Archives of gerontology and geriatrics
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Arch Gerontol Geriatr · Jul 2020
Live well and die with inner peace: The importance of retrospective need-based experiences, ego integrity and despair for late adults' death attitudes.
Given that prior research has provided evidence for the role of late adults' attitudes towards death in their mental health, we sought to understand its underlying sources. Guided by Self-Determination Theory and Erikson's theory of psychosocial development, two cross-sectional studies examined whether older individuals' psychological need-based experiences, as accumulated during life, relate to their death attitudes and whether their experienced ego integrity and despair play an intervening role in these associations. Whereas Study 1 (N = 394 late adults; Mage = 75.14; SD = 6.52; 62.9 % female) involved an assessment of need satisfaction only, in Study 2 (N = 126 late adults; Mage = 78.09; SD = 7.17; 61.9 % female) both need satisfaction and need frustration were assessed. ⋯ In turn, ego integrity related positively to death acceptance and negatively to death anxiety, while despair related positively to death anxiety. Finally, the contribution of need satisfaction to death attitudes was mostly mediated by individuals' ego integrity. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.
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Arch Gerontol Geriatr · Jul 2020
Time restricted feeding provides a viable alternative to alternate day fasting when evaluated in terms of redox homeostasis in rats.
Intermittent fasting (IF) is a non-pharmacological dietary approach for intervening into aging in different organisms. We evaluated the efficacy of time restricted dietary regimen and alternate-day fasting in rats by measuring redox parameters which are frequently used as signature biomarkers of aging. Wistar rats (8 months) were divided into three groups of six rats each. ⋯ The biomarkers of antioxidant defense and oxidative stress: FRAP, GSH, PMRS, ROS, AGE, MDA, PCO, AOPP, TNF-α and IL-6, were determined. Our results suggest that, based on predominant aging biomarkers, TRF has a similar effect on rats compared with ADF evaluated in terms of redox homeostasis. Observed results defend our purpose that the ADF and TRF methods are reliable dietary restriction regimens and subsequently improve the metabolic profile and redox homeostasis in rats.
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Arch Gerontol Geriatr · Jul 2020
Randomized Controlled TrialThe effects of consecutive sessions of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the primary motor cortex on hand function in healthy older adults.
With advancing age, changes in the central nervous system may lead to motor functional deficits. Non-invasive brain stimulation techniques are suggested to help modifying brain function. ⋯ The current findings suggest a-tDCS can be considered as a promising stand-alone technique in the intervention of the age-related decline of manual dexterity for improving hand function.
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Arch Gerontol Geriatr · Jul 2020
Clinical characteristics of older patients infected with COVID-19: A descriptive study.
Since the outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19), which has spread in the world rapidly. Population have a susceptibility to COVID-19, older people were more susceptible to have a variety diseases than younger, including COVID-19 infection with no doubt. This study focused on older patients with COVID-19 infection and analyzed the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of them. ⋯ The COVID-19 infection is generally susceptible with a relatively high fatality rate in older patients, we should pay more attention to the elderly patients with COVID-19 infection.