Aged 80 and older

IMPORTANCE: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) resurgences have been noted following the COVID-19 pandemic in many countries. Recent findings suggest that the 2021 and 2022 RSV seasons were more severe than in past seasons, and age distribution may have shifted toward older children in the younger than 5 years age group. OBJECTIVES: To estimate age-specific changes in RSV hospital-based burden of disease before and after the COVID-19 pandemic and to compare incidence by Medicaid use...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, older people were socially isolated for their protection against the virus impacting their mental health. Aiming to explore the role of loneliness and social isolation in the obsession with COVID-19 among older adults, we conducted an anonymous online survey with 300 older adults aged 65-80 years in South Korea between January and February 2023. The survey collected demographic information, past psychiatric history, medical disease, current psychological distress, and experiences related to COVID-19...

BACKGROUND: Ankle injuries are a common reason for visits to the emergency department (ED). An effective diagnosis and treatment process is crucial for the swift recovery of patients and for alleviating congestion in EDs. This study aims to evaluate the adequacy and effectiveness of the Ottawa Ankle Rules (OAR) in geriatric patients presenting to the emergency department (ED). METHODS: Between February 2022 and November 2022, 160 patients aged 65 and older (118 women, 42 men) who presented to the ED with isolated ankle injuries were included in the study...

BACKGROUND: In this longitudinal study, we aimed to determine factors influencing survival outcomes among patients with stroke over a 12-month period. The investigation sought to uncover influential determinants to enhance the precision of prognostic assessments and inform targeted interventions for individuals affected by strokes. METHODS: Employing a longitudinal study design, participants were observed for 12 months from baseline, censoring survivors at the endpoint...

INTRODUCTION: Upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) is a rare disease accounting only for 5%-10% of urothelial carcinoma (UC). For localized high-risk disease, radical nephroureterectomy (RNU) is the standard of care. While minimally invasive (MIS) RNU has not been shown to decisively improve overall survival (OS) compared to open surgery, MIS RNU has been associated with reduced hospital length of stay (LOS), blood transfusion requirements and improved recovery, which are important considerations when treating older patients...

OBJECTIVE: To identify determinants of the utilisation of ophthalmic clinical health services among students who failed school vision screening. METHODS: This study employed a sequential explanatory mixed methods design, underpinned by Andersen's Behavioural Model of Health Service Utilisation. Data were initially gathered through interviews with 27 stakeholders-comprising 5 ophthalmologists, 7 community doctors, 7 public health professionals and 8 teachers. The qualitative insights informed the construction of a questionnaire, which subsequently garnered responses from 6215 participants...

OBJECTIVES: To clarify the factors associated with loneliness in individuals aged 80 years and older in Germany (also stratified by sex). METHODS: Data from the nationally representative "Old Age in Germany (D80+)" were employed. The analytic sample equaled 10,031 individuals. The D80+ study included community-dwelling and institutionalized individuals ≥ 80 years in Germany. Multiple linear regressions were used (with sociodemographic and health-related explanatory factors)...

AIM: QTc interval prolongation is a growing global issue which can cause torsades de pointes, a potentially fatal arrhythmia. We aimed to identify risk factors for prolonged QT interval in men and women. METHODS: The Mashhad stroke and heart atherosclerotic disorder (MASHAD) cohort study collected electrocardiogram interval data. QT was corrected for heart rate using the Bazett's formula. Ordinal logistic regression with crude (univariable) and adjusted (multivariate) association analyses in the form of odds ratio and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to identify the factors associated with QTc prolongation...

The Sit-to-Stand (STS) test provides insight into age-related functional capacity; however, there are various variants of STS, and we do not know which of these better discriminates against age-related functional capacity. Our study aimed to compare the age-related functional capacity in older people by evaluating STS power variants, using young individuals as a reference. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 102 adults (57 women) aged 60-80 and 105 adults (54 women) aged 20-30. Participants performed five times STS (5-STS), 30-seconds STS (30s-STS), and 1-minute STS (1min-STS)...

OBJECTIVES: Residential long-term care (LTC) use has declined in many countries over the past years. This study quantifies how changing rates of entry, exit, and mortality have contributed to trends in life expectancy in LTC (i.e., average time spent in LTC after age 65) across sociodemographic groups. METHODS: We analyzed population-register data of all Finns aged ≥65 during 1999-2018 (n=2,016,987) with dates of LTC and death, and sociodemographic characteristics...

BACKGROUND: Estimating the global influenza burden in terms of hospitalization and death is important for optimizing prevention policies. Identifying risk factors for mortality allows for the design of strategies tailored to groups at the highest risk. This study aims to (a) describe the clinical characteristics of hospitalizations with a diagnosis of influenza over five flu seasons (2016-2017 to 2020-2021), (b) assess the associated morbidity (hospitalization rates and ICU admissions rate), mortality and cost of influenza hospitalizations in different age groups and (c) analyze the risk factors for mortality...

People living with HIV (PLWH) usually suffer from co-infections and co-morbidities including respiratory tract infections. SARS-CoV-2 has been reported to cause respiratory infections. There are uncertainties in the disease severity and immunological response among PLWH who are co-infected with COVID-19. This review outlines the current knowledge on the clinical outcomes and immunological response to SARS-CoV-2 among PLWH. Literature was searched in Google scholar, Scopus, PubMed, and Science Direct conforming with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines from studies published from January 2020 to June 2023...

AIMS: The ALIMENT-HF trial aims to determine whether high-calorie and high-protein oral nutritional supplements (ONS) are safe and beneficial for older adult outpatients with heart failure (HF). METHODS AND RESULTS: This multicentre, single-arm, interventional pilot trial is designed to evaluate the tolerance, efficacy, and safety of ONS in older adult outpatients with chronic HF, malnutrition, and anorexia. In total, 80 outpatients with HF regardless of their left ventricular ejection fraction will be treated with ONS, including high-energy (900 kcal/day) and high protein (36 g/day) supplementation, at eight sites in Japan...

The study aimed to develop and validate a gamified cognitive flexibility task through brain imaging, and to investigate behavioral and brain activation differences between young and older adults during task performance. Thirty-one young adults (aged 18-35) and 31 older adults (aged 60-80) were included in the present study. All participants underwent fMRI scans while completing the gamified cognitive flexibility task. Results showed that young adults outperformed older adults on the task. The left inferior frontal junction (IFJ), a key region of cognitive flexibility, was significantly activated during the task in both older and young adults...

Sequence memory is subject to age-related decline, but the underlying processes are not yet fully understood. We analyzed electroencephalography (EEG) in 21 healthy older (60-80 years) and 26 young participants (20-30 years) and compared time-frequency spectra and theta-gamma phase-amplitude-coupling (PAC) during encoding of the order of visually presented items. In older adults, desynchronization in theta (4-8 Hz) and synchronization in gamma (30-45 Hz) power did not distinguish between subsequently correctly and incorrectly remembered trials, while there was a subsequent memory effect for young adults...

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular patients experience high rates of adverse outcomes following discharge from hospital, which may be preventable through early identification and targeted action. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness and explainability of machine learning algorithms in predicting unplanned readmission and death in cardiovascular patients at 30 days and 180 days from discharge. METHODS: Gradient boosting machines were trained and evaluated using data from hospital electronic medical records linked to hospital administrative and mortality data for 39,255 patients admitted to four hospitals in New South Wales, Australia between 2017 and 2021...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Baseline hyperglycemia is associated with worse outcomes in acute ischemic stroke (AIS), including higher risk of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH) following treatment with thrombolysis. Prospective data are lacking to inform management of post-thrombolysis hyperglycemia. In a prespecified analysis from the Stroke Hyperglycemia Insulin Network Effort (SHINE) trial of hyperglycemic stroke management, we hypothesized that post-thrombolysis hyperglycemia is associated with a higher risk of sICH...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Emerging evidence has raised an obesity paradox in observational studies of body mass index (BMI) and health among the oldest-old (aged ≥80 years), as an inverse relationship of BMI with mortality was reported. This study was to investigate the causal associations of BMI, waist circumference (WC), or both with mortality in the oldest-old people in China. METHODS: A total of 5306 community-based oldest-old (mean age 90.6 years) were enrolled in the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) between 1998 and 2018...

BACKGROUND: Few studies have assessed the comprehensive associations among comorbid diseases in elderly patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). This study sought to identify potential comorbidity patterns and explore the relationship of comorbidity patterns with the mortality risk in elderly patients with NPC. METHODS: A total of 452 elderly patients with NPC were enrolled in the study. The network analysis and latent class analysis were applied to mine comorbidity patterns...

In order to estimate the likelihood of 1, 3, 6 and 12 month mortality in patients with hip fractures, we applied a variety of machine learning methods using readily available, preoperative data. We used prospectively collected data from a single university hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark for consecutive patients with hip fractures, aged 60 years and older, treated between September 2008 to September 2010 (n = 1186). Preoperative biochemical and anamnestic data were used as predictors and outcome was survival at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months after the fracture...