Search results for "Geriatrics"
showing 10 items of 1388 documents
Difficulties in mobility among elderly people and their association with socioeconomic factors, dwelling environment and use of services.
1995
The purpose of this study was to clarify the extent to which elderly people have difficulties in mobility, and determine their association with socioeconomic factors, dwelling environment and use of services. The study groups were composed of two random samples of 800 persons aged 65–74 and 75–84, respectively. In all, 1224 non- institutionalized persons (80%) were interviewed at home. The respondents were asked to assess their ability to get about the house, negotiate stairs and walk outdoors, as well as manage certain physical exercise tasks. Difficulties in getting about outdoors were found most frequently among the women in the older age group (52% reported difficulties), and least freq…
Assessment of health literacy among older Finns
2018
Aims: This study examined the feasibility of the HLS-EU-Q16 (in Finnish) for use among older Finns and whether the health literacy score correlates with indicators of health and functioning. Methods: To determine the feasibility of the instrument, we first conducted a focus group discussion with nine participants. For the quantitative analyses, we used data from the AGNES cohort study, collected between October 2017 and April 2018 at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. 292 75-year-old Finnish men and women were interviewed face-to-face in their homes. Health literacy was measured with the HLS-EU-Q16 and health literacy score, ranging from 0 to 50, computed. The reproducibility of the in…
Successful aging: The role of cognitive gerontology
2017
International audience; This commentary explores the relationships between the construct of successful aging and the experimental psychology of human aging—cognitive gerontology. What can or should cognitive gerontology contribute to understanding, defining, and assessing successful aging? Standards for successful aging reflect value judgments that are culturally and historically situated. Fundamentally, they address social policy; they are prescriptive. If individuals or groups are deemed to be aging successfully, then their characteristics or situations can be emulated. If an individual or a group is deemed to be aging unsuccessfully, then intervention should be considered. Although scien…
Relation Between Genetic Factors and Frailty in Older Adults.
2018
Frailty is a geriatric syndrome that identifies individuals at higher risk of disability, institutionalization, and death. We previously reported that frailty is related to oxidative stress and cognitive impairment-related biomarkers. The aim of this study was to determine whether frailty is associated with genetic variants.Longitudinal population-based cohort of 2488 community-dwelling people from Toledo, Spain, aged 65 years or older.We obtained blood samples from 78 individuals with frailty and 74 nonfrail individuals who were nonfrail (according to Fried criteria) from the Toledo Study of Healthy Ageing and extracted DNA using the Chemagic DNA blood kit.Sample genotyping was carried out…
Motives to practice exercise in old age and successful aging: A latent class analysis.
2018
Abstract Purpose The aim was to classify motives for exercising trying to find sets of related cases that share common motivations, and to relate these latent classes to markers of successful aging. Methods 725 old adult aged 55 to 97 years were sampled in several Spanish towns. Instruments: Successful Aging Inventory (SAI), International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), Health Survey SF-8, Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), and motives to practice exercise, were used. Latent Class Analyses (LCAs) were estimated. The classes obtained were compared on markers of successful aging. Results Three latent classes were deemed optimal. Significant differences for several markers of success…
How we compensate for memory loss in old age: adapting and validating the Memory Compensation Questionnaire (MCQ) for Spanish populations.
2012
Compensating entails using external strategies and mechanisms that help overcome or alleviate the decreasing memory function that comes with age. This study aims to adapt and validate the MCQ in the elderly Spanish population. A total of 403 elderly people aged between 65 and 92 in the city of Valencia (Spain) completed the questionnaire for the validation process. The factorial validity of the scale was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. The result showed a first order five-factor model with 23 items that met the criteria for model fit according to multiple fit indices. As a general conclusion, the adaptation into Spanish provided a reliable and valid measure of compensation in the…
“Healthy to Heaven” : Middle-Agers Looking Ahead in the Context of Wellness Consumption
2016
Concentrating on personal health and well-being has become a central objective for people living in wealthy societies. In an age of consumerism, the current health enthusiasm can be observed particularly in the fast-growing wellness industry, the popularity of which has increased, in particular, among mature consumers, a trend also evident in people's individual strategies for aging well. As it is generally assumed that aging people consume wellness mainly to delay signs of aging, this study focuses on this understudied phenomenon with the aim of deepening the profile of mature wellness consumers. The data consist of eight group interviews of Finnish middle-agers (50–65 years). Interviewees…
Age identification in the framework of successful aging. A study of older Finnish people.
2003
A person-oriented approach was used in a study of age identification among community-dwelling older people. The study was based on 8-year follow-up data; 843 persons aged 65–84 were involved in the first phase of the study, and 426 persons aged 73–92, in the second phase. Loosely, on the basis of the distinction between successful, usual, and pathological aging (Rowe & Kahn, 1987, 1997), participants were grouped according to their self-ratings of cognitive and physical functioning as “Positive,” “Negative,” and “Others.” Participants possessing at least 4 out of the 5 criteria used as indicators of successful aging in the study (no illness or injury presenting problems in daily life, …
Life-Space Mobility and Active Aging as Factors Underlying Quality of Life Among Older People Before and During COVID-19 Lockdown in Finland—A Longit…
2020
Abstract Background Social distancing, that is, avoiding places with other people and staying at home, was recommended to prevent viral transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic. Potentially, reduced out-of-home mobility and lower activity levels among older people may lower their quality of life (QOL). We studied cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of and changes in life-space mobility, active aging, and QOL during COVID-19 social distancing compared to 2 years before. Methods Altogether 809 community-living participants initially aged 75, 80, or 85 years of our active aging study (AGNES) conducted in 2017–2018 took part in the current AGNES-COVID-19 survey in May and June 2020. …
Social relations in older adults: Secular trends and longitudinal changes over a 16-year follow-up.
2010
Abstract Drawing on population studies in Finland, we investigated secular trends and longitudinal changes in social relations. The cohort comparison data comprised on 974 persons aged 65–69 years from three cohorts born between 1919 and 1939 and interviewed in 1988, 1996 and 2004. Longitudinal analyses were conducted for 635 persons aged 65–74 years over a 16-year follow-up at three measurement points. Social relations were studied on the basis of frequency seeing one's offspring, perceptions of the sufficiency of these contacts, and by asking whom the participants considered as their closest person and how often and in how many tasks they helped someone. The cohort comparisons showed that…