scholarly journals Validation of Croatian Version of Dementia Attitudes Scale (DAS)

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bojana Ćoso ◽  
◽  
Suzana Mavrinac ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Elderly ◽  
Retirement Home ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Dementia Patients ◽  
People With Dementia ◽  
Adequate Care ◽  
Number Of Patients ◽  
Social Comfort ◽  
Original Scale ◽  
Specialized Institutions

Dementia significantly impairs cognitive and behavioral functioning of the person, and in recent years there has been a significant increase in the number of patients suffering from dementia. In Croatia, such patients are often placed in retirement homes, non-specialized institutions for the elderly and infirm, often without adequately educated employees. Attitudes toward dementia seem to be an important factor for adequate care of people with dementia, but there was no previous research on this topic in Croatia. The Dementia Attitudes Scale (DAS) developed by O’Connor and McFadden (2010), is a useful tool in research of attitudes toward dementia. The aim of the study was to translate the scale into the Croatian language and validate it on a Croatian sample. Participants were employees and retirement home users, other health care workers and the general population. Validation conducted on samples that were in everyday contact with dementia patients showed consistent factors (social comfort and dementia knowledge) as in the original scale, so the conclusion was that the questionnaire could be used in that population. Still, overall results that included the general sample showed different factors when compared to the original scale, since the Croatian version did not show standard factors, but rather positive and negative attitudes factors. Results could be seen as highly suggestive and emphasize the need to distinguish and separate research on attitudes toward dementia in different populations.

Neuropsychiatric Symptoms and Antipsychotic Therapy in the Elderly Patients with Dementia

Psychiatry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 6-15
Author(s):  
I. V. Kolykhalov
Keyword(s):  
Neuropsychiatric Symptoms ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Psychotic Symptoms ◽  
Mixed Dementia ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Antipsychotic Therapy ◽  
Dementia Patients ◽  
Frequency Of Use ◽  
Number Of Patients ◽  
High Incidence

The objective of the study was to investigate syndromal-nosological specificities of neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) and the frequency of use of antipsychotics in patients with various types of dementias, institutionalized to geriatric units of mental hospitals.Patients and methods: a total of 106 in-patients of three psychogeriatric units were examined. The median age of patients is 75 years [69; 80].The diagnostic distribution of patients at the time of the examination was as follows: in 33 subjects (31.1%) Alzheimer’s disease (AD) was diagnosed, in 25 (23.6%) - mixed dementia (MD), in 32 (30.2%) - vascular dementia (VD) and in 16 (15.1%) patients had dementia of complex origin (DCO).Results: a high incidence (54.7%) of NPS was found in patients with dementia of various origins. The greatest number of patients with behavioral and psychotic symptoms was found in AD and MD. The proportion of dementia patients with such disorders in each of these types of dementia is about 70%, while in CGD and VD, the proportion of patients with NPS is noticeably smaller (30% and 40%, respectively). For the treatment of NPS, antipsychotics were most often prescribed, but their use caused adverse events (AEs) in 1/3 of cases. Patients with VD are most susceptible to the development of AE, and AD patients are the least susceptible.Conclusion: the study showed that NPS are one of the important components of dementia, regardless of the nosology and stage of the disease. The treatment of NPS in dementia is particularly challenging because, although the symptoms cause significant distress, there are currently no effective alternative therapies. The risk of AE can be minimized by carefully considering the indications for prescribing antipsychotics and their short-term use, regular monitoring of the patient’s condition, and educating caregivers.

scholarly journals ПОКАЗНИКИ ЯКОСТІ ЖИТТЯ ОСІБ, ЩО ДОГЛЯДАЮТЬ ЗА ПАЦІЄНТАМИ З ДЕМЕНЦІЄЮ

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 16-19
Author(s):  
О.В. Орлова ◽  
Л.В. Животовська ◽  
Д.І. Бойко ◽  
Л.А. Боднар
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Psychological Stress ◽  
Population Aging ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Role Functioning ◽  
People With Dementia ◽  
Number Of Patients ◽  
High Level

Dementia is associated with decreased memory, impaired thinking, behavior and ability to perform daily functions. This condition mainly affects the elderly and is one of the main causes of disability. Dementia affects not only patients, their families and caregivers, but society as a whole. The number of people with dementia is on the rise worldwide, and prognosis generally indicates a significant increase in overall prevalence associated with population aging. A large number of patients with dementia are at home, where their family members perform the function of caring for them. With the progression of the disease, patients lose the ability to care for themselves on their own, so the question of outside care arises for their relatives. The aim of this study is to analyze the quality of life indicators in persons performing the function of caring for patients with dementia. It has been found that almost 80% of patients with dementia are cared for by their relatives. Caregivers are at risk of depression, anxiety and psychological stress. In this study, the authors identified factors influencing the mental health of caregivers, among which the degree of dementia and the patient's ability to perform daily activities were significant. In caregivers with a low level of mental tension, manifestations of social maladaptation were less common. Depending on the level of psychological stress, individuals with a high level of tension had lower indicators of quality of life on the scales "physical functioning" (p=0.003), "role functioning due to physical condition" (p<0.001), "social functioning" (p=0.04), "role functioning due to emotional state" (p=0.003), "mental health" (p=0,004). For this category of people, it is recommended to use counseling, psycho-educational activities aimed at understanding the improvement of quality of life.

scholarly journals How did Sweden Fail the Pandemic?

2021 ◽  
pp. 002073142199484
Author(s):  
Finn Diderichsen
Keyword(s):  
Elderly Care ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
The Other ◽  
Differential Survival ◽  
Adequate Care ◽  
Differential Exposure ◽  
The Government ◽  
Differential Immunity ◽  
Inequalities In Mortality

Sweden has since the start of the pandemic a COVID-19 mortality rate that is 4 to 10 times higher than in the other Nordic countries. Also, measured as age-standardized all-cause excess mortality in the first half of 2020 compared to previous years Sweden failed in comparison with the other Nordic countries, but only among the elderly. Sweden has large socioeconomic and ethnic inequalities in COVID-19 mortality. Geographical, ethnic, and socioeconomic inequalities in mortality can be due to differential exposure to the virus, differential immunity, and differential survival. Most of the country differences are due to differential exposure, but the socioeconomic disparities are mainly driven by differential survival due to an unequal burden of comorbidity. Sweden suffered from an unfortunate timing of tourists returning from virus hotspots in the Alps and Sweden's government response came later and was much more limited than elsewhere. The government had an explicit priority to protect the elderly in nursing and care homes but failed to do so. The staff in elderly care are less qualified and have harder working conditions in Sweden, and they lacked adequate care for the clients. Sweden has in recent years diverged from the Scandinavian welfare model by strong commercialization of primary care and elderly care.

scholarly journals Delivering and Embedding Dementia-Friendly Training in a Healthcare System

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 160-161
Author(s):  
Ellen Schneider ◽  
Maureen Dale ◽  
Krista Wells ◽  
John Gotelli ◽  
Carol Julian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Hospital Staff ◽  
Clinical Staff ◽  
Pilot Training ◽  
Readmission Rates ◽  
Dementia Patients ◽  
People With Dementia ◽  
Aging And Health ◽  
The University

Abstract Alzheimer’s disease is the 4th leading cause of death in North Carolina for people 65 and older. People with dementia are hospitalized more often and have prolonged stays, poorer outcomes, higher costs, and increased readmission rates. Hospital employees have expressed the desire to have specialized training to learn how to more effectively communicate with and provide better care to patients with dementia. To address identified patient and hospital employee needs, the University of North Carolina (UNC) Center for Aging and Health is disseminating hospital-specific dementia-friendly training at five hospitals within the UNC Health System. The training is being delivered via online modules and follow-up didactic sessions over a three-year period to clinical and non-clinical staff who interact with patients. To date, 1,948 employees at three of the five hospitals have launched the online training; 1,102 have completed the training. The pilot training took place at the UNC Hospitals--Hillsborough Campus (“Hillsborough Hospital”) in 2019. Hillsborough Hospital staff (n=195) who participated in the dementia friendly training completed a survey to assess their ability to recognize symptoms and provide appropriate care to dementia patients pre- and post-training. Clinical staff answered 23 Likert scale self-efficacy questions; non-clinical staff answered the first 12 of these questions. Positive change in self-efficacy ratings from pre- to post-training was significant for every question (p &lt; .0001). Additional results will be included in the poster. The dementia-friendly hospital initiative is preparing employees to provide better care for people with dementia and is effective in increasing employee self-efficacy.

scholarly journals Letter to the Editor: Microbiota in the Respiratory System—A Possible Explanation to Age and Sex Variability in Susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 117863612098860
Author(s):  
Vishal Shah
Keyword(s):  
Respiratory System ◽  
Elderly Population ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Elderly Adult ◽  
Human Respiratory Tract ◽  
System A ◽  
Number Of Patients ◽  
Children And Young Adults ◽  
Age And Sex

The Human respiratory tract is colonized by a variety of microbes and the microbiota change as we age. In this perspective, literature support is presented for the hypothesis that the respiratory system microbiota could explain the differential age and sex breakdown amongst COVID-19 patients. The number of patients in the older and elderly adult group is higher than the other age groups. The perspective presents the possibility that certain genera of bacteria present in the respiratory system microbiota in children and young adults could be directly or through eliciting an immune response from the host, prevent full-fledged infection of SARS-CoV-2. The possibility also exists that the microbiota in older adults and the elderly population have bacteria that make it easier for the virus to cause infection. I call upon the scientific community to investigate the link between human microbiota and SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility to further understand the viral pathogenesis.

Materialism and the Future of Aging in America

1983 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert F. Almeder
Keyword(s):  
Colonial America ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Favorable Attitude ◽  
Social Attitude ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Ethical Attitudes ◽  
Philosophical View ◽  
Future Success ◽  
The Future ◽  
Attitudes Toward Aging

In Growing Old in America, David Fischer argues that colonial America witnessed a sudden and revolutionary shift in social attitude from gerontophilia to gerontophobia. It is argued here that the shift can be explained as the necessary result of an emerging materialism which came to dominate mercantile America. It is shown how philosophical materialism requires an attitude of denigration toward aging and the elderly, and that the future of our collective attitude toward the elderly is wedded philosophically to the future success or failure of philosophical materialism. It is also suggested that the future of materialism in America looks dim and that there will emerge a strong philosophical base adequate for reforming ethical attitudes and engendering a much more favorable attitude toward the elderly in general. It is suggested that positive or negative attitudes toward aging and the elderly are rooted in unconscious commitments to non-materialistic (dualistic) or materialistic views on the nature of man. The two basically different views on the nature of man beget the two basically different views and attitudes toward aging and the elderly. Which attitude is right is a function of which philosophical view is correct and the paper closes with some evidence that materialism is on the wane.

Abstract 274: Prevalence of undiagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation in the United States

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mintu P Turakhia ◽  
Jason Shafrin ◽  
Katalin Bognar ◽  
Jeffrey B Brown ◽  
Jeffrey Trocio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Atrial Fibrillation ◽  
High Risk ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
The United States ◽  
Risk Scores ◽  
Chads2 Score ◽  
Aged Patients ◽  
Number Of Patients ◽  
Working Age ◽  
Back Calculation

Background: Because atrial fibrillation (AF) is often asymptomatic, clinically silent and therefore undiagnosed, the prevalence of AF is difficult to estimate. In fact, ischemic stroke is often the first clinical sign of AF among previously undiagnosed patients. In this study, we estimated the prevalence of undiagnosed AF using a back-calculation approach that relies on the fact that AF causes stroke but causality generally does not run from stroke to AF. Methods: We first estimated the prevalence of diagnosed non-valvular AF in the elderly (65+) and working age (18-64) U.S. population from a 5% Medicare sample and an OptumInsight commercial claims database from 2004-2010 using validated ICD9 algorithms. To estimate the prevalence of undiagnosed non-valvular AF, our back-calculation methodology used two measured inputs: (i) the number of patients who are diagnosed with new non-valvular AF in the current or subsequent quarter after a stroke; (ii) the probability that patients with non-valvular AF have a stroke, based on CHADS2 risk scores. We confirmed calibration by comparing our prevalence estimates of diagnosed AF with prior Medicare and commercial claims analyses. Results: Between 2005 and 2009, the estimated prevalence of AF gradually increased, reaching 9.9% of the elderly U.S. population and 0.88% of the working aged population by 2009. Among the Medicare AF cases in 2009, 11% of these cases (1.1% out of 9.9%) were undiagnosed; among working aged patients with AF, 8% of cases (0.07% out of 0.88%) were undiagnosed. In addition, a large share of the undiagnosed cases was at high risk of stroke. Among the undiagnosed AF cases for elderly and working age adults, 26% and 37%, respectively have a CHADS2 score of 1, and 68% and 26% have a CHADS2 score of 2+. Conclusions: Among elderly and working adult U.S. populations, a substantial proportion of individuals with undiagnosed AF have moderate to high risk of stroke. Screening for AF could favorably impact the disease burden.

Social policy in increasing the efficiency of pension provision in the Kyrgyz Republic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samat Kazbekovich Imanbaev
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
High Standard ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Kyrgyz Republic ◽  
Pension Policy ◽  
Specialized Institutions ◽  
State Pension

This article examines the pension policy, which is usually attributed to the direction of the state’s social policy. Designed to improve the well-being of the population and ensure a high standard and quality of life. The state pension policy is the basic and one of the most important state guarantees for the stable development of society, since it directly affects the interests of the able-bodied and disabled population. The results of an online survey revealed that the most important condition for creating an effective system of social support for pensioners in the current reality is the improvement of pension policy, as well as the system of social services, the development of new social technologies to provide assistance to the population, in particular the elderly, and the formation of a network of specialized institutions. social services to the population, an increase in the volume and expansion of the list of social services provided by them.

scholarly journals Semantic and cultural equivalence of the Intergenerational Exchanges Attitude Scale (IEAS)

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 453-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta dos Santos Tarallo ◽  
Anita Liberalesso Neri ◽  
Meire Cachioni
Keyword(s):  
The Elderly ◽  
Likert Scale ◽  
Attitude Scale ◽  
Brazilian Population ◽  
Elderly Persons ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Culturally Adapted ◽  
Intergenerational Exchanges ◽  
Intergenerational Activities ◽  
Intergenerational Cooperation

Abstract Introduction: Understanding the multidimensionality of attitudes originating from exchanges between different generations is fundamental for the establishment of intergenerational cooperation and the reduction of stereotypes and prejudices. Objective: To obtain the semantic and cultural equivalence of the Intergenerational Exchanges Attitude Scale (IEAS). Method: Two translators translated the scale from English into Portuguese. A third translator synthesized these two translations. The synthesized version was back-translated into English. From the observations of the initial and back translations, a semantic version of the scale was consolidated, which was applied to 32 professionals who developed intergenerational activities (elderly/children) and activities directed at elderly persons only. Following application, a version of the scale that was culturally adapted for the Portuguese language was obtained. Results: The scale was alterered due to cultural refinement, with differences in the following items: 4) around and near; 6) overprotective and highly protective; 8) be around and to want to get close to; 11) earn and obtain; 13) have warm relationships and to relate affectionately; 17) affection and fondness; 18) form a good team and are good companions; 20) feel sick and get irritated. The responses used are evaluative statements of positive or negative attitudes about the exchanges that take place between children and the elderly, based on a Likert scale of just five points. Conclusion: The Intergenerational Exchanges Attitude Scale (IEAS) has been adapted and validated for the Brazilian population and is known as the "Escala de Atitudes em relação a Trocas Intergeracionais" (Scale of Attitudes in Relation to Intergenerational Exchanges) (EATI). It can be a useful tool for programs featuring activities involving children and the elderly, as well as for professionals working and developing strategies in this field.

scholarly journals Comminuted Patella Fracture in Elderly Patients: A Systematic Review and Case Report

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 135-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent Matthews ◽  
Kaushik Hazratwala ◽  
Sergio Barroso-Rosa
Keyword(s):  
Case Report ◽  
Elderly Patients ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Fracture Pattern ◽  
Patella Fracture ◽  
Level Of Evidence ◽  
Fixation Failure ◽  
Number Of Patients ◽  
Mesh Augmentation

Objectives: To review comminuted patella fracture in the elderly patients and examine the surgical options to avoid complications such as fixation failure and poor functional outcome. To provide an example of mesh augmentation in comminuted patella fracture in the elderly patients. Data Sources: A literature review was conducted by the authors independently using Ovid, Medline, Cochrane, PubMed, and Clinical Key in English. We aimed to review data on patients older than 65 with comminuted patella fracture. Search conducted between July and December 2015. Study Selection: Search terms included patella fracture, elderly, and fixation failure. Abstracts were included if they were a case report, cohort series, or randomized control trial. Further inclusion criteria were that they were available in full text and included patient age(s), operative details, follow-up, and outcome discussion. Data Extraction: Each study was assessed according to its level of evidence, number of patients, age of patients, fracture patterns described, complications of treatment, and results summarized. Data Synthesis: Paucity of data and heterogeneity of studies limited statistical analysis. Data are presented as a review table with the key points summarized. Conclusion: In patella fracture, age >65 years and comminuted fracture pattern are predictors of increased fixation failure and postoperative stiffness, warranting special consideration. There is a trend toward improved functional outcomes when augmented fixation using mesh or plates is used in this group. Further level 1 studies are required to compare and validate new treatment options and compared them to standard surgical technique of tension band wire construct.

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