The journal of nutrition, health & aging
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Delirium, a mental disorder that becomes established over a few hours or days, is characterised by fluctuating attention and cognitive states. This article reviews the disorder, which has all the features of an important geriatric syndrome: it appears mainly in persons older than 65 years of age, is closely linked with very prevalent diseases and complications arising in the elderly, and is the mode of presentation of many other diseases in this age group. We discuss diagnostic, clinical preventive and therapeutic aspects and analyse the most common risk and precipitating factors in our hospitalised patients from the viewpoint of clinical practice. Finally, we propose a scheme for the prevention and treatment of delirium.
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Malnutrition is common among older hospital patients and contributes to poor clinical outcomes. Poor intake among this group of patients could be due to a variety of factors. ⋯ Reasons for inadequate intake vary according to stage of hospital stay and nutritional status. Inadequate intake in the early stage after admission is mainly due to self-limiting temporary factors associated with acute illness.
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J Nutr Health Aging · Apr 2008
Assessing the prevalence of malnutrition with the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) in a nationally representative sample of elderly Taiwanese.
The study was to determine whether the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) could be used as a tool to effectively identify malnourished elderly in a non-Caucasian population. ⋯ To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to apply the MNA to estimate the prevalence of malnutrition in the elderly in a nationally representative sample. Results suggest that the MNA can identify malnourished elderly in a non-Caucasian population. However, it appears that the functionality of the instrument can be improved by adapting population-specific anthropometric cutoff standards.
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J Nutr Health Aging · Apr 2008
International publications from the French geriatric teams: evolution in the course of last 22 years.
Bibliometry is a widely used method assessing the activity of research. ⋯ This bibliometric investigation points out the growing interest of the French geriatrics in clinical research, mostly oriented toward nutrition and dementia in the elderly.