BACKGROUND Prioritising scarce resources for investment in innovation by publically funded health systems is unavoidable. Many healthcare systems wish to foster transparency and accountability in the decisions they make by incorporating the public in decision-making processes. This paper presents a unique conceptual approach exploring the public's preferences for health service innovations by v...

THREATS TO THE ELDERLY Threats to those of advanced age flow from three sources: demographic change, the loss of integrity of the family, and the distortion of values by money. Demographic Change Fifty years ago, men and women 85 years old or older were a rarity in the United States. But the 1990 census revealed 3 million such persons. One million of these were 90 or older and 36,000 were cente...

This study aimed to characterize the elderly who naps according to sociodemographic characteristics and frailty. A descriptive, cross-sectional study part of the multicenter project Frailty in the Elderly Brazilians. We evaluated 1,866 elderly people using a sociodemographic questionnaire. The frailty was assessed using the phenotype proposed by Fried. The data were analyzed with descriptive st...

The Canadian Initiative on Frailty and Aging was initiated with the overall goals of furthering understanding of the causes, trajectory and implications of frailty and improving the lives of older persons at risk of frailty. This paper presents the current research on key policy issues related to the frail elderly.

BACKGROUND Evidence-based medicine requires general practitioners (GPs) to act upon the results of clinical trials. Clinical trial evidence may be difficult to understand and apply in practice. AIM To investigate whether GPs were unduly influenced in managing hypertension in the elderly by the ways in which benefits of trial results were presented, and to establish whether their current treat...

BACKGROUND Previous research showed inconsistent results regarding the relationship between the age of patients and preference statements regarding GP care. This study investigates whether elderly patients have different preference scores and ranking orders concerning 58 preference statements for GP care than younger patients. Moreover, this study examines whether patient characteristics and pr...

BACKGROUND The Older Persons and Informal Caregivers Survey Minimal Dataset's (TOPICS-MDS) questionnaire which measures relevant outcomes for elderly people was successfully incorporated into over 60 research projects of the Dutch National Care for the Elderly Programme. A composite endpoint (CEP) for this instrument would be helpful to compare effectiveness of the various intervention projects...