scholarly journals Current Advances in Spinal Diseases of the Elderly: Introduction to the Special Issue

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (15) ◽  
pp. 3298
Author(s):  
Takashi Hirai ◽  
Masashi Uehara ◽  
Masayuki Miyagi ◽  
Shinji Takahashi ◽  
Hiroaki Nakashima

Spine-related disorders often impair quality of life (QOL) and the ability to perform activities of daily living and are a problem in rapidly aging societies [...]

2014 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis PAJECKI ◽  
Marco Aurélio SANTO ◽  
Ana Lumi KANAGI ◽  
Daniel RICCIOPPO ◽  
Roberto de CLEVA ◽  
...  

Context Obesity in the elderly is associated with exacerbation of functional decline (dependency), that occurs with aging, because of decreased muscle mass and strength, and increased joint dysfunction. Consequently, there is progressive loss of independence, autonomy, chronic pain and impaired quality of life. The weight loss can bring benefits in all these aspects, especially when accompanied by exercises. Elderly patients with morbid obesity may be submitted to surgical treatment, taking into account that the massive weight loss, eventually caused by bariatric surgery, may exacerbate the loss of muscle mass and nutritional complications that may bring harm to the overall health and quality of life of these patients. The functional assessment of elderly patients, candidates for bariatric surgery and the extent to which surgery can bring benefits to the patients, in the field of functionality, has still to be determined. Objective To describe profile functionality in obese elderly referred to a bariatric surgery program. Methods Patients with age ≥60 and BMI ≥35 underwent comprehensive geriatric assessment that evaluates co morbidities, medication use, ability to perform basic activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living, and the “Timedupandgo” test to evaluate mobility, whose cut-off point was ≤10 seconds. Statistical analysis was performed in order to see if there is a positive correlation of dependency with BMI and age (over or under 65 years). Results Forty subjects have completed evaluation. The mean age was 64.1 years (60-72) and 75% were women. They had an average weight of 121.1 kg (72.7-204) and a mean BMI of 47.2 kg/m2 (35.8-68.9). 16 patients (40%) have shown dependency for activities of daily living, 19 (47,5%) for instrumental activities of daily living and 20 patients (50%) had a “Timedupandgo” test over 10 seconds. Statistical analysis (t-Student, Mann-Whitney, Binary Logistic Regression) has shown positive correlation of dependency in activities of daily living for BMI >49 kg/m2, dependency in instrumental activities of daily living for BMI >46,5 kg/m2, and “Timedupandgo” test greater than 10 seconds for BMI >51 kg/m2 (P<0,05). No dependency difference was observed for patients over or under 65 years age. Conclusions Functional decline is observed in almost half of the morbid obese patients over 60 years old. It is related to increasing BMI (BMI >46,5 kg/m2) but not related to age (60 to 65 years or over 65 years). Functional decline should be considered a co-morbidity in the elderly obese patients and should be assessed before bariatric surgery in this population.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Takumi Ashizawa ◽  
Ataru Igarashi ◽  
Yukinori Sakata ◽  
Mie Azuma ◽  
Kenichi Fujimoto ◽  
...  

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) increases societal costs and decreases the activities of daily living (ADL) and quality of life (QoL) of the affected individuals. Objective: We assess the impact of AD severity on ADL, QoL, and caregiving costs in Japanese facilities for the elderly. Methods: Patients with AD in facilities for the elderly were included (47 facilities, N = 3,461). The QoL, ADL, and disease severity of patients were assessed using Barthel Index (BI), EuroQoL-5D-5L (EQ-5D-5L), and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), respectively. Annual caregiving costs were estimated using patients’ claims data. The patients were subcategorized into the following three groups according to the MMSE score: mild (21≤MMSE≤30), moderate (11≤MMSE≤20), and severe (0≤MMSE≤10). Changes among the three groups were evaluated using the Jonckheere-Terpstra test. Results: Four hundred and one participants were on anti-AD medicines, of whom 287 (age: 86.1±6.4 years, 76.7% women) in the mild (n = 53, 84.0±6.9 years, 71.7%), moderate (n = 118, 86.6±5.9 years, 76.3%), and severe (n = 116, 86.6±6.5 years, 79.3%) groups completed the study questionnaires. The mean BI and EQ-5D-5L scores for each group were 83.6, 65.1, and 32.8 and 0.801, 0.662, and 0.436, respectively. The mean annual caregiving costs were 2.111, 2.470, and 2.809 million JPY, respectively. As AD worsened, the BI and EQ-5D-5L scores decreased and annual caregiving costs increased significantly. Conclusion: AD severity has an impact on QoL, ADL, and caregiving costs.


10.3823/2316 ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jéssica Maria Arouca de Miranda ◽  
Neidjany Patrícia Lima Torres ◽  
Gislani Acásia Da Silva Toscano ◽  
Anna Carolyna Vieira Cavalcante ◽  
Rafaela Araújo Oliveira ◽  
...  

Background: To characterize the demands of health and quality of elderly peoplemonitored in the primary care of Rio Grande do Norte/Brazil. Methods and Findings: This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study of a quantitative approach with elderly patients monitored by the primary care. The sample was given for convenience, obtaining 120 participants. The research was conducted through an interview with theapplication of the following questionnaires: Mini Mental State Examination, Socio-demographic Data and Pain Characteristics, Short-Form-36, Mini Nutritional Assessment, the primary activities of daily living, the instrumental activities of daily living, Prism 7 and the Geriatric Depression Scale. Data analysis was performed using the SPSS statistical program, in which descriptive and association tests were used.The main demands were related to functionality, followed by nutritional and geriatric depression. The quality of life presented worse results in the domain of general health status and better scores in the emotional and mental health aspects. Regarding the dimensions, the physical health obtained aworse score. Conclusion: Based on the characterization of the health demands found, it is suggested to perform other studies with the same population, enabling to plan and implementing a multidimensional intervention and improving the quality of life of the elderly people. Keywords: Elderly; Quality of Life; Aging; Elderly Health; Nursing.


2010 ◽  
Vol 124 (9) ◽  
pp. 957-962 ◽  
Author(s):  
A O Lasisi ◽  
O Gureje

AbstractBackground:Dizziness is prevalent among the elderly. However, little is known about its impact on quality of life and disability, especially in developing countries, where the number of elderly people is increasing.Aim:This study aimed to determine the prevalence of disability, and the quality of life, among elderly persons with dizziness living in the community.Setting and design:Longitudinal cohort study of dizziness among elderly persons (i.e. aged 65 years and over) residing in Yoruba-speaking areas of Nigeria.Method:Face-to-face interviews with respondents selected using a multi-stage, stratified area probability sampling of households. Dizziness was based on self-reporting and health-related quality of life was measured using the brief version of the World Health Organization quality of life assessment.Result:Dizziness was reported and confirmed in 318/1281 elderly respondents, a prevalence of 24.8 per cent. Respondents comprised 197 (61.9 per cent) women and 121 (38.1 per cent) men. Thirty-nine respondents (12.3 per cent) were aged 65–69 years, 91 (28.6 per cent) 70–74 years, 66 (20.8 per cent) 75–79 years and 122 (38.4 per cent) ≥80 years. The prevalence of disability in activities of daily living was 29.56 per cent, and that of disability in instrumental activities of daily living 10.1 per cent. The influence of gender was not significant. The prevalence of disability in activities of daily living (p = 0.00) and in instrumental activities of daily living (p = 0.00) increased significantly with age. Univariate analysis revealed that disability in activities of daily living (p = 0.00), disability in instrumental activities of daily living (p = 0.01), poor family interaction (p = 0.00), poor community involvement (p = 0.00), overall poor health (p = 0.00), current depression (p = 0.01), and difficulty with sedentary (p = 0.00) and vigorous (p = 0.00) activities were significantly more common among elderly respondents with dizziness, compared with non-dizzy elderly respondents. In contrast, cognitive impairment (p = 0.05) was not significantly correlated. The probabilities of the occurrence of difficulty with vigorous or sedentary mobility in our elderly respondents were 2.6 and 1.9, respectively, compared with non-dizzy elderly respondents. Similarly, the probabilities of the occurrence of disability in activities of daily living, current depression and dementia were 1.6 each. Logistic regression analyses for age, sex, medical conditions and presence of disability confirmed that dizziness was significantly associated with worsened cognition. Similarly, dizziness was significantly associated with reduced total quality of life (p = 0.00), and also with reductions in the physical (p = 0.00), psychological (p = 0.00) and environmental (p = 0.00) domains of the research instrument.Conclusion:Among elderly people with dizziness, there was a high prevalence of significant disability requiring assistance. In addition, dizziness alone significantly reduced these individual's overall total quality of life, and their quality of life as regards physical, psychological and environmental parameters. This information will assist policy planning for the elderly.


Author(s):  
Wei Yu ◽  
Jie Tong ◽  
Xirong Sun ◽  
Fazhan Chen ◽  
Jie Zhang ◽  
...  

Background: Factors related to medication adherence in patients with schizophrenia have always been key to the treatment and rehabilitation of these patients. However, the treatment modes in different countries are not the same, and there is no research on the factors influencing medication adherence under different mental health service modes. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore medication adherence and its influencing factors in patients with schizophrenia in the Chinese institutional environment. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of hospitalized persons living with schizophrenia from November 2018 to January 2019. A systematic sampling method was used to select 217 hospitalized persons living with schizophrenia. The Medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS), Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), Schizophrenia Quality of Life Scale (SQLS), and Scale of Social Skills for Psychiatric Inpatients (SSPI) were used to explore medication compliance and its influencing factors in the Chinese institutional environment. Results: The descriptive analysis and ANOVA showed that there were no significant differences in medication adherence when assessed by demographic characteristics such as sex, marital status, and education level (p > 0.05). A correlation analysis showed that there was no significant correlation between medication adherence and mental symptoms (p > 0.05) but that there was a positive correlation with self-efficacy, quality of life, and activities of daily living (p < 0.01). The linear regression analysis showed that self-efficacy, psychosocial factors, symptoms/side effects, and activities of daily living had significant effects on medication adherence (F = 30.210, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Our findings show that the self-efficacy, quality of life, and social function of patients with schizophrenia are important self-factors influencing medication adherence in the Chinese institutional environment.


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