-
The aging of the world population will affect not only societies worldwide, but health care professionals who care for them, the families of aged adults, and of course the aged individuals. According to the United Nations, "Population ageing is unprecedented, without parallel in the history of humanity. . . . By 2050, the number of older persons in the world will exceed the number of young for the first time in history."
Journal of the American Medical Association (Geriatria) - Ven, 5 Febbraio 2010
http://jama.ama-assn.org/
-
Falls are common health events that cause discomfort and disability for older adults and stress for caregivers. Using the case of an older man who has experienced multiple falls and a hip fracture, this article, which focuses on community-living older adults, addresses the consequences and etiology of falls; summarizes the evidence on predisposing factors and effective interventions; and discusses how to translate this evidence into patient care. Previous falls; strength, gait, and balance impairments; and medications are the strongest risk factors for falling. Effective single interventions include exercise and physical therapy, cataract surgery, and medication reduction. Evidence suggests that the most effective strategy for reducing the rate of falling in community-living older adults may be intervening on multiple risk factors. Vitamin D has the strongest clinical trial evidence of benefit for preventing fractures among older men at risk. Issues involved in incorporating these evidence-based fall prevention interventions into outpatient practice are discussed, as are the trade-offs inherent in managing older patients at risk of falling. While challenges and barriers exist, fall prevention strategies can be incorporated into clinical practice.
Journal of the American Medical Association (Geriatria) - Ven, 22 Gennaio 2010
http://jama.ama-assn.org/
-
On Oct 13, the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists published a position paper on age discrimination in mental health. When an arbitrary 65-year cut-off age no longer applies to many types of employment or other clinical specialties, why, the College argues, should it limit access to mental health services? Given that 20% of people aged over 65 years have poor mental health, and that this adversely affects outcomes of comorbid conditions, the paper's conclusion is that mental health services should be provided on the basis of need, irrespective of age.
The Lancet (Geriatria) - Ven, 30 Ottobre 2009
http://www.thelancet.com
-
In the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism two trials have been published focusing on vitamin D levels in old people. In the first one, plasmatic levels of 25-OH-vitamin D have been measured in 6000 males (between 65 and 99) living in various regions of the USA. Plasmatic average levels were of 25 ng/ml, but a quarter of subjects presented values lower than 20 ng/ml.
MedNews (Geriatria) - Ven, 16 Ottobre 2009
http://mn.medsurfnews.com/
-
A team consisting of medical professionals, social workers and family members plays an important role in assessing an older adult's capacity to live alone, according to experts at Baylor College of Medicine and the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center at Houston in a paper published in the Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics . After identifying a patient population of older, frail adults likely to have difficulty living independently because of social issues, impaired reasoning skills or other chronic conditions, researchers developed an innovative method to determine whether these older adults were …
Baylor College of Medicine (Geriatria) - Ven, 26 Giugno 2009
http://www.bcm.edu
-
A major objective in designing a randomized clinical trial is to minimize bias in the assessment of the study's primary outcome. Although we often think of bias as referring to the situation where a difference between treatment groups is found that is not real, bias also can prevent a study from finding a true treatment group difference. The former situation is referred to as differential bias and the latter as nondifferential bias.
Archives of Ophthalmology (Geriatria) - Ven, 12 Giugno 2009
http://archopht.ama-assn.org/
-
The intraoperative floppy iris syndrome (IFIS) was first described by Chang and Campbell in 2005. These authors and others observed that there was a tendency for poor pupillary dilation and the intraoperative triad of the billowing of a flaccid iris, the propensity for iris prolapse, and progressive intraoperative pupillary constriction. In the current technique ophthalmologists perform cataract surgery through a 2.5-mm incision.
Journal of the American Medical Association (Geriatria) - Ven, 22 Maggio 2009
http://jama.ama-assn.org/
-
A retrospective cohort study of 3 020 770 hospital admissions between 1996 and 2006 using enrollment and claims data for a 5% national sample of Medicare beneficiaries older than 66 years.
Journal of the American Medical Association (Geriatria) - Gio, 30 Aprile 2009
http://jama.ama-assn.org/
-
Medicare is a dominant force in the health care system of the United States. When it was launched as a national social insurance program for elderly and disabled Americans in 1965, Medicare was grafted onto the existing health care delivery system.
Journal of the American Medical Association (Geriatria) - Sab, 14 Febbraio 2009
http://jama.ama-assn.org/
-
Even if falls in elderly represent a severe problem, multidisciplinary interventions to prevent them not always obtain encouraging results, as two new trials show.
MedNews (Geriatria) - Ven, 23 Gennaio 2009
http://mn.medsurfnews.com/