Current Gerontology and Geriatrics Research

OBJECTIVES: To verify the prevalence of frailty in patients hospitalized with acute exacerbation of COPD; to compare two frailty assessment methods: Edmonton Scale and the Fried Frailty Phenotype, and to associate frailty with functioning in these patients. METHODS: Patients hospitalized due to an acute exacerbation of COPD were included. The assessment of pulmonary function, frailty, and functioning was performed. Frailty assessment was performed by the Edmonton Scale and Fried Frailty Phenotype...

BACKGROUND: Intrinsic capacity (IC) is conceptualized by World Health Organization (WHO) with a focus on healthy aging. Identifying impairment could help in making a person-centred plan for the care of older adults. OBJECTIVES: Establish the prevalence of IC among community-dwelling older adults age >60, the prevalence of impairment in each domain, and identify factors associated with an impairment in IC. METHODS: This cross-sectional observational study in the community setting included 1000 older adults aged 60 years and above in two-year study period...

Worldwide, the number of old adults will peak in the coming decades. Relying solely on the chronological age to make treatment decisions and shape general or specific societal and medical considerations may reinforce ageism and lead to flawed reasoning. Defining physiological age using biological markers is not yet reliable, and an approach based on comorbidities without considering their impact on quality of life is inadequate. A multidimensional approach with strong integration of functionality is presented here to draw a real-world aging approach, easily accessible, clinically relevant, and of societal value...

BACKGROUND: Frailty refers to a decline in an elderly person's physical, psychological, and social functioning, making them sensitive to stressors. Because frailty is caused by a variety of factors, including certain demographic characteristics, understanding the mediating factors that affect frailty in the elderly is critical. PURPOSE: To provide evidence about the relationship between depression, well-being, social activity, physical performance, and frailty among older adults...

BACKGROUND: Frailty potentially influences clinicians' decision making on treatment provided they can select the appropriate assessment tools. This study aims to investigate the difference between the FRAIL scale and the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) in assessing frailty among community-dwelling older adults attending the General Medical Clinic (GMC) in Seberang Jaya Hospital, Penang, Malaysia. METHODS: The medical records of 95 older patients (age ≥ 65) who attended the GMC from 16 December 2019 to 10 January 2020 were reviewed...

Nasogastric tube feeding is an essential way of delivering enteral nutrition when the oral route is insufficient or unsafe. Malnutrition is recognised as a reversible factor for sarcopenia and frailty. It is therefore crucial that malnutrition is treated in older inpatients who have dysphagia and require enteral nutrition. Despite five National Patient Safety Alerts since 2005, "Never Events" related to nasogastric feeding persist. In addition to placement errors, current practice often leads to delays in feeding, which subsequently result in worse patient outcomes...

Osteosarcopenic obesity (OSO) describes the concurrent presence of obesity, low bone mass, and low muscle mass in an individual. Currently, no established criteria exist to diagnose OSO. We hypothesized that obese individuals require different cut-points from standard cut-points to define low bone mass and low muscle mass due to their higher weight load. In this study, we determined cutoff values for the screening of osteosarcopenia (OS) in obese postmenopausal Malaysian women based on the measurements of quantitative ultrasound (QUS), bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), and functional performance test...

Objective: This study aims to investigate an association between body postures and autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses through analysis of short-term heart rate variability (HRV) data obtained through electrocardiography. Methods: Forty older individuals were recruited to form the sample. HRV measurements were taken in three positions-sitting, supine, and standing-and compared. Results: Results demonstrated statistically significant differences in the HRV parameters used to examine the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), specifically in the measurements obtained from the sitting position and the supine position ( P  < 0...

Background: Age-related sarcopenia is associated with physical decline, including poor functional capacity, lack of physical activity, problems with activities of daily living, and disability. However, little is known about the association between mental health problems and cognitive function in older adults with sarcopenia. Therefore, this study explored community-dwelling older adults' sarcopenia prevalence and related associations with depression, cognitive performance, and physical activity...

The care of the older adult requires an interprofessional approach to solve complex medical and social problems, but this approach is difficult to teach in our educational silos. We developed an interprofessional educational session in response to national requests for innovative practice models that use collaborative interprofessional teams. We chose geriatric fall prevention as our area of focus as our development of the educational session coincided with the development of an interprofessional Fall Risk Reduction Clinic...

Background: The rise in an ageing population has resulted in an increase in the prevalence of aortic stenosis. With the advent and rapid expansion in the use of transcatheter aortic valve replacements (TAVRs), patients with severe aortic stenosis, traditionally thought too high risk for surgical intervention, are now being treated with generally favourable results. Frailty is an important factor in determining outcome after a TAVR, and an assessment of frailty is fundamental in the identification of appropriate patients to treat...

Purpose: This paper examines the older persons' knowledge of HIV and AIDS and explores the effect of delayed disclosure of HIV status and lack of resources during care. Methods: The study site was health facilities in Thembisile Hani subdistrict, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. Older persons aged 60 years and above were selected using purposive sampling for in-depth interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Results: Providing physical care to sick adults is labour intensive for the already weak older persons...

Aging is a natural process that affects all systems of the human organism, leading to its inability to adapt to environmental changes. Advancing age has been correlated with various pathological conditions, especially cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Carotid artery (CA) is mainly affected by age-induced functional and morphological alterations causing atheromatous disease. The evolvement of biomedical sciences has allowed the elucidation of many aspects of this condition. Symptomatic carotid disease (CD) derives from critical luminar stenosis or eruption of an atheromatous plaque due to structural modifications of the vessels, such as carotid intima-media thickening...

Background: Variation in the prevalence of sarcopenia is related to the skeletal muscle index cutoff points applied. The objective of this pilot study was to examine the recruitment process for testing different sarcopenia definitions (ASMI cutoffs) in older Mexican adults. It explored whether the prevalence of sarcopenia decreased by applying ethnic- and gender-specific, DXA-derived appendicular skeletal muscle index (ASMI)-cutoff points in the definitions, as well as some associated factors in a sample of community-dwelling older Mexican people...

Metalloproteinases (MMPs) are involved in metastatic tumor processes, with changes in circulating levels detected in several cancer types. Here, we compare serum concentrations of metalloproteinase-1 (MMP-1) across individuals clinically diagnosed with prostate cancer (PCa) or benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), correcting results for the rs495366 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) that predisposes to differential MMP-1 levels. 196 men aged ≥50 years were followed at a university hospital urology outpatient clinic, with clinical, anthropometric, and rectal examinations performed by one urologist...

Cluster randomized trial design, where groups of participants are randomized instead of individual participants, is increasingly being used in long-term care research. The purpose of this review was to determine the characteristics of cluster randomized trials in long-term care facilities. A medical librarian conducted the literature search. Two independent reviewers reviewed each paper. Studies were included if the design was cluster randomized and participants were from long-term care facilities. For each included study, two independent data extractors captured data on study attributes, including: journal, location, year published, author discipline, funding, methodology, number of participants, and intervention target...

Objective: To evaluate the additional effects of on balance an aquatic muscle strengthening and flexibility training program in healthy sedentary lifestyle elderly women. Method: This controlled clinical trial included 56 healthy sedentary women, aged from 65 to 70 years, divided into two groups. The aquatic group (AG) underwent aquatic training (45 minutes/session, 32 sessions), and the control group (CG) received no intervention. Data were collected pre- and post-intervention, during a one-week period...

Background: In the sub-Saharan African, region of the world with a fast growing aging population and where the use of herbal products is very common, there is a paucity of data on medication consumption patterns among elderly people. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of polypharmacy and its associated factors among community-dwelling elderly in Lomé, Togo, in 2017. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from March to June 2017 in Lomé, Togo among people aged 60 years and older...

The number of elderly patients with cancer is growing. Our study goals were to determine the prevalence of geriatric syndromes in elderly cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and its related factors using a basic geriatric screening tool. A cross-sectional study using the basic geriatric screening tool was conducted to survey geriatric problems in a population of elderly cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. There were 85 participants who were ≥60 years old. Descriptive statistics and regression analyses were used...

Objectives: This study seeks to determine the prevalence of chronic diseases and analyze the association between multimorbidity and all-cause mortality by sex. Methods: This is a 16-year longitudinal study of follow-up. We used sample data of the SABE (Health, Well-Being and Aging) study cohort and mortality data obtained through the Mortality Information Improvement Program of the City of São Paulo (PRO-AIM) from the 2000-2016 period. Survival analysis was performed using Cox proportional hazard models...