The aim of this study was to examine the association between body mass index and weight changes on disability transitions and mortality among Brazilian older adults. Longitudinal data from the Health, Well-Being, and Aging in Latin America and the Caribbean Study conducted in São Paulo, Brazil (2000 and 2006), were used to examine the impact of obesity on disability and mortality and of weight ...

The present study of older adults used structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the relationships between 3 executive processes underlying executive function (EF) (inhibition, task switching, updating in working memory), and 2 types of instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) (self-report, performance based). Experimental tasks of executive attention and self-report or performance-b...

BACKGROUND The National Institute for Clinical Excellence in the UK has recommended limiting the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), partly because of the inadequacy of research into the effects of ECT on quality of life and function. AIMS To examine the effects of ECT on function and quality of life, particularly as they relate to changes in mood and cognition in the month following this...

BACKGROUND The health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of the elderly population of Yi ethnic minority, which is the seventh largest nationality in China, has been rarely reported. This study was designed to explore the HRQoL of the elderly Yi ethnicity and association between their HRQOL and functional abilities. METHODS A total of 291 Yi ethnic residents were randomly recruited from 12 rural...

We examined functional transitions in both the activities of daily living (ADL), and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), over a 1-year interval among older Japanese living in a community, then estimated their physically active life expectancy (PALE) and instrumentally active life expectancy (IALE). In 1992, all residents aged 65 or older who lived in Saku City, Nagano, Japan, were f...

This study evaluated the association between anemia and physical functional capacity in a cross-sectional population-based sample of 709 hospitalized elderly patients aged 60 years and over admitted to the Madre Teresa Hospital, Belo Horizonte, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The Mann-Whitney or "t" test, and chi-square or Fisher exact test were used for quantitative and categorical variables, r...

OBJECTIVES To investigate whether number of children and, among parents, having a daughter is associated with older people's likelihood of at least weekly face-to-face social contact and later receipt of help if needed. METHOD Multivariate analysis of data from Waves 1 and 2 of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). RESULTS Older parents in England had higher chances of at least w...

OBJECTIVE The autonomy of individuals is linked to the achievement of instrumental activities of daily living that require complex behavior. In the elderly, the assessment of autonomy is usually based on questionnaires that have strong subjective constraints. Considering this fact, we tested elderly healthy adults and Alzheimer disease patients using a new measure, the S-IADL (Simulation of Ins...

OBJECTIVE This work aims to validate and increase understanding of the Global Activity Limitation Index (GALI), an activity limitation measure from which the new structural indicator Healthy Life Years is generated. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING Data from the Survey of Health and Retirement in Europe, covering 11 European countries and 27,340 individuals older than 50 years, was used to investigat...

The Direct Assessment of Functional Abilities (DAFA) was designed as a direct measure of instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) that could be compared with an indirect assessment of IADLs by the Pfeffer Functional Activities Questionnaire (PFAQ). The DAFA (28 demented and 15 control subjects) and PFAQ (subjects and informants) were administered twice, together with a brief cognitive ba...