Age and ageing
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Community-based group exercise improves balance and reduces falls in at-risk older people: a randomised controlled trial.
recent studies have found that moderate intensity exercise is an effective intervention strategy for preventing falls in older people. However, research is required to determine whether supervised group exercise programmes, conducted in community settings with at-risk older people referred by their health care practitioner are also effective in improving physical functioning and preventing falls in this group. ⋯ these findings indicate that participation in a weekly group exercise programme with ancillary home exercises can improve balance and reduce the rate of falling in at-risk community dwelling older people.
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the major purpose of health and social policy in old age is to increase quality of life of elderly people. In many demographically developing countries, life expectancy is increasing very rapidly, but little information is available on survival free of disability. ⋯ long-term disability is common in old age, affecting a quarter of people over 60 years. However, self-care problems are much less common and suggest that the social and health care consequences of demographic transitions are over-estimated by use of simple questions about limiting long-standing disability. Self-care life expectancy provides a useful monitoring tool for censuses and national disability surveys.
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Pain is an inherently subjective experience that is difficult to prove. In a cognitively impaired older person whose verbal fluency is declining, both the experience and expression of pain are altered. Assessment poses many difficulties. ⋯ References cited within these sources were also reviewed. Searches were limited to English language studies. The quality of relevant studies retrieved was assessed and information from relevant papers synthesised using narrative summary.
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to identify the continuance of sleeping difficulty and medication use in a cohort of older Australian women from baseline to 3-year follow-up and to explore the relationship between these factors and health-related quality of life scores, falls and other health care use. ⋯ sleeping difficulty is a common and persistent complaint among older women and is strongly associated with use of sleeping medications. Both behaviours are negatively associated with health status.
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the National Service Framework for Older People requires every general hospital which cares for stroke patients to introduce a specialist stroke service by 2004. ⋯ significant development is needed to achieve the NSF target for hospital-based stroke services as few Trusts currently have all components in place and even when available not all stroke patients have access to specialist care. Stroke specialists will be required to run these services but training opportunities are currently limited. Stroke unit therapy staffing levels were lower than was available in randomised controlled trials.