Elders

UNLABELLED: Background : Visual impairment and blindness pose substantial public health challenges in Saudi Arabia, especially among the elderly susceptible to blinding eye diseases. Assessing awareness of age-related eye diseases (AREDs) is vital for addressing vision loss in this demographic. However, there is a lack of research on ARED awareness in Northern Saudi Arabia, underscoring the need for evidence-based data from adult populations to craft effective health promotion strategies...

Autopsy investigations of deaths following nosocomial coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection have enormous medical and social significance, as autopsies are essential for the correct statistical recording of COVID-19 deaths, presenting new lessons, which is important to policymakers and in the improvement of public health in general.  Our study is based on the presentation of a case of a road traffic accident involving an elderly 73-year-old female with a complication of nosocomial COVID-19 infection and death leading to forensic pathological investigation...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between physician-hospital integration within accountable care organizations (ACOs) and inpatient care utilization and expenditure. DATA SOURCES: The primary data were Massachusetts All-Payer Claims Database (2009-2013). STUDY SETTING: Fifteen provider organizations that entered a commercial ACO contract with a major private payer in Massachusetts between 2009 and 2013. STUDY DESIGN: Using an instrumental variable approach, the study compared inpatient care delivery between patients of ACOs demonstrating high versus low integration...

The elderly frequently present impaired blood-brain barrier which is closely associated with various neurodegenerative diseases. However, how the albumin, the most abundant protein in the plasma, leaking through the disrupted BBB, contributes to the neuropathology remains poorly understood. We here demonstrated that mouse serum albumin-activated microglia induced astrocytes to A1 phenotype to remarkably increase levels of Elovl1, an astrocytic synthase for very long-chain saturated fatty acids, significantly promoting VLSFAs secretion and causing neuronal lippoapoptosis through endoplasmic reticulum stress response pathway...

BACKGROUND: Sensory impairment in older adults is associated with cognitive decline, elevated depressive symptoms, and low levels of life satisfaction. However, these relationships are usually investigated separately and in pairs. This study examined these relationships comprehensively, for the first time. METHODS: The analysis included 5,658 community-dwelling older adults from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (aged 50 to 108 years, 52.1% male) who completed the Jorm Informant Questionnaire Cognitive Decline in the Elderly and the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression-short form...

BACKGROUND: Middle-aged and older adults with physical disabilities exhibit more common and severe depressive symptoms than those without physical disabilities. Such symptoms can greatly affect the physical and mental health and life expectancy of middle-aged and older persons with disabilities. METHOD: This study selected 2015 and 2018 data from the China Longitudinal Study of Health and Retirement. After analyzing the effect of age on depression, we used whether middle-aged and older adults with physical disabilities were depressed as the dependent variable and included a total of 24 predictor variables, including demographic factors, health behaviors, physical functioning and socialization, as independent variables...

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the risk factors for liver disease comorbidity among older adults in eastern, central, and western China, and explored binary, ternary and quaternary co-morbid co-causal patterns of liver disease within a health ecological model. METHOD: Basic information from 9,763 older adults was analyzed using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). LASSO regression was employed to identify significant predictors in eastern, central, and western China...

Exogenous insulin antibody syndrome (EIAS) has until recently been a rarely described complication of exogenous insulin therapy. EIAS results not only in hyperglycemia, but also in hypoglycemia and occasionally in ketoacidosis (DKA). The incidence of EIAS is increasing probably due to an overall increase in autoimmunity associated with the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) epidemic resulting in increasing binding of insulin by antibodies. Herein, we describe a case of EIAS occurring in an elderly patient with longstanding type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) who had progressive loss of glycemic control...

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate clinical and radiological outcomes of a short stem reverse shoulder prosthesis with metaphyseal fixation specifically in older patients. METHODS: All patients, older than 70 years, submitted to a Reverse Shoulder Arthroplasty (RSA) using a cementless onlay short stem (Aequalis Ascend™ Flex Convertible Shoulder System (Stryker®)) from January 2017 to December 2021, with a minimum follow-up of 2 years, were included...

BACKGROUND: Segmental colectomy in ulcerative colitis is performed in select patients who may be at increased risk for postoperative morbidity. OBJECTIVE: To identify ulcerative colitis patients who underwent segmental colectomy and assess their postoperative and long-term outcomes. DESIGN: Retrospective case series. SETTING: A tertiary-care inflammatory bowel disease center. PATIENTS: Ulcerative colitis patients who underwent surgery between 1995 and 2022...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Aging is associated with a reduction in muscle performance, but muscle weakness is characterized by a much greater loss of force loss compared to mass loss. The aim of this work is to assess the contribution of the extracellular matrix (ECM) to the lateral transmission of force in humans and the loss of transmitted force due to age-related modifications. METHODS: Finite element models of muscle bundles are developed for young and elderly human subjects, by considering a few fibers connected through an ECM layer...

OBJECTIVES: To characterize mouth-opening muscular performance (MOMP) in adults and elderly individuals with dysphagia and healthy controls. METHODS: We searched the PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Cochrane, Scopus, and Web of Science databases from inception to Jan. 26, 2023. Two independent researchers considered the titles, abstracts, and full texts of potentially eligible papers from 1451 search results. Twenty-five studies that evaluated mouth-opening maximal strength (MOMS) in healthy adults, elderly individuals, and patients with dysphagia met the inclusion criteria...

Home care (HC) aides experience numerous safety hazards in clients' homes; many hazards also put clients at risk. We hypothesized that safety coaching led by nurse managers (NMs) during their initial HC needs assessment could prompt clients to improve safety conditions in their homes. Following a 2-arm proof-of-concept intervention study design, intervention NMs used motivational interviewing (MI), facilitated by a safety handbook and video, to coach clients on home safety improvements. Control arm NMs performed intake assessments with no changes to usual practices...

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine the characteristics of assistive device users and influencing factors among disabled elderly in China. METHODS: A total of 13,510 disabled elderly in Sichuan Province were surveyed. Disability was assessed using the Barthel Activities of Daily Living Scale, mental status, sensory perception, and social engagement evaluation. Univariate analysis and logistic regression analysis were employed to identify the impact factors. RESULTS: The prevalence of assistive device utilization among participants was 79...

Bone morphogenetic protein 7 (BMP7) can induce skeletal formation, promote the differentiation of chondrocytes and osteoblasts, and ameliorate intervertebral disc degeneration. The study was designed to evaluate the relationship of BMP7 variants to LDH risk in the Chinese Han population. BMP7 variants were genotyped with the Agena MassARRAY system among 690 LDH patients and 690 healthy controls. The odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated by logistic regression. Multi-factor dimension reduction (MDR) (version 3...

Dietary protein with adequate essential amino acids effectively stimulates protein synthesis and improves muscle mass. Musculoskeletal disorders in lower or upper limbs are not uncommon among patients with type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Therefore, this study primarily examines the effects of chronic dietary protein manipulation on amino acids' profile and position sense in the elderly suffering from T2DM. A total of 26 individuals suffering from non-insulin-dependent T2DM (age > 55 years old) participated in a 12 week nutritional intervention...

The effects of PM2.5 on human health fluctuate greatly among various age groups, influenced by a range of physiological and immunological reactions. This paper compares the pathogenesis of the disease caused by PM2.5 in people of different ages, focusing on how children, adults, and the elderly are each susceptible to it because of differences in their bodies. Regarding children, exposure to PM2.5 is linked to many negative consequences. These factors consist of inflammation, oxidative stress, and respiratory problems, which might worsen pre-existing conditions and potentially cause neurotoxicity and developmental issues...

Circadian rhythms synchronize to light through the retinohypothalamic tract (RHT), which is a bundle of axons coming from melanopsin retinal ganglion cells, whose synaptic terminals release glutamate to the ventral suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Activation of AMPA-kainate and NMDA postsynaptic receptors elicits the increase in intracellular calcium required for triggering the signaling cascade that ends in phase shifts. During aging, there is a decline in the synchronization of circadian rhythms to light. With electrophysiological (whole-cell patch-clamp) and immunohistochemical assays, in this work, we studied pre- and postsynaptic properties between the RHT and ventral SCN neurons in young adult (P90-120) and old (P540-650) C57BL/6J mice...

Objective: To explore the relationship between changes in neurological deficit severity and the occurrence of adverse cardiac events in elderly patients with hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage. Methods: Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate the predictive value of NIHSS scores for adverse cardiac events. Results: There were significant differences between the two groups. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that advanced age, high NIHSS score, large intracerebral hemorrhage volume, and high CK level were independent risk factors for adverse cardiac events in elderly patients with hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage (P < 0...

BACKGROUND: Based on pharmacoeconomics, drug availability and actual treatment, optimal treatment regimens for Chinese non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) patients over 70 years old are needed. METHODS: This multicenter, single-arm pilot trial enrolled patients with advanced non-squamous NSCLC who refused systemic chemotherapy. Eligible patients received anlotinib (12 mg/day, d1-14, Q3W) until disease progression, intolerant toxicities, or withdrawal from the study...