Globally, demographic shifts towards an increasingly older population have led to increasing clinical and academic interest in geriatric care. A recent piece in Nature Perspectives identified “the social determinants of health, such as income, education, housing, transportation, and social support, that impact the health outcomes and health behaviors of the older adults” as areas that require further support in healthcare1. Narrative medicine, particularly graphic medicine, is uniquely positioned to offer insight into the ways such determinants mediate the aging process and their identities as geriatric individuals by centering the embodied subject’s interactions with social contexts. However, the graphic medicine canon focuses on work that illustrate aging as characterized by disease processes – particularly the neurological2. Coupled with medical board preparation materials and broader curricula that focus on aging as a risk factor for inevitable pathology3,4,5, there appears to be an emergent tautology between aging and pathological/diseased states in medical narratives.

This pecha-kucha is based on an in-progress qualitative analysis paper about graphic narratives’ representation of women over the age of 65 negotiating the changes that accompany their aging and emerging geriatric identities. Analysis identified four recurrent themes of disability, autonomy, dignity and community engagement that underpin this narrative process. The 20-second slides will show panels from the English translation of Kaori Tsurutani's manga BL Metamorphosis, Hiromi Goto’s graphic novel Shadow Life (illustrated by Ann Xu), and schwinn’s manga はなものがた, that are referenced in the paper.

I will describe the panels’ depictions of the above themes and social determinants to explore how such works can inform more empathetically responsive perspectives and person-first approaches to geriatric care. The aim is to educate towards an understanding of aging narratives beyond pathological disease-states to more holistically inform discussions with persons negotiating their transition into a geriatric identity.

Aaradhana Natarajan is currently a medical student at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. She is interested in the history of medicine, health policy, science communications, and the ways different experiences of embodiment are represented in written and visual mediums.

COI Disclosure: I do not have an affiliation (financial or otherwise) with any for-profit or not-for-profit organizations