scholarly journals 40 The Association between Apathy, Decline in Physcal Performance, and Falls

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (Supplement_4) ◽  
pp. iv9-iv12
Author(s):  
Marieke Henstra ◽  
Didi Rhebergen ◽  
Lisette De Groot ◽  
Natasja Van Schoor ◽  
Nathalie Van der Velde

Abstract Background Symptoms of apathy are common in older persons. Negative effects on physical performance and fall risk are plausible, considering the pathophysiology of apathy. However, literature is scarce. Aim To longitudinally assess the association between apathy and 1) decline of physical performance and 2) the number of falls in older community-dwelling persons. Methods The ‘B-vitamins for the PRevention Of Osteoporotic Fractures’ study (B-PROOF) provided data on 2919 older persons over a period of two years. Apathy was assessed using the Geriatric Depression Scale3. A physical performance score (PPS) was calculated using three performance tests. Falls were registered prospectively. We calculated adjusted odds ratios (ORs), Incidence Rate Ratios (IRRs) their 95% confidence intervals (CI). Effect-modification by age and gender was investigated. We also investigated mediation by baseline PPS for the association between apathy and the number of falls. Results Apathy and decline of PPS were independently associated. After stratification, the effect only remained in men. Age was an effect modifier; higher ORs for decreasing age. Apathy was also independently associated with the number of falls. After stratification, women had higher IRRs than men. Age modified the association in the opposite direction: higher IRRs for increasing age. Baseline PPS was a mediator in the association. Conclusion The impact of apathy on physical performance and fall-incidents varied with age and gender. Potentially, in older individuals with apathy, fall risk is preceded by a decline in physical performance. In clinical practice, identifying apathy in older persons might be useful to target mobility preserving interventions.

Author(s):  
Ingrid Connidis

ABSTRACTA stratified random sample of 400 community-dwelling older persons were asked whether they like or dislike anything about being their age and if they have any worries about growing older. The results of multivariate analysis show significant relationships between the dependent variables and several respondent charaderistics including age, subjective health, expectations of older age, and gender. A negative view of aging appears to be associated with experiencing age-related declines. Overall, despite some diversity, the respondents tend to hold a positive view of old age that is coupled with a realistic appreciation of the shortcomings this stage of life may bring.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Hani Asilah Alias ◽  
Maria Justine

Objective. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of a submaximal level of exercise on balance performance under a variety of conditions.Material and Method. Thirteen community-dwelling older persons with intact foot sensation (age = 66.69 ± 8.17 years, BMI = 24.65 ± 4.08 kg/m2, female,n=6) volunteered to participate. Subjects’ balance performances were measured using the Modified Clinical Test of Sensory Integration of Balance (mCTSIB) at baseline and after test, under four conditions of stance: (1) eyes-opened firm-surface (EOF), (2) eyes-closed firm-surface (ECF), (3) eyes-opened soft-surface (EOS), and (4) eyes-closed soft-surface (ECS). The 6-minute walk test (6MWT) protocol was used to induce the submaximal level of exercise. Data was analyzed using the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test.Results. Balance changes during EOF (z=0.00,P=1.00) and ECF (z=-1.342,P=0.180) were not significant. However, balance changes during EOS (z=-2.314,P=0.021) and ECS (z=-3.089,P=0.02) were significantly dropped after the 6MWT.Conclusion. A submaximal level of exercise may influence sensory integration that in turn affects balance performance, particularly on an unstable surface. Rehabilitation should focus on designing intervention that may improve sensory integration among older individuals with balance deterioration in order to encourage functional activities.


1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. I. J. M. Kempen ◽  
M. J. G. van Heuvelen ◽  
E. van Sonderen ◽  
R. H. S. van den Brink ◽  
A. C. Kooijman ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412110268
Author(s):  
Vaitsa Giannouli ◽  
Juliana Yordanova ◽  
Vasil Kolev

Research on aesthetic descriptors of art in different languages is scarce. The aim of the present study was to elucidate the conceptual structure of aesthetic experiences of three forms of art (music, visual arts and literature) in the Greek language, which has not been explored so far. It was further aimed to study if biological and cognitive factors such as age and gender might produce differences in art appreciation. A total of 467 younger and older individuals from Greece were asked to generate verbal descriptors (adjectives) in free word-listing conditions in order to collect terms reflecting the aesthetics-related semantic field of art. The capacity of verbal memory was controlled by using a battery of neuropsychological tests. Analysis of generated adjectives’ frequency and salience revealed that ‘beautiful’ was the most prominent descriptor that was selected with a distinctive primacy for all three forms of arts. The primacy of ‘beautiful’ was significantly more pronounced for visual arts relative to music and literature. Although the aging-related decline of verbal capacity was similar for males and females, the primacy of ‘beautiful’ depended on age and gender by being more emphasized for young females than males, and for old males than females. Analysis of secondary descriptors and pairs of adjectives revealed that affective and hedonic experiences are essentially fixed in the semantic field of art reflection. It is concluded that although the concept of the aesthetics seems to be diversified and rich, a clear primacy of beauty is found for the Greek cultural environment and across different forms of art. The results also highlight the presence of complex influences of biological and cognitive factors on aesthetic art experiences.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Mann ◽  
Fintan Thompson ◽  
Robyn McDermott ◽  
A. Esterman ◽  
Edward Strivens

Abstract Background Health systems must reorient towards preventative and co-ordinated care to reduce hospital demand and achieve positive and fiscally responsible outcomes for older persons with complex needs. Integrated care models can improve outcomes by aligning primary practice with the specialist health and social services required to manage complex needs. This paper describes the impact of a community-facing program that integrates care at the primary-secondary interface on the rate of Emergency Department (ED) presentation and hospital admissions among older people with complex needs. Methods The Older Persons Enablement and Rehabilitation for Complex Health Conditions (OPEN ARCH) study is a multicentre randomised controlled trial with a stepped wedge cluster design. General practitioners (GPs; n = 14) in primary practice within the Cairns region are considered ‘clusters’ each comprising a mixed number of participants. 80 community-dwelling persons over 70 years of age if non-Indigenous and over 50 years of age if Indigenous were included at baseline with no new participants added during the study. Clusters were randomly assigned to one of three steps that represent the time at which they would commence the OPEN ARCH intervention, and the subsequent intervention duration (3, 6, or 9 months). Each participant was its own control. GPs and participants were not blinded. The primary outcomes were ED presentations and hospital admissions. Data were collected from Queensland Health Casemix data and analysed with multilevel mixed-effects Poisson regression modelling to estimate the effectiveness of the OPEN ARCH intervention. Data were analysed at the cluster and participant levels. Results Five clusters were randomised to steps 1 and 2, and 4 clusters randomised to step 3. All clusters (n = 14) completed the trial accounting for 80 participants. An effect size of 9% in service use (95% CI) was expected. The OPEN ARCH intervention was found to not make a statistically significant difference to ED presentations or admissions. However, a stabilising of ED presentations and a trend toward lower hospitalisation rates over time was observed. Conclusions While this study detected no statistically significant change in ED presentations or hospital admissions, a plateauing of ED presentation and admission rates is a clinically significant finding for older persons with complex needs. Multi-sectoral integrated programs of care require an adequate preparation period and sufficient duration of intervention for effectiveness to be measured. Trial registration The OPEN ARCH study received ethical approval from the Far North Queensland Human Research Ethics Committee, HREC/17/QCH/104–1174 and is registered on the Australian and New Zealand Trials Registry, ACTRN12617000198325p.


Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 407
Author(s):  
Laetitia Lengelé ◽  
Olivier Bruyère ◽  
Charlotte Beaudart ◽  
Jean-Yves Reginster ◽  
Médéa Locquet

This study aimed to assess the impact of malnutrition on the 5-year evolution of physical performance, muscle mass and muscle strength in participants from the SarcoPhAge cohort, consisting of community-dwelling older adults. The malnutrition status was assessed at baseline (T0) according to the “Global Leadership Initiatives on Malnutrition” (GLIM) criteria, and the muscle parameters were evaluated both at T0 and after five years of follow-up (T5). Lean mass, muscle strength and physical performance were assessed using dual X-ray absorptiometry, handgrip dynamometry, the short physical performance battery test and the timed up and go test, respectively. Differences in muscle outcomes according to nutritional status were tested using Student’s t-test. The association between malnutrition and the relative 5-year change in the muscle parameters was tested using multiple linear regressions adjusted for several covariates. A total of 411 participants (mean age of 72.3 ± 6.1 years, 56% women) were included. Of them, 96 individuals (23%) were diagnosed with malnutrition at baseline. Their muscle parameters were significantly lower than those of the well-nourished patients both at baseline and after five years of follow-up (all p-values < 0.05), except for muscle strength in women at T5, which was not significantly lower in the presence of malnutrition. However, the 5-year changes in muscle parameters of malnourished individuals were not significantly different than those of well-nourished individuals (all p-values > 0.05).


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 1352
Author(s):  
Sandra Agyapong-Badu ◽  
Martin B. Warner ◽  
Dinesh Samuel ◽  
Vasiliki Koutra ◽  
Maria Stokes

A novel approach to ageing studies assessed the discriminatory ability of a combination of routine physical function tests and novel measures, notably muscle mechanical properties and thigh composition (ultrasound imaging) to classify healthy individuals according to age and gender. The cross-sectional study included 138 community-dwelling, self-reported healthy males and females (65 young, mean age ± SD = 25.7 ± 4.8 years; 73 older, 74.9 ± 5.9 years). Handgrip strength; quadriceps strength; respiratory peak flow; timed up and go; stair climbing time; anterior thigh tissue thickness; muscle stiffness, tone, elasticity (Myoton technology), and self-reported health related quality of life (SF36) were assessed. Stepwise feature selection using cross-validation with linear discriminant analysis was used to classify cases based on criterion variable derived from known effects of age on physical function. A model was trained and features selected using 126 cases with 0.92 accuracy (95% CI = 0.86–0.96; Kappa = 0.89). The final model included five features (peak flow, timed up and go, biceps brachii elasticity, anterior thigh muscle thickness, and percentage thigh muscle) with high sensitivity (0.82–0.96) and specificity (0.94–0.99). The most sensitive novel biomarkers require no volition, highlighting potentially useful tests for screening and monitoring effects of interventions on musculoskeletal health for vulnerable older people with pain or cognitive impairment.


Electronics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sudhanshu Kumar ◽  
Monika Gahalawat ◽  
Partha Pratim Roy ◽  
Debi Prosad Dogra ◽  
Byung-Gyu Kim

Sentiment analysis is a rapidly growing field of research due to the explosive growth in digital information. In the modern world of artificial intelligence, sentiment analysis is one of the essential tools to extract emotion information from massive data. Sentiment analysis is applied to a variety of user data from customer reviews to social network posts. To the best of our knowledge, there is less work on sentiment analysis based on the categorization of users by demographics. Demographics play an important role in deciding the marketing strategies for different products. In this study, we explore the impact of age and gender in sentiment analysis, as this can help e-commerce retailers to market their products based on specific demographics. The dataset is created by collecting reviews on books from Facebook users by asking them to answer a questionnaire containing questions about their preferences in books, along with their age groups and gender information. Next, the paper analyzes the segmented data for sentiments based on each age group and gender. Finally, sentiment analysis is done using different Machine Learning (ML) approaches including maximum entropy, support vector machine, convolutional neural network, and long short term memory to study the impact of age and gender on user reviews. Experiments have been conducted to identify new insights into the effect of age and gender for sentiment analysis.


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