Gerontology
-
Understanding comorbidity prevalence and the effects of comorbidities in older veterans with lower extremity amputations may aid in assessing patient outcomes, resource use, and facility-level quality of care. ⋯ Merging outpatient with inpatient data may reduce the under coding of comorbidities but does not enhance mortality prediction. Compared to the Charlson/Deyo, the Elixhauser has a more complete coding scheme for comorbid conditions, such as diabetes mellitus and peripheral vascular disease, important to addressing lower extremity amputation etiology.
-
Risk factors for functional decline in nonagenarians: a one-year follow-up. The NonaSantfeliu study.
Disability and a decline in functional capacity are common in old age. ⋯ According to the definition used to describe functional basic ADL decline, poor performance in instrumental ADL at baseline and a history of a stroke appear to be independent risk factors. Prevention strategies could be intensified in this subgroup of nonagenarians.
-
It has been suggested that regular moderate physical activity (PA) promotes resistance to upper respiratory tract infections (URTI). In an older population, this relationship should be examined in a wider concept of multiple factors potentially able to influence infection rate and reported symptomatology. Especially, the impact of depression should be taken into consideration. ⋯ These results indicate that in elderly subjects the symptomatology of URTI is interrelated with their habitual PA and depressive symptomatology. Less active and more depressed subjects develop more URTI symptoms during 1-year follow-up. This URTI symptomatology, together with the baseline PA and the depressive status, contributes to the follow-up PA and depression scores.
-
Syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion (SIADH) is the most common cause of hyponatremia in elderly hospitalized patients; however in many patients the etiology remains unclear even after routine investigations. ⋯ Potentially, urinary retention by itself may cause hyponatremia. The possible mechanism for this is SIADH, triggered by bladder distention or pain due to bladder distention. Urinary catheterization may be the key to treatment in these cases of hyponatremia.
-
Bereavement is often associated with increased levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. The question of whether grief is associated with cognitive deficits in older adults remains largely unanswered. Although Xavier and coworkers (see text) found preliminary evidence that grief, in the absence of depression, impacted on memory in a sample of the oldest-old in Brazil, the impact of bereavement on cognitive functioning, independent of the effects of mood, has not been adequately examined. ⋯ The evidence suggests that grief associated with death of a spouse has limited associations with cognition beyond those that would be expected to occur as a result of depression, anxiety, and stress.