Current Gerontology and Geriatrics Research最新文献

Specific activities that require concurrent processing of postural and cognitive tasks may increase the risk for falls in older adults. We investigated whether peripheral receptor sensitivity was associated with postural performance in a dual-task and whether an intervention in form of subthreshold vibration could affect performance. Ten younger (age: 20-35 years) and ten older adults (70-85 years) performed repeated auditory-verbal 1-back tasks while standing quietly on a force platform. Foot sole vibration was randomly added during several trials. Several postural control and performance measures were assessed and statistically analyzed (significance set to α-levels of .05). There were moderate correlations between peripheral sensitivity and several postural performance and control measures (r = .45 to .59). Several postural performance measures differed significantly between older and younger adults (p < 0.05); addition of vibration did not affect outcome measures. Aging affects healthy older adults' performance in dual-tasks, and peripheral sensitivity may be a contributor to the observed differences. A vibration intervention may only be useful when there are more severe impairments of the sensorimotor system. Hence, future research regarding the efficacy of sensorimotor interventions in the form of vibrotactile stimulation should focus on older adults whose balance is significantly affected.

Appropriate neuromuscular responses to support surface perturbations are crucial to prevent falls, but aging-related anatomical and physiological changes affect the appropriateness and efficiency of such responses. Low-level noise application to sensory receptors has shown to be effective for postural improvement in a variety of different balance tasks, but it is unknown whether this intervention may have value for improvement of corrective postural responses. Ten healthy younger and ten healthy older adults were exposed to sudden backward translations of the support surface. Low-level noise (mechanical vibration) to the foot soles was added during random trials and temporal (response latency) and spatial characteristics (maximum center-of-pressure excursion and anterior-posterior path length) of postural responses were assessed. Mixed-model ANOVA was applied for analysis of postural response differences based on age and vibration condition. Age affected postural response characteristics, but older adults were well able to maintain balance when exposed to a postural perturbation. Low-level noise application did not affect any postural outcomes. Healthy aging affects some specific measures of postural stability, and in high-functioning older individuals, a low-level noise intervention may not be valuable. More research is needed to investigate if recurring fallers and neuropathy patients could benefit from the intervention in postural perturbation tasks.

Objectives. To find out the mortality profile vis-a-vis different epidemiological factors at the time of autopsy among the 50+-Population. Material and Method. A five-year retrospective evaluation of medicolegal records between 2006 and 2010 was done at Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi. Results. A total of 493 (17.78%) cases belonged to 50+-Population age group out of total 2773 autopsies performed. The proportion of unidentified/unknown persons among this age group was 36.51%. The unnatural and natural causes constituted 44.62% and 55.38% cases, respectively. The unspecified pneumonitis (50.18%) was reported as the commonest cause followed by coronary artery disease and respiratory tuberculosis among natural ones and the transport accident (57.27%) followed by accidental and intentional self-poisoning and exposure to noxious substances and falls among the unnatural ones. Conclusion. The findings reveal that this age group most commonly dies of natural causes rather than the unnatural ones even in autopsy cases. They have definite cure with timely interventions. The study also points out the need to devise the road and home safety measures to reduce mortality among the study population.

Conditions related to body composition and aging, such as osteopenic obesity, sarcopenia/sarcopenic obesity, and the newly termed osteosarcopenic obesity (triad of bone muscle and adipose tissue impairment), are beginning to gain recognition. However there is still a lack of definitive diagnostic criteria for these conditions. Little is known about the long-term impact of these combined conditions of osteoporosis, sarcopenia, and obesity in older adults. Many may go undiagnosed and progress untreated. Therefore, the objective of this research is to create diagnostic criteria for osteosarcopenic obesity in older women. The proposed diagnostic criteria are based on two types of assessments: physical, via body composition measurements, and functional, via physical performance measures. Body composition measurements such as T-scores for bone mineral density, appendicular lean mass for sarcopenia, and percent body fat could all be obtained via dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Physical performance tests: handgrip strength, one-leg stance, walking speed, and sit-to-stand could be assessed with minimal equipment. A score could then be obtained to measure functional decline in the older adult. For diagnosing osteosarcopenic obesity and other conditions related to bone loss and muscle loss combined with obesity, a combination of measures may more adequately improve the assessment process.

Background. The predictive value of frailty assessment is still debated. We analyzed the predictive value of frailty of independent living elderly. The outcomes variables were visits to the general practitioner, hospital admission, and occurrence of new health problems. Methods. A one-year follow-up study was executed among 215 community-living old Romanians. General practitioners reported the outcome variables of patients, whose frailty was assessed one year before, using the Groningen Frailty Indicator. The predictive validity is analyzed by descriptive and regression analysis. Results. Three-quarters of all participants visited their general practitioner three times more last year and one-third were at least once admitted to a hospital. Patients who scored frail one year before were more often admitted to a hospital. Visits to the general practitioner and occurrence of new health problems were not statistically significant related to frailty scores. The frailty items polypharmacy, social support, and activities in daily living were associated with adverse outcomes. Conclusions. The predictive value of frailty instruments as the Groningen Frailty Indicator is still limited. More research is needed to predict health outcomes, health care utilization, and quality of life of frailty self-assessment instruments. Validation research on frailty in different "environments" is recommended to answer the question to what extent contextual characteristics influence the predictive value.

Objective. Analysis of bone mineral density (BMD) in the elderly and its associated factors according to sex. Methods. A cross-sectional study is presented herein, with a random sample of 132 noninstitutionalized elderly people. Individuals who did not use diuretics were excluded. BMD was obtained from examination of total body densitometry and its association with sociodemographic variables, lifestyle, anthropometric, and body composition was verified. Results. Mean BMD for men was 1.17 ± 0.12 g/cm(2) and for women was 1.04 ± 0.11 g/cm(2). Higher education was associated with higher BMD values in men (p < 0.05). There was a reduction in BMD in the age group 75-79 years of age in women and over 80 years of age in men (p < 0.05). Underweight was associated with significantly low BMD for both sexes (p < 0.01), while normal weight was associated with low BMD in women (p < 0.001). Discussion. The elderly with low schooling and in older age groups are more probable to also present low BMD. Lower levels of body mass index also indicated towards low BMD.

Introduction. Falls are frequent in older adults and may have serious consequences but awareness of fall-risk is often low. A questionnaire might raise awareness of fall-risk; therefore we set out to construct and test such a questionnaire. Methods. Fall-risk factors and their odds ratios were extracted from meta-analyses and a questionnaire was devised to cover these risk factors. A formula to estimate the probability of future falls was set up using the extracted odds ratios. The understandability of the questionnaire and discrimination and calibration of the prediction formula were tested in a cohort study with a six-month follow-up. Community-dwelling persons over 60 years were recruited by an e-mail snowball-sampling method. Results and Discussion. We included 134 persons. Response rates for the monthly fall-related follow-up varied between the months and ranged from low 38% to high 90%. The proportion of present risk factors was low. Twenty-five participants reported falls. Discrimination was moderate (AUC: 0.67, 95% CI 0.54 to 0.81). The understandability, with the exception of five questions, was good. The wording of the questions needs to be improved and measures to increase the monthly response rates are needed before test-retest reliability and final predictive value can be assessed.

Present study aimed to compare the incidence of menopausal problems and concomitants between tribe and caste population. This cross section study was conducted in five villages of West Bengal, a state in the eastern part of India. This study was conducted between two different ethnic groups-one of the "Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PTG)" of India named as "Lodha" and the other was a Bengali speaking caste population. A total number of 313 participants were finally recruited for this study. Study participants were married, had at least one child, had no major gynaecological problems, and had stopped menstrual bleeding spontaneously for at least 1 year. Additionally, data on sociodemographic status and menstrual and reproductive history were collected using a pretested questionnaire/schedule. Bivariate analyses (chi square test) revealed that significantly more number of caste participants suffered from urinary problems than their tribe counterpart. The reverse trend has been noticed for the frequency of vaginal problems. Multivariate analyses (binary logistic regression) show that sociodemographic variables and menstrual and reproductive history of the present study participants seem to be the concomitants of menopausal symptoms. Tribe and caste study population significantly differed with respect to the estrogen deficient menopausal problems and the concomitants to these problems.