Archives of gerontology and geriatrics
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Arch Gerontol Geriatr · Jan 2009
Comparative StudyLife worth living for caregiving and caregiver burden among Japanese caregivers of the disabled elderly in Japan.
The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between life worth living and caregiver burden among caregivers in Japan. We used 111 caregivers of frail elders who completed a self-administered questionnaire including the 8 items developed by Arai et al. (J-ZBI) used as a scale to measure subjective burdens and psychological factors used as covariates other than life worth living. ⋯ The direct effect of life worth living on caregiver burden (92.9%) was much greater than the indirect effect (7.1%). Our findings suggest that the increase of the sense of life worth living may play an important role in the prevention of the development of caregiver burden.
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Arch Gerontol Geriatr · Jan 2009
Comparative StudySerial position effect in a free recall task: differences between probable dementia of Alzheimer type (PDAT), vascular (VaD) and mixed etiology dementia (MED).
Here we report an investigation on the serial position effect (SPE) in elderly patients with early dementia due to different etiologies. The Rey's 15 words test has been used to evaluate whether different types of dementia show different patterns of immediate and delayed recall and of learning process. ⋯ We evaluated the primacy effect (PE), the recency effect (RE) and the learning process within the sample. Our results indicate that different etiologies have different patterns of anterograde memory impairment.
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Arch Gerontol Geriatr · Jan 2009
Comparative StudyElderly patients undergoing major vascular surgery: risk factors and medication associated with risk reduction.
This study assesses risk factors in elderly vascular surgery patients and to evaluate whether perioperative cardiac medication can reduce postoperative mortality rate. In a cohort study, 1693 consecutive patients > or =65 years undergoing major non-cardiac vascular surgery were preoperatively screened for cardiac risk factors and medication. During follow-up (median: 8.2 years), mortality was noted. ⋯ In conclusion, age is an independent predictor of hospital and long-term mortality in elderly patients undergoing major vascular surgery. Aspirin, ACE-inhibitors, beta-blockers and statins reduce long-term mortality risk. Especially the very elderly may benefit from statin therapy.
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Arch Gerontol Geriatr · Jan 2009
Comparative StudyImpaired facial emotion recognition and preserved reactivity to facial expressions in people with severe dementia.
The ability of decoding the emotional facial expressions may be early damaged in frontotemporal dementia, but relatively well preserved in the Alzheimer's disease (AD). Nevertheless, the data about the relationship of the dementia severity with the ability of recognizing the face emotions are conflicting and insufficient, mainly for the moderate-severe stage of the disease. The present study extends to the existing literature by: (1) assessing people in the moderate and severe stage of dementia, compared with people without cognitive impairment; (2) assessing not only recognition but also reactivity to the facial expression of emotion. ⋯ In general, positive emotions are better recognized than the negative ones, confirming the literary data. About the reactions to face emotion stimuli, there is no significant difference for any of the face emotion between the control group and the people with dementia. These data show that patients with dementia can recognize and react to facial emotions also in the severe stage of the disease, suggesting the usefulness of a non-verbal, emotional communication and supporting the need for more emotional education for care givers, both relatives and professionals.
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Arch Gerontol Geriatr · Nov 2008
Comparative StudyRehabilitation outcome of hip fracture patients: the importance of a positive albumin gain.
Low serum albumin level is associated with poor functional outcome and predicting a greater functional decline in the elderly. The aim of this study is to determine the interrelation between change of serum albumin level during rehabilitation period and functional outcome in hip fracture patients. We studied 433 consecutive elderly hip fracture patients admitted for rehabilitation. ⋯ The results suggest that patients with albumin gain have better admission and discharge FIM scores. Albumin gain emerged as a significant predictor for higher discharge FIM scores. We conclude that greater attention and efforts should be made regarding the dietary intervention and protein supplementation, in order to improve the rehabilitation outcome.