Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
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Functional disability is a common reason for loss of independence and need for informal care by elderly persons. There is little information on the profile of disability and the level of unmet need for care in elderly persons living in sub-Saharan Africa. Using a multistage clustered sampling of households conducted in the Yoruba-speaking area of Nigeria (representing 22% of the national population), persons aged 65 and older (N = 2,152) were assessed for disability in activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living. ⋯ Disabled persons had poorer quality of life and were more likely to suffer from major depressive disorder; 19.8% of disabled elderly persons lacked any informal care, and this unmet need for care increased the likelihood of having depression. The findings suggest a high burden of unmet need for care in a large section of disabled elderly persons in this African community undergoing demographic and social changes. Social factors relating to urbanization and poverty may be associated with the occurrence of disability and inability to access informal care.
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To characterize how surrogates plan to make medical decisions for others. ⋯ Although ethicists and clinicians expect surrogates to use substituted judgment or patients' best interests when making decisions, these data indicate that many surrogates rely on other factors such as their own best interests or mutual interests of themselves and the patient or intend to base substituted judgments on documents with which they have little familiarity.
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Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a common and debilitating problem in older adults. Little exists in the literature about primary care physicians' (PCPs') knowledge of and confidence in managing this problem. A self-administered survey was mailed to PCPs in western Pennsylvania to measure knowledge of the evaluation and treatment of common contributors to CLBP in older adults, confidence in diagnosing these contributors through physical examination, and the association between confidence levels and knowledge. ⋯ There was no relationship between knowledge scores and confidence ratings (P > .05 for all comparisons). The results point to a need for more PCP education about CLBP in older adults. It also suggests that accurate needs assessment should not rely on physician confidence ratings alone.