessity of institutionalization and to maximize well-being. Reduce stressful responses associated with the medical management of patients (e.g. surgical procedures, intrusive examination procedures, or use of extensive monitoring devices). Provide more effective care to high-risk populations (e.g. maternal and child care service to vulnerable mothers and infants, family planning services to young teenagers, services designed to enhance self-care in the chronically ill and the very old). Enhance the care of clients culturally different from the majority (e.g. Black Americans, Mexican-Americans, Native Americans) and clients with special problems (e.g. teenagers, prisoners, and the mentally ill), and the underserved (the elderly, the poor, and the rural).
• Design and assessment, in terms of effectiveness and cost, of models for delivering nursing care strategies found to be effective in clinical studies.

All of the foregoing are directly related to the priority of developing the knowledge and information needed for improvement of the practice of nursing.

While priority should be given to this form of clinical research, there is no intent to discourage other forms of nursing research. These would include such investigations as those utilizing historical and philosophical modes of inquiry, and studies of manpower for nursing education, practice, and research, as well as studies of quality assurance for nursing and those for establishment of criterion measures for practice and education.

American Nurses' Association. Research priorities for the 1980s: Generating a scientific basis for nursing practice (Publication No. D-68). Kansas City, Mo.: American Nurses' Association, 1981.

• Cite this Page Institute of Medicine (US) Division of Health Care Services. Nursing and Nursing Education: Public Policies and Private Actions. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1983. Appendix 8, Nursing Research: Definitions and Directions.
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Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

List of Nursing Resources on the Purdue OWL

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As a nursing student, you will write different types of texts, such as research papers and group presentations. All of this writing has common characteristics: to be concise, evidence-based, supported by credible and appropriate research, to be professional, and to follow APA style. This section offers resources that are designed to help nursing students with these and other writing concerns.

American Psychological Association (APA)

APA Style Workshop

APA Citation Rules

APA is used in scientific and social scientific disciplines, including nursing, and standardizes research and citation formats. These links provide information for APA style, with the first link offering an overview of APA style and the second providing specific APA rules and sample APA papers.

APA Paper Sample

This sample shows you how to write and format a nursing research paper in APA.

The Rhetorical Situation

This PowerPoint presentation will help you understand the importance of the context in which you write. There are many factors that influence your writing: you, the writer; your purpose; your audience; your context; and the culture surrounding the context. For example, you will write differently for your professors than you will for your patients. Their varying education levels and different situations, or context, will cause you to use different language and present your topic differently.

Audience Analysis

This resource will help you with one important part of the rhetorical situation: analyzing your audience and tailoring your writing to fit your audience’s needs. There is also a handout available on this page with a chart to help you with your audience analysis.

Writing Scientific Abstracts

This PowerPoint presentation discusses the importance of writing abstracts and offers tools on how to write them. Abstracts allow you to present information in a clear, concise manner and are part of writing in APA style.

Conducting Primary Research

Primary research is an important component while writing as a nursing student. It allows you to support your argument, or thesis statement, with evidence; this, in turn, creates ethos, or credibility, for you as an author. This link offers many resources about primary research, including how to get started and how to conduct the various kinds of primary research.

Conducting an Interview

This PowerPoint presentation discusses the steps involved in conducting an interview as part of primary research. You may be asked to conduct an interview with clinical nurses, patients, or physicians as part of a writing assignment or research paper. Consult this PowerPoint before contacting your interviewee because it offers tips for how to contact him or her.

Database Research Tutorial from the Purdue Library

Engaging in secondary research, or research that is gathered from existing research performed and published by another author, is an essential part of writing as a nursing student. Using databases is one way to collect information, and this resource links to the Purdue Library’s tutorial on how to use databases.

Searching the World Wide Web

The Internet is a convenient and useful way to gather information; however, nursing professors expect their students to perform research that goes beyond a Google search. This PowerPoint presentation offers strategies for conducting Internet research, and it explains components of using the Internet you may not be familiar with, for example, the visible and invisible web. Use this PowerPoint presentation in conjunction with the database research tutorial for a good overview of how to conduct Internet research.

Evaluating Sources of Information

Not all sources of information are credible or reliable, and it is your job as a nursing student to be able to tell the difference. This resource offers different ways to decipher whether or not a source is credible.

Documenting Electronic Sources

When conducting secondary research, you might come across credible electronic sources that you would like to integrate into your writing. Documenting these sources properly is important because it builds your credibility as a writer, and it shows your readers, i.e., your nursing professors, that you have followed APA guidelines. This resource provides information and links to other resources that will help you properly document electronic sources.

Annotated Bibliographies

Annotated bibliographies, a summary and/or evaluation of sources, can help you organize your research. This resource explains the purpose of annotated bibliographies and provides examples. There are examples for APA, MLA, and CMS on this page; be sure to follow the APA format, as each citation style differs.

Thesis: Establishing an Argument

This page explains the importance of a thesis and how you can create an effective statement. Thesis statements are important to your writing because they control the paper’s overall purpose. These statements are especially important for you as a nursing student because writing in nursing should be logical, organized, concise, and clear; having a strong thesis will help you achieve this type of writing.

Grammar, Mechanics, and a Brief Discussion about Revision

The Grammar and Mechanics section on the OWL will help you learn how to use correct language. Using correct grammar will help your ethos, i.e., it will build your credibility, and it makes your writing appear more professional. One way to help improve your grammar is by reviewing the pages within the grammar and mechanics section and by completing the grammar and mechanics exercises. Another way to help correct grammar mistakes is by revising your writing. You can fix most of your grammar errors by reading your paper aloud before you turn it into your professor. Reading your paper aloud also offers you a chance to hear your writing, and you may find that some of the ideas you thought were clear are not as clear or organized as you hoped they would be.

Designing an Effective PowerPoint Presentation

PowerPoint presentations are a useful tool to use when delivering individual or group presentations. This PowerPoint presentation defines the basic elements of a PowerPoint slideshow and discusses how you can use these elements in effective and professional ways.

Personal Statements

Personal statements are an important part of the application process for nursing school. This section of resources offers writing samples and information that will help guide you while writing the personal statement. While using these resources and writing your statement, keep in mind the specific application for which you writing, as different nursing schools ask for different types of personal statements, i.e., the applications may ask you to respond to different types of questions.

Résumés and Cover Letters

Résumés and cover letters are important documents traditionally created toward the end of your nursing education, though it never hurts to start creating them during the start of your education. Use these resources to help you create your résumé and cover letter. You also might find it useful to consult the rhetorical situation and audience analysis resources, as these resources will help you understand the context in which and for which you will create your résumé and cover letter. Links to commonly used databases and sites: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed http://www.apastyle.org/manual/whats-new.aspx http://www.apastyle.org/ Databases available through the Purdue Library website: Academic Search Premier Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition MEDLINE CINAHL

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• Published: 07 October 2024

Implausibility of radical life extension in humans in the twenty-first century

• S. Jay Olshansky   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6956-5518 1 ,
• Bradley J. Willcox 2 ,
• Lloyd Demetrius 3 &
• Hiram Beltrán-Sánchez 4  

Nature Aging ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Over the course of the twentieth century, human life expectancy at birth rose in high-income nations by approximately 30 years, largely driven by advances in public health and medicine. Mortality reduction was observed initially at an early age and continued into middle and older ages. However, it was unclear whether this phenomenon and the resulting accelerated rise in life expectancy would continue into the twenty-first century. Here using demographic survivorship metrics from national vital statistics in the eight countries with the longest-lived populations (Australia, France, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland) and in Hong Kong and the United States from 1990 to 2019, we explored recent trends in death rates and life expectancy. We found that, since 1990, improvements overall in life expectancy have decelerated. Our analysis also revealed that resistance to improvements in life expectancy increased while lifespan inequality declined and mortality compression occurred. Our analysis suggests that survival to age 100 years is unlikely to exceed 15% for females and 5% for males, altogether suggesting that, unless the processes of biological aging can be markedly slowed, radical human life extension is implausible in this century.

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Before the middle of the nineteenth century, life expectancy at birth for humans languished at low levels by today’s standards—between 20 years and 50 years 1 . Improvements in survival were slow, punctuated often by episodic pandemics, plagues and contagions. Advances in public health and medicine in the early twentieth century spawned a longevity revolution characterized initially by large and rapid increases in life expectancy at birth ( e (0) ). e (0) increased at an accelerated rate, from an average of 1 year every one or two centuries for the previous 2,000 years to 3 years of life added per decade during the twentieth century (referred to a ‘radical life extension’). The variable pace of improvement in e (0) was influenced by geographic location, economic development and temporal factors 2 . This historic event began with reductions in early age mortality and continued later in the twentieth century with mortality improvements at middle and older ages 3 .

Given the profound influence of this longevity revolution on human society, one of the central questions in science, aging and public health today is: how much longer are humans capable of living? This is not a new question. Estimates of the highest theoretical life expectancy limits for national populations under optimal conditions is an exercise that dates back to the early twentieth century (for details, see Supplementary Note 1 ).

Accurately predicting future life expectancy trends holds important implications for societal, health and economic policies. In the United States, longstanding policy discussions have been held to address the potential consequences of how modulating biological aging could affect population demographics and related social institutions 4 , 5 , 6 . Accelerated population aging is already upon us; the absolute number of people reaching older ages continues to grow rapidly 7 ; and the practical implications of such an intervention continue to deepen.

In 1990, it was hypothesized that humanity was approaching an upper limit to life expectancy (the limited lifespan hypothesis) in long-lived populations, as early gains from improved public health and medical care had largely been accomplished, leaving biological aging as the primary risk factor for disease and death; the rate of improvement in life expectancy was projected to decelerate in the twenty-first century; and e (0) for national populations would not likely exceed approximately 85 years (88 for females and 82 for males) unless an intervention in biological aging was discovered, tested for safety and efficacy and broadly distributed 8 . These conclusions were later supported by observed mortality dynamics in the United States, France and Japan from 1990 to 2000 9 .

Claims were subsequently made that this limited lifespan view did not take into account ongoing advances in medicine and biology, that radical life extension (operationally defined here as a 0.3-year annual increase in period life expectancy at birth based on historical improvements in e (0) in long-lived populations in the twentieth century) had already begun 10 or that it would soon occur due to the discovery and deployment of life-extending medical technologies and/or result from ongoing population-based improvements in behavioral risk factors 11 . It was further predicted that most newborns today will live to ages 100-plus years 12 and that ‘… there is simply no convincing evidence (demographic, biological or otherwise) of a lower bound on death rates other than zero’ 13 .

Three decades have now passed since the limited lifespan hypothesis was proposed. However, the debate continues between the limited lifespan and the radical lifespan extension hypotheses. In the present study, we used standard demographic survivorship metrics 14 , 15 from the eight countries with the longest-lived populations and from the Special Administrative Region (SAR) of Hong Kong and the United States, from approximately 1990 to 2019, to address which hypothesis about human longevity is supported by these data. We then used this analysis to predict whether radical life extension is likely to occur again in this century. We used twentieth century increases in e (0) as a historical frame of reference.

In this analysis, we addressed the following questions. (1) Has radical life extension occurred at any time in the world’s longest-lived populations and in the United States from 1990 to 2019? (2) Is it plausible that most newborns today will live to age 100 years? (3) What is the rate of change in future mortality rates required to raise life expectancy at birth by 1 year? (4) What must human survival look like if radical life extension occurred again at any time in this century, and how plausible is this scenario? (5) Has the distribution of death in the longest-lived populations (measured by lifespan inequality) compressed in the last three decades or has it been expanding and shifting uniformly to later ages?

Has radical life extension occurred at any time since 1990?

Observed annual age-specific and sex-specific death rates and period life expectancy at birth from 1990 to 2019 (the latter year was chosen to eliminate the effects of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)) in the eight countries with the longest-lived populations (that is, Australia, France, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland) and in Hong Kong and the United States were chosen for this analysis (displayed here are annual changes in e (0) ). Data were derived from the Human Mortality Database 16 .

Using these data, we found that the only populations to experience the required 0.3-year annual improvement or 3.0-year decennial improvement in life expectancy that operationally defines radical life extension (see Supplementary Note 2 ) were South Korea and Hong Kong 17 . In Hong Kong, this was largely due to economic prosperity and tobacco control but, even then, only from 1990 to 2000 (Fig. 1 ). In every population, including Hong Kong, the most recent decade of change in life expectancy is slower than it was in the last decade of the twentieth century. In every population but Hong Kong and South Korea, the annual rise in e (0) has decelerated to below 0.2 years annually.

Source: Human Mortality Database (2019 complete life tables by sex). Threshold annual improvement in life expectancy at birth of 0.3% is required to demonstrate that radical life extension has been or is occurring. The rate of improvement in life expectancy at birth has decelerated in every population except Hong Kong. The dashed line indicates the average annual change in e ( 0 ) associated with ‘radical life extension’.

The average increase in e (0) from 1990 to 2019 in Hong Kong and the eight countries with the longest-lived populations was 6.5 years. The United States is one of only a handful of countries documented to have experienced a lower life expectancy at birth at the end of any decade relative to the beginning of the same decade. This phenomenon also occurred in the early and middle part of the twentieth century but was historically caused only by extreme events (for example, the Spanish Flu and war-related deaths). In the United States, it was uniquely caused by a combination of increases in mortality at middle ages 18 during the period 2010–2019 and then exacerbated by COVID-19 in 2020.

Predicting survival to age 100

Percentage survival to age 100 was derived from the l ( x ) (survivorship) columns of complete life tables for all nine countries and Hong Kong using period life tables in 2019 published by the Human Mortality Database.

In these populations, we found that the average probability of current birth cohorts surviving to age 100 is 5.1% for females and 1.8% for males (Fig. 2 ). The highest population-specific probability of surviving to 100 occurred in Hong Kong where 12.8% of females and 4.4% of males are expected to reach age 100 in their lifetime based on life tables from 2019. Across these eight countries with the longest-lived populations and in Hong Kong and the United States, we found no population that comes close to 50% survival to age 100 (Fig. 2 ).

Each line represents the proportion of each population in an annual life table who would survive to age 100 from 1990 to 2019.

Reduction in mortality required to raise e (0) by 1 year

The reduction in total mortality required to yield identical 1-year increases in e (0) is based on data from the Human Mortality Database for the populations evaluated here. The percentage reductions were derived by reducing total mortality at all ages, in each country, from as far back as 1750 (when the data existed) to 2019 until e (0) increased by 1 year.

In Hong Kong and all nine countries evaluated here, we found that the percentage reduction in total mortality required to raise e (0) by 1 year has actually increased relative to 1990 (Fig. 3 ).

The panel on the left illustrates how much death rates from all causes at all ages are required to decline for females to add 1 year to life expectancy at birth; the panel on the right shows the same results for males. The black vertical lines are indicators of beginning of a century.

As an illustration of the conditions present in most long-lived populations, we used period life tables for Japan in 2019 to calculate how much total mortality would have to decline, by gender, to experience a 1-year increase in e (0) . If e (0) for females reaches 88 years in countries with long-lived populations, the magnitude of the reduction in death rates would be stark. Mortality from all causes at all ages required to raise life expectancy to 89 years for females would be 20.3%. For males, a rise from 82 years to 83 years would require a reduction in total mortality at every age of 9.5%.

The demographic rationale and the analytic derivation of lifespan metrics were derived from complete life tables published by the Human Mortality Database from 1950 to 2019. They include the log of e (0) —calculated as a function of life table entropy ( H *) and lifespan inequality ( Φ* ) in accordance with equation ( 1 ), as shown in the Methods section. We estimated life table entropy using standard demographic techniques 14 , 15 , 19 , 20 .

The metrics that measure life table entropy (the dynamics of lifespan) are illustrated for the populations evaluated here from 1950 to 2019 in Figs. 4 and 5a,b .

Shown is the log of life expectancy at birth in the eight countries with the longest-lived populations and in Hong Kong and the United States (1950–2019).

a , Annual changes in life table entropy for all 10 populations from 1950 to 2019. b , Annual changes in lifespan inequality for the same populations and time periods.

First, our analysis showed that the log of life expectancy at birth (log e (0) ) increased continuously from 1950 through 2019 in all populations assessed (Fig. 4 ). This occurred at the same time period that life expectancy at birth decelerated in all countries with long-lived populations and maximum lifespan stagnated 21 .

Second, we found that the metric of life table entropy ( H* ) increased steadily from 1990 to 2019 (Fig. 5a ). This likely occurred for a variety of reasons that are expected in humans: better health conditions, improved risk factors, medical technology, etc. However, H * increased, converged and stabilized at a common higher level in all long-lived populations, demonstrating that the force of life table entropy as a limiting force on rising life expectancy is greater today than it was in 1990.

Third, we evaluated lifespan inequality (also known as lifespan variation, Φ* ) 20 . When Φ* declines, this represents empirical evidence that the mortality/survival distribution is compressing and the rise in life expectancy may be decelerating; when Φ* increases, this represents empirical evidence that the mortality/survival distribution is extending to later ages and the rise in life expectancy may be accelerating. As shown here (Fig. 5b ), for the 69-year period from 1950 to 2019, Φ* declined uniformly and consistently in all long-lived populations, at the same time life expectancy was rising. This fact demonstrates that age at death has, in fact, been compressing into a shorter window of time at the outer reaches of human survival. It is theoretically possible for future mortality distributions to shift toward later ages, but the evidence is not supportive. Life expectancy has not increased since 1990 at a rate that defines radical life extension, nor is it likely to do so unless breakthroughs occur in retarding the rate of human aging.

Survival dynamics required for radical life extension

We generated a hypothetical survival distribution assuming radical life extension occurs again and e (0) rises to 110 years, using data from the Human Mortality Database for a population of Japanese females observed in 2019.

If e (0) were to hypothetically reach 110 years, death rates at all ages from all causes of death combined—up to age 150 years (for example, decades beyond the observed survival distribution for humans)—would need to be 88% lower than the observed death rate at age 109 in Japan in 2019. This level of mortality would require the complete cure or elimination of most major causes of death that exist today.

Our analyses demonstrate that a second wave of radical life extension, yielding a life expectancy at birth of 110 years at any time in the future, requires survival to age 100 by about 70% of females (Fig. 6 , A). Survival to the age of 122.45 years—the maximum lifespan observed for humans as determined by the documented survival of Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 (ref. 22 )—would need to be achieved by over 24% of females to observe a life expectancy at birth of 110 years (Fig. 6 , B). Radical life extension would also require about 6% of females to survive to ages 150-plus—28 years beyond the observed documented longest-lived human in history (Fig. 6 , C).

Evidence for radical life extension requires a mortality distribution that is dramatically different from observed mortality distributions observed among the longest-lived human populations (denoted by A). A mortality distribution for a population experiencing radical life extension today requires just over one-fourth of the birth cohort surviving beyond the age of the maximum lifespan for the species (denoted by B). Approximately 6–7% of the birth cohort would need to survive to age 150 to achieve radical life extension (denoted by C).

Composite lowest age-specific and sex-specific death rates (2019)

A composite complete mortality schedule for humans (and related period life tables from ages 0–109 years for males and females) was compiled using the lowest age-specific and sex-specific mortality observed among all countries in the world based on period life tables published by the Human Mortality Database for 2019.

The life expectancy at birth associated with these composite mortality schedules as of 2019 is 88.68 years for females and 83.17 years for males. Higher potential life expectancies of 91.6 years for females and 86.1 years for males were estimated by Canudas-Romo et al. 23 for the year 2039.

We found that the composite highest life expectancy mortality schedules in 2019 yield 13.9% survival to age 100 for females and 4.5% for males.

If death rates were zero from birth through age 50, the composite highest life expectancy at birth would be 89.7 for females and 84.7 for males. That is, reducing death rates to zero for the first 50 years of life adds 1.0 years to the composite most favorable life expectancy of females and 1.5 years to the composite most favorable life expectancy of males.

This composite set of death rates is nearly identical to a ‘best practice’ life expectancy used to justify forecasts of much higher life expectancies than those observed today 24 . Breaking through to death rates below those shown here at ages 0–65 to levels sufficient to have a meaningful influence on life expectancy at birth is viewed as implausible given observed trends in death rates at these ages in the past three decades in the longest-lived populations in the world.

Death rates beyond age 65 years can still plausibly go lower than the composite lowest death rates shown here 25 , but the magnitude of such declines would have to accelerate across time to generate an increase of 3 years per decade to reach the formal definition of radical life extension. This accelerated mortality improvement at older ages has not happened in the last three decades. Although a formally defined mortality floor cannot as yet be operationalized at older ages, there is evidence to suggest that such a floor does indeed exist, and it is not likely too far from the best practice composite death rates published here and by multiple other research teams that explore death rates and life expectancy for humans under optimal conditions (Supplementary Note 1 ).

More than three decades have passed since predictions were made about the upper limits to human longevity. Evidence presented here based on observed mortality trends in the worldʼs eight longest-lived populations and in Hong Kong and the United States, and metrics of life table entropy, indicate that it has become progressively more difficult to increase life expectancy. The life table indicators are not only still operational; they are, in fact, a stronger limiting factor to rising e (0) today than they were in the late twentieth century. Although some countries have approached or reached the ‘limits’ to life expectancy that we hypothesized decades ago 8 , we found that, even in these countries, the rate of improvement in life expectancy has decelerated.

At ages 65 and older, the observed average rate of improvement in old-age mortality in the longest-lived populations evaluated here was 30.2% from 1990 to 2019. The impact of this level of mortality improvement, if experienced again over the next three decades, would yield only a 2.5-year increase in e (0) . This is a fraction of the 3-year per decade (for example, 8.7-year increase from 1990 to 2019) gain in life expectancy predicted by those claiming that radical life extension was forthcoming or already here 10 . That is, old-age mortality has not been declining since 1990 at a pace that is even close to the rate of improvement required to achieve radical life extension in this century.

It is worth noting that radical life extension as defined here may occur in this century in some of today’s low-income or middle-income nations. This would be a product of experiencing the first longevity revolution in which death rates at younger and middle ages can still be reduced dramatically.

The importance of a mortality floor (referred to as a soft limit that can be breached by medicine and public health advances) shown here should be considered carefully by insurance companies and actuarial firms tasked with forecasting mortality improvement factors. These impact current carriers of life insurance and also the valuation of current and future insurance applicants’ policies 26 . If mortality improvement assumptions generated by organizations involved in survival forecasts yield age-specific and sex-specific death rates below the thresholds shown in Supplementary Table 1 , justification for breaking through the current mortality floor should be required.

Moreover, as shown in Fig. 5a,b and equation ( 1 ), the logarithm of life expectancy can be decomposed into the sum of two terms where the first, life table entropy, is the dominant component in mortality improvements and the rise in life expectancy. When forecasting assumptions about life expectancy are based on a linear increase from past trends, then, by definition, the rate of improvement in death rates must accelerate, and metrics of life table entropy must improve accordingly. Our empirical measures of the rate of change in life expectancy and life table entropy in the current analysis demonstrate that this is not the case.

This means that extrapolating the metric of life expectancy from the past into the future is likely to yield overestimates of e (0) and survival, because this method of forecasting ignores the fundamental relation between life expectancy and the demographic metrics of life table entropy and lifespan inequality described here. This is why forecasts of longevity should be based on anticipated changes in death rates rather than linear projections of the metric of life expectancy.

There are limitations to this study, in particular related to the future. First, there can be no dispute that life expectancy improvements have decelerated since 1990. Our analysis clearly demonstrates that this finding runs counter to predictions that it was going to accelerate. Where uncertainty remains is how much more survival time can be manufactured with the disease model that now prevails (shown here to have a declining influence on life expectancy) and the far greater uncertainty associated with future improvements in survival that may result from the deployment of gerotherapeutics or other advances in medicine that cannot be conceived of today. Because radical lifespan extension brought forth by yet-to-be-developed medical advances cannot be empirically evaluated over short timeframes, a limitation here (and within the field of aging in general) is that it is difficult to justify any numerical estimate of their future influence on life expectancy.

Although limits to human life expectancy were discussed previously 27 , it is important to note that these limits do leave room for such advances in medicine (treating disease or targeting the underlying causes of aging 28 , 29 and improved behavioral risk factors) that could further improve mortality at older ages (that is, these limits are not brick walls 10 for longevity). Importantly, these limits should not be interpreted from an evolutionary perspective to mean that there is no longevity value in achieving grandparenthood 30 , 31 , that the post-reproductive period should necessarily be short 32 or that the occurrence of chronic conditions of aging are driven by a force of selection to just beyond the upper edge of the reproductive window, in accordance with the antagonistic pleiotropy, mutation accumulation and disposable soma hypotheses 33 , 34 , 35 .

A naturally occurring life expectancy of a human population in the absence of any form of medical intervention throughout the course of life is unknown, but it would be expected to be far below the life expectancies observed in high-income nations today. As such, recent increases in e (0) are likely to be a result of the addition of what has been referred to as manufactured time—survival time brought forth by medical and public health interventions 9 .

The notion of a limit to life expectancy present today represents something akin to a glass mortality floor or a second soft limit to longevity that has become increasingly less sensitive to modifications through the treatment of diseases but that should be amenable to modification through changes in the rate of biological aging. The evidence presented here indicates that humans are approaching a second soft limit—using the very criteria set forth by those who have argued for the last three decades that either there is no limit to human longevity or, if there is one, it was not then in sight (Supplementary Note 3 ).

Forecasts about radical life extension in humans thought to be occurring now or projected to do so in the near term have already influenced the operations and financial structure of multiple industries 36 . Results presented here indicate that there is no evidence to support the suggestion that most newborns today will live to age 100 because this would first require accelerated reductions in death rates at older ages (the exact opposite of the deceleration that has occurred in the last three decades). Furthermore, even if the 30.2% improvements in mortality in the 65-and-older population observed to have occurred in high-income nations from 1990 to 2019 occurred again, only a small fractional increase in survival to age 100 would ensue. Changes in existing institutions that rely on lifespan estimation, such as retirement planning 37 and life insurance pricing constructed with a 100-year lifespan assumption as its foundation, are likely to be overestimating survival by a wide margin for most people 38 .

It would be optimistic if 15% of females and 5% of males in any human birth cohort could live to age 100 in most countries in this century (even if any of the recently estimated composite best practice death rates are achieved under optimal conditions)—a limit that could theoretically be breached but only if gerotherapeutics are developed that slow biological aging. Even then, survival to age 100 for most people is not a certainty.

At a practical level, it is not feasible to test whether any current or future gerotherapeutic could extend human lifespan to over 100 years because of the time required to empirically verify life-extending properties of this magnitude. In fact, the efforts of the National Institute on Aging Interventions Testing Program (ITP) demonstrated that potential therapies have limited efficacy in safely extending mouse lifespan. Of 50 compounds so far tested, only 12 have increased lifespan (in either sex), none by more than 15% (ref. 39 ).

Increases in life expectancy at birth in countries with long-lived populations should not be confused with anticipated increases in the absolute number of people reaching older ages in this century 40 . The rising prevalence of older cohorts will accelerate across the globe in this century as a byproduct of larger birth cohorts born during the twentieth century 41 moving up the age structure and as a result of improvements in survival at extreme old age due to medical advances. Large increases in the centenarian population across the globe, for example, can reliably be predicted to start in 2042, as this will mark the 100-year anniversary of the beginning of the post–World War II baby boom.

It is suggested here that humanity’s battle for a long life has largely been accomplished. This is not a pessimistic view of a longevity game over or that further mortality improvements at all ages (especially at older ages) are no longer possible or that healthspan can no longer be improved through risk factor modification or reductions in survival inequalities. Rather, it is a celebration of more than a century of public health and medicine successfully allowing humanity to gain the upper hand on the causes of death that have, thus far, limited human lifespan.

The evidence presented here indicates that the era of rapid increases in human life expectancy due to the first longevity revolution has ended (Supplementary Note 4 ). Given rapid advances now occurring in geroscience 42 , there is reason to be optimistic that a second longevity revolution is approaching in the form of modern efforts to slow biological aging, offering humanity a second chance at altering the course of human survival. However, until it becomes possible to modulate the biological rate of aging 43 and fundamentally alter the primary factors that drive human health and longevity 44 , radical life extension in already long-lived national populations remains implausible in this century.

Demographic survivorship metrics

The link between improvements in age-specific death rates and life expectancy at birth ( e (0) ) is based on the following fundamental characterization, namely:

where H * denotes life table entropy, and Φ* is the lifespan inequality.

The analytic expression for these concepts was first developed more than a half century ago 15 ; the lifespan inequality was later applied in an influential study of human longevity by gender 45 , followed more recently by a comprehensive review of these various metrics 14 .

The central parameters in the study of the age–survivorship function l ( x ) are as follows: the mean lifespan, the life table entropy and the lifespan inequality.

The mean lifespan is given by

The life expectancy e (0) can be expressed in terms of the ‘Entropy’ function H* , and an indicator of the distribution of ages at death (lifespan inequality) Φ* , with the following relationship:

Empirical studies 20 , 46 of these life table metrics, as illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5a,b , are consistent with the following expected changes in the life table parameters during a time when a population’s health status is improving.

Life expectancy at birth, e ( 0 ) , should increase.

Life table entropy, H *, a positive correlate of the mean lifespan under ideal conditions, should increase.

Lifespan inequality, Φ* , should decrease.

These three principles, and the fundamental linkages among the three metrics expressed in equation ( 1 ), indicate that radical changes in lifespan, as defined here, are contingent upon the rates at which the life table entropy and lifespan inequality change over time. We invoke these principles to empirically evaluate the plausibility of radical lifespan extension in long-lived populations.

Observed annual age-specific and sex-specific death rates and period life expectancy at birth from 1950/1990 to 2019 (the latter year was chosen to eliminate the effects of COVID-19) were used in this study. Data were derived from the Human Mortality Database that include the longest-lived populations in the world. The longest-lived populations chosen for this analysis were Australia, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. If radical life extension has been occurring since 1990, it would most likely be observable in these populations. The United States was included because some scientists made specific predictions about radical life extension in this country.

Period life tables are preferred as the frame of reference because contemporary cohort life tables are accompanied by assumptions about future death rates (especially at older ages), and it is these very assumptions that are the subject of inquiry in this analysis.

Definition of radical life extension

The dramatic increase in life expectancy in humans occurred mostly during the twentieth century. In the populations evaluated here using data from the Human Mortality Database, the annual rate of increase in e (0) for males and females combined from 1900 to 2000 was about 0.33. Of note, there was considerable variation in the timing with which these improvements in life expectancy occurred across these populations in the twentieth century (for example, the Japanese, Hong Kong and South Korean populations concentrated their large increases in life expectancy only in the last quarter of the twentieth century). Thus, a 0.3-year annual rate of improvement in e (0) is considered a conservative operational definition of radical life extension.

Survival distribution with e (0) of 110 years

A hypothetical survival distribution assuming radical life extension occurs again and e (0) rises to 110 years was estimated using the following data and assumptions. (1) Data were drawn from a population of Japanese females observed in 2019 from the Human Mortality Database—intended to be representative of any long-lived population. (2) Period life expectancy at birth was assumed to rise to 110 years at an unspecified date in the future (which, in this case, was a 22.54-year increase from female life expectancy at birth observed in Japan in 2019). (3) Death rates at ages 110–150 years were assumed to remain constant at the level observed at age 109 in 2019 but then reduced proportionally in accordance with (4). (4) Death rates were reduced equally at all ages (including from ages 109–150) until e (0) reached 110. The estimated life table with radical life extension was closed at age 150.

Composite mortality schedule

A composite complete mortality schedule for humans (and related period life tables from ages 0–109 for males and females) was compiled using the lowest age-specific and sex-specific mortality observed among all populations in the world based on period life tables published by the Human Mortality Database for 2019. More recent years, although available in many cases, were not used as a way to avoid the negative influence of COVID-19 on the composite lowest mortality schedules.

Statistics and reproducibility

The results of the analyses presented here may be replicated using the data from the cited sources and the formulas presented above. The national vital statistics data for the nine countries and Hong Kong represent entire resident populations; data were not excluded from the analyses. The researchers were not blinded to the datasets during analysis. The population sizes for the populations evaluated ranged from a low of 7.3 million for Hong Kong to a high of 339 million for the United States.

Reporting summary

Further information on research design is available in the Nature Portfolio Reporting Summary linked to this article.

Data availability

The data required to replicate the findings presented here include the Human Mortality Database ( https://mortality.org/ ). All data supporting the findings of the study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank A. Sahasranaman for his contribution to the empirical analysis of life table metrics in an earlier version of the manuscript. Funding support for H.B.S. comes from grants by the National Institute on Aging (R01AG052030) and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P2C-HD041022) to the California Center for Population Research at UCLA. Funding for B.J.W. comes from the National Institute on Aging (R01AG027060–Kuakini Hawaii Lifespan Study) and the National Institute for General Medical Sciences (P20GM125526–Kuakini HHP Center of Biomedical Research Excellence for Clinical and Translational Research on Aging). Funding for the broad dissemination of this study through open access was provided by the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR).

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Conceptualization of the analysis was done by S.J.O. Methodology was developed by H.B.-S., S.J.O., B.J.W. and L.D. Visualization was created by H.B.-S., S.J.O. and L.D. Writing of the original draft was done by S.J.O., H.B.-S. and B.J.W. Reviewing and editing was completed by S.J.O., H.B.-S., B.J.W. and L.D.

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Olshansky, S.J., Willcox, B.J., Demetrius, L. et al. Implausibility of radical life extension in humans in the twenty-first century. Nat Aging (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-024-00702-3

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Received : 14 June 2023

Accepted : 05 August 2024

Published : 07 October 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-024-00702-3

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