OBJECTIVES To describe and analyze the influence of social relations in the elderly in the rural setting with depression. METHODS DESIGN A cross-sectional study. SAMPLE Patients (N=787) over 64 years, non-institutionalized who belong to the Basic Health Zone Substations (Zaragoza), a representative rural area of Aragon. The following variables were evaluated: diagnosis of depression, com...

OBJECTIVES To (1) create a single metric of disability using Rasch modelling to be used for comparing disability severity levels across groups and countries, (2) test whether the interval-level measures were invariant across countries, sociodemographic and health variables and (3) examine the gains in precision using interval-level measures relative to ordinal scores when discriminating between...

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY To examine the longitudinal associations between 3 dimensions of religious involvement-religious attendance, use of religious media, and private religious activities-and 3 domains of functional status-limitations in basic activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), and mobility in older adults. DESIGN AND METHODS Using the data from a...

OBJECTIVES Assessment of the predictive ability of the Mini-Mental Status Exam (MMSE) domains (orientation to time, orientation to place, registration, attention and calculation, recall, language, and visual construction) for falls in Mexican American elders tested the hypothesis that low MMSE domain scores are related to an increased number of falls. DESIGN Data were obtained from the 1998-9...

BACKGROUND This cross-sectional study investigated the associations between balance confidence, functional balance, and physical disability among older people after hip fracture. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study utilizes baseline data of two randomized controlled trials (ISRCTN34271567 and ISRCTN53680197). The participants were 159 community-dwelling over 60-year-old people. Health, fracture st...

PURPOSE This study explored the role control plays in the dying process of terminally ill elders by investigating the aspects of the dying process over which they seek to exercise control, the strategies they use, and whether they desire to exercise more control. DESIGN AND METHODS In-depth face-to-face interviews were conducted with 84 terminally ill elders receiving hospice care. Directed a...

Nutrition is a key element in geriatric health and is important for functional ability. The present study examined the functional status-predictive ability of the Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA). We analysed the dataset of the 'Survey of Health and Living Status of the Elderly in Taiwan', a population-based study conducted by the Bureau of Health Promotion of Taiwan. Study subjects (≥65 years...

Using data collected from the first wave of a longitudinal data set collected in the late fall and winter of 1990-1991, the National Survey of Self-Care and Aging (NSSCA), we examined the extent and type of assistance older people provided to others. Age, gender, and perceived health status were the most consistent predictors of the four types of assistance: personal care, child care, volunteer...

Some studies have demonstrated the relationship between social support networks (SSNs) and health status. In this sense, it has been considered that physical and mental functioning is a key indicator of the health in the age people. The aim of this study was to determine the association between social support networks and physical functioning. A cross-sectional study was carried out including a...

OBJECTIVE Prior studies have extensively examined the reciprocal relation between disability and depressive symptoms in late life, but little is known about whether informal care attenuates the reciprocal relation over time. This study examined whether disability and depressive symptoms mobilize informal care and whether informal care, once mobilized, protects older adults against the progressi...