Application of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory-Chinese Version (GAI-CV) to older people in Beijing communities

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 517-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue Yan ◽  
Tao Xin ◽  
Dahua Wang ◽  
Dan Tang

ABSTRACTBackground:The Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI) was developed to assess anxiety in older adults. The objectives of this work were as follows: (a) to analyze the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the GAI (GAI-CV), and (b) to explore the extent of anxiety and related factors in the elderly Chinese residents of Beijing.Methods:Participants in this study included 1,047 people (59.4% female) more than 60 years old who were living in the community. They were randomly selected from 15 communities in Beijing. Basic information was collected. Anxiety was measured using the GAI-CV, the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI).Results:The GAI-CV exhibited good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.94) and demonstrated good concurrent validity against the SAS (r = 0.52, p = 0.018) and the BAI (r = 0.560, p = 0.000). Item response theory (IRT) analyses showed that the items of the GAI-CV exhibited high difficulty (0.97–2) and discrimination parameters (1.91–5.33). The items exhibited information parameters greater than 1.25 with the exceptions of items 2, 12, and 18. The GAI-CV scores were significantly associated with gender, age, and chronic disease. However, no significant differences due to marriage or education were found.Conclusions:The GAI is a new scale that was specifically designed to measure anxiety in older people. The results of this study suggest that the GAI-CV had good psychometric properties, but some items need to be modified. IRT analyses indicated that the GAI-CV provided good measures of anxiety across the moderately high to very high levels. The GAI-CV may be a useful instrument for further research studies aimed at analyzing high-level anxiety among older adults in China.

Author(s):  
Zhao Yu ◽  
Lijian Wang ◽  
Tolulope Ariyo

There is little research on the utilization of non-medical community healthcare services among the elderly, compared with that of medical community healthcare services. From the perspective of both supply and demand, based on the survey data from Shaanxi province, this study examined supply-related factors (including service supply, service quality, service charge and service accessibility) and demand-related factors (including service need, individual financial status, family care support and knowledge of service) affecting the utilization of non-medical community healthcare services among the elderly in China by using Poisson regression. The findings show that service supply, service quality, service need and knowledge of service are positively associated with the utilization of non-medical community healthcare services among elderly Chinese, but the other factors identified in previous studies are not significant predictors for the utilization of the services among the elderly in the context of China. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine both supply-related factors and demand-related factors affecting the utilization of non-medical community healthcare services among elderly Chinese.


2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (09) ◽  
pp. S8-S13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thiago Marinho ◽  
Christopher Widdowson ◽  
Amy Oetting ◽  
Arun Lakshmanan ◽  
Hang Cui ◽  
...  

This article demonstrates a multidisciplinary approach that proposes to augment future caregiving by prolonged independence of older adults. The human–robot system allows the elderly to cooperate with small flying robots through an appropriate interface. ASPIRE provides a platform where high-level controllers can be designed to provide a layer of abstraction between the high-level task requests, the perceptual needs of the users, and the physical demands of the robotic platforms. With a robust framework that has the capability to account for human perception and comfort level, one can provide perceived safety for older adults, and further, add expressively that facilitates communication and interaction continuously throughout the stimulation. The proposed framework relies on an iterative process of low-level controllers design through experimental data collected from psychological trials. Future work includes the exploration of multiple carebots to cooperatively assist in caregiving tasks based on human-centered design approach.


2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (15) ◽  
pp. 2685-2693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilse Bloom ◽  
Wendy Lawrence ◽  
Mary Barker ◽  
Janis Baird ◽  
Elaine Dennison ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectiveTo explore influences on diet in a group of community-dwelling older adults in the UK.DesignData were collected through focus group discussions with older people; discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and transcripts analysed thematically.SettingHertfordshire, UK.SubjectsParticipants were sampled purposively from the Hertfordshire Cohort Study, focusing on those whose diets had been assessed at two time points: 1998–2001 and 2011.ResultsNinety-two adults participated (47 % women; 74–83 years) and eleven focus groups were held. A number of age-related factors were identified that were linked to food choices, including lifelong food experiences, retirement, bereavement and medical conditions, as well as environmental factors (such as transport). There appeared to be variability in how individuals responded to these influences, indicating that other underlying factors may mediate the effects of age-related factors on diet. Discussions about ‘keeping going’, being motivated to ‘not give up’, not wanting to be perceived as ‘old’, as well as examples of resilience and coping strategies, suggest the importance of mediating psychological factors. In addition, discussion about social activities and isolation, community spirit and loneliness, indicated the importance of social engagement as an influence on diet.ConclusionsInterventions to promote healthier diets in older age should take account of underlying psychological and social factors that influence diet, which may mediate the effects of age-related factors.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronak Paul ◽  
Shobhit Srivast ◽  
Muhammad Thalil ◽  
Rashmi Rashmi

Abstract Background: While experiencing a double burden of both communicable and non-communicable diseases, three-fourth of the Indian population aged 50 and above are suffering from some form of disability. Existing studies on physical limitations highlight the determinants of late-life disabilities, however, limited evidence has shown how the socio-economic and health-related factors influence the elderly recovering or acquiring disability status in the Indian context. Method: The current study uses two waves of the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) and is based on panel data of 10527 older adults. Both bivariate and multiple variable regression analysis were performed using two binary outcome variables in this study – whether older adults acquired disability and recovered from disability between round-I and round-II, respectively.Results: Nearly 31.5% and 4.4% of older adults have acquired and recovered disability across the two rounds respectively. 38.5% and 45.8% of female older adults’ disability status changes to disable and recovered in round 2 respectively. A lesser proportion of older adults have recovered from a disability who have a chronic disease in round 1. Cataract chronic conditions among older adults in round 1 had shown 1.45 times (CI: 1.07-1.97) a significantly higher likelihood of acquiring disability in round 2. Older adults who were unmarried and were not working in round 1 have 1.12 times (CI: 1.01-1.25) and 1.21 times (CI: 1.06-1.39) a higher likelihood of acquiring disability in round 2 respectively. Recovering from disability was mostly seen among older adults who belong to the richest (OR: 2.38, CI: 1.31-4.33) and medium (OR: 2.16, CI: 1.27-3.69) wealth quintile households. Older adults residing in the central region of India have 2.72 times (CI: 2.31-3.19) significantly higher chance of acquiring disability than those who were residing in northern regions.Conclusion: Appropriate measures are required to highlight the importance of chronic physical diseases and several socio-demographic factors that may negatively affect the trajectory of disability in older ages.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Kułak-Bejda ◽  
Grzegorz Bejda ◽  
Napoleon Waszkiewicz

More than 600 million people are aged 60 years and over are living in the world. The World Health Organization estimates that this number will double by 2025 to 2 billion older people. Suicide among people over the age of 60 is one of the most acute problems. The factors strongly associated with suicide are mentioned: physical illnesses, such as cancer, neurologic disorder, pain, liver disease, genital disorders, or rheumatoid disorders. Moreover, neurologic conditions, especially stroke, may affect decision-making processes, cognitive capacity, and language deficit. In addition to dementia, the most common mental disorders are mood and anxiety disorders. A common symptom of these disorders in the elderly is cognitive impairment. This study aimed to present the relationship between cognitive impairment due to dementia, mood disorders and anxiety, and an increased risk of suicide among older people. Dementia is a disease where the risk of suicide is significant. Many studies demonstrated that older adults with dementia had an increased risk of suicide death than those without dementia. Similar conclusions apply to prodromal dementia Depression is also a disease with a high risk of suicide. Many researchers found that a higher level of depression was associated with suicide attempts and suicide ideation. Bipolar disorder is the second entity in mood disorders with an increased risk of suicide among the elderly. Apart from suicidal thoughts, bipolar disorder is characterized by high mortality. In the group of anxiety disorders, the most significant risk of suicide occurs when depression is present. In turn, suicide thoughts are more common in social phobia than in other anxiety disorders. Suicide among the elderly is a serious public health problem. There is a positive correlation between mental disorders such as dementia, depression, bipolar disorder, or anxiety and the prevalence of suicide in the elderly. Therefore, the elderly should be comprehensively provided with psychiatric and psychological support.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Han Gao ◽  
Ulrika Söderhamn ◽  
Christina Cliffordson ◽  
Lina Guo ◽  
Qiyun Guo ◽  
...  

Salmand ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 160-175
Author(s):  
Gholamreza Ansari ◽  
◽  
Ahmad Delbari ◽  
Mehrdad Karimi ◽  
Ahmad Ali Akbari Kamrani ◽  
...  

Objectives: Osteoarthritis is one of the most common diseases among older people which is one the most important causes of disability and heavy socio-economic burden on the elderly and society. This study aimed to investigate the effect of melilotus officinalis oil on knee joint pain and stiffness among older adults with mild to moderate primary knee osteoarthritis. Methods & Materials: This is a double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial (registration code: IRCT2016082129461N1). Participants were 61 eligible older adults (35 females and 26 males with a mean age of 78±7.79 years) residing in one of the nursing homes in Tehran, Iran who had mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis clinically diagnosed by an orthopedic physician. Then they were assigned randomly into two groups of intervention and control received melilotus officinalis oil and diclofenac gel, respectively, using a randomization table based on balance block randomization. The data were collected using a demographic form and the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) for evaluating knee joint pain and stiffness at baseline, 2 weeks and 4 weeks after the intervention. Collected data were analyzed in SPSS V. 23 software.  Results: There was no statistically significant different between the intervention and control groups in terms of sociodemographic variables (age, education, marital status, occupation, smoking, physical activity, chronic illness, and medication) at baseline. Knee pain (F1,58=119.07, P<0.001) and joint stiffness (F 1,58=19.9, P<0.001) reduced significantly in both groups, where the effect size was higher in the intervention group. No considerable side effect reported during the study. Conclusion: Compared to diclofenac gel, melilotus officinalis oil can reduce knee joint pain and stiffness in older people with mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis. Therefore, it is suggested for treatment of people with knee osteoarthritis. Further studies are recommended to investigate the mechanism of melilotus oficinalis oil in reducing knee pain and stiffness and determine its effective dosage. 


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