| 1591. |
- Wiberg, Bernice, 1956-
(författare)
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Risk Factors for Stroke in Adult Men : A Population-based Study
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the last decades our knowledge concerning cardiovascular risk factors has grown rapidly through results from longitudinal studies. However, despite new treatment, in Western countries coronary heart disease remains the leading cause of death and stroke is still the leading cause of severe disability. The studies reported in these papers examine the relationships between stroke/transient ischaemic attack (TIA) and a number of different factors measured on two different occasions in men born in Uppsala 1920-1924 and are epidemiological in their character. The findings indicate that in addition to already established risk factors, indices of an unhealthy dietary fat intake and high serum lipoprotein(a) are independent predictors of stroke/TIA. Among different glucometabolic variables a low insulin sensitivity index derived from the euglycaemic insulin clamp and proinsulin carries a high predictive value for later stroke, independently of diabetes. Moreover, cognitive test performance measured with Trail Making Test B at age 70 is a strong and independent predictor of brain infarction, indicating that the risk is already increased in the subclinical phase of milder cognitive dysfunction. Performance at a pre-stroke Trail Making Test is also of predictive value for mortality after first-ever stroke/TIA, but none of the studied pre-stroke variables or cognitive tests was found to be related to dependency after an event. In summary these studies provide further knowledge about predictors of stroke and of mortality after first-ever stroke. They also indicate the possible importance of new markers of risk, such as the level of lipoprotein(a), profile of fatty acids in the diet, low insulin sensitivity derived from clamp investigations, level of proinsulin, and cognitive performance measured with Trail Making Tests.
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| 1592. |
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| 1593. |
- Zeiler, Kristin, et al.
(författare)
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Opportunistic cognitive screening in Sweden : What the tests mean and do for patients and healthcare professionals
- 2022
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Ingår i: Dementia. - : Sage Publications. - 1471-3012 .- 1741-2684. ; 21:1, s. 236-249
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Since 2017, opportunistic screening for cognitive impairment takes place at the geriatric ward of a local hospital in Sweden. Persons above the age of 65 who are admitted to the ward, who have not been tested for cognitive impairment during the last six months nor have a previously known cognitive impairment, are offered the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Clock-Drawing Test. This article analyses what the opportunistic screening practice means for patients and healthcare professionals. It combines a phenomenologically-oriented focus on subjectivity and sense-making with a focus that is inspired by science and technology studies on what the tests become within the specific context in which they are used, which allows a dual focus on subjectivity and performativity. The article shows how the tests become several different, not infrequently seemingly contradictory, things: an offer, an important tool for knowledge-production, something unproblematic yet also emotionally troubling, something one can fail and an indicator that one belongs to a risk group and needs to be tested. Further, the article shows how the practice is shaped by the sociocultural context. It examines the role of the affective responses to the test for subjectivity - particularly patient subjectivity - and offers a set of recommendations, if this practice were to expand to other hospitals.
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| 1594. |
- Åberg, Anna Cristina
(författare)
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Gender comparisons of function-related dependence pain and insecurity in geriatric rehabilitation
- 2006
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Ingår i: Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine. - : Medical Journals Sweden AB. - 1650-1977 .- 1651-2081. ; 38:1, s. 73-79
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: To evaluate possible gender differences regarding the effect of intervention in geriatric rehabilitation, expressed in terms of change in function-related dependence, pain and insecurity. DESIGN: Comparative study. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 110 women and 44 men undergoing geriatric rehabilitation. METHODS: Performance-based assessments with use of the General Motor Function assessment scale. Non-parametric statistics were mainly used. RESULTS: The women showed higher degrees of function-related dependence, pain and insecurity on admission than the men. Both women and men displayed significant improvement in all 3 variables during the rehabilitation period. However, the positive changes regarding pain and insecurity were according to the analyses of systematic group changes, at a low degree among the men, probably because of the low levels on admission. Gender comparisons of proportions with positive intervention outcome indicated that a significantly larger proportion of the women showed a positive treatment effect after intervention, with a difference in recovery of 19% in dependence, 23% in pain and 33% in insecurity (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Gender differences in disability, with higher degrees of function-related dependence, pain and insecurity among women on admission for geriatric rehabilitation, can be diminished during the rehabilitation period. These promising results may have relevance for the public health of the elderly population.
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| 1595. |
- Åhlund, Kristina, 1978-
(författare)
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Physical Fitness in Hospitalized Frail Elderly Patients
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Demographic research shows that the proportion of older people in society is increasing. More people age well, but there are also more people getting old with disability and multimorbidity. The large diversity in functioning illustrates the heterogeneity of aging. Accelerated aging may lead to frailty, which is a geriatric syndrome, often used as a marker of biologic age and associated with decreased physiologic reserves, increased vulnerability and the risk of adverse health out- comes. Frail elderly people are frequent visitors within emergency hospital care and physical decline is common. Unfortunately, elderly patients with substantial multimorbidity are often excluded from clinical trials.Physical fitness comprises a set of measurable health- and skill-related outcomes, such as cardiorespiratory endurance and muscle strength. A decrease in physical fitness may affect the prognosis negatively. However, previous research indicates that it may be possible to reverse frailty and improve physical fitness. It is therefore of the utmost interest to identify frailty and study how care is best provided, in order to prevent, reduce and postpone adverse health consequences.The overall aim of this thesis is to study physical fitness in a group of frail elderly patients, within clinical hospital health care. The patients’ physical fitness will be evaluated and compared in different care settings during and after hospitalization. The aim is also to study the long-term consequences of changes in physical fitness in relation to mortality. To better understand the underlying factors for partici- pation in physical activity and exercise, patients’ perceptions of the phenomena will be explored.This thesis consists of four papers based on two studies comprising frail elderly patients with substantial multimorbidity, in connection with an in-hospital episode. Paper 1 was an observational study with a cross-sectional design (n=408). Different components of physical fitness were measured during an index hospital stay and the results showed that hospitalized frail elderly patients performed below previously described age-related reference values. Furthermore, physical fitness was associated with the degree of frailty, rather than the chronological age. Paper 2 was a prospective controlled trial, with two parallel groups. The patients included in the intervention group (n=206) were cared for at an emergency medical care unit providing care according to Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment and care (CGA). The control group (n=202) was cared for at conventional emergency medical care units. The multi-professional care approach at the CGA unit was shown to be beneficial, in terms of a greater proportion of patients who preserved or improved their function during the first three months after discharge from hospital, compared with conventional care. Paper 3 had a prospective approach when evaluating the association between physical fitness and oneyear mortality in those 390 patients discharged alive from a hospital care episode. The results showed that physical fitness during in-hospital care and the change in physical fitness during the first months after discharge were associated with one-year mortality.In Paper 4, the patients’ perspective in terms of physical activity and exercise was explored. The theme of “Meaningfulness and risk of harm in an aging body” emerged, followed by the three categories of physical activity as part of daily life, goals of physical activity and exercise and prerequisites for physical activity and exercise.These studies highlight the importance of a greater focus on physical fitness in hospitalized elderly patients. A careful assessment and a multi-professional approach may lead to beneficial results and better survival even in a group of frail elderly patients with severe multimorbidity. To increase physical activity and exercise in this group of patients, health care probably needs to improve the means of communicating the benefits and goals of exercise and facilitating them so that the risk of harm is reduced.
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| 1596. |
- Åhman, Hanna Bozkurt, et al.
(författare)
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Timed "Up & Go" Dual-Task Tests : Age- and Sex-Specific Reference Values and Test-Retest Reliability in Cognitively Healthy Controls
- 2021
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Ingår i: Physical Therapy. - : Oxford University Press. - 0031-9023 .- 1538-6724. ; 101:10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the study was to establish reference values for the Uppsala-Dalarna Dementia and Gait (UDDGait) Timed "Up & Go" dual-task (TUGdt) test variables in cognitively healthy adults and to assess these variables' test-retest reliability.METHODS: For reference values, 166 participants were recruited with approximately equal numbers and proportions of women and men in the age groups 50 to 59, 60 to 69, 70 to 79, and 80+ years (mean age = 70 years, age range = 50-91 years, 51% women). For reliability testing, 43 individuals (mean age = 69 years, age range = 50-89 years, 51% women) were recruited. Two dt tests were carried out: TUGdt naming animals and TUGdt months backward, representing 8 test variables: time scores, costs (the relative difference between single-task and dt time scores), "number of animals," "number of months," "animals/10 seconds ," and "months/10 seconds ." Reference ranges for the variables were established by quantile regression in age- and sex-specific groups. For reliability, intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), standard error of measurement, minimal detectable change, and Bland-Altman plots were used.RESULTS: Reference values for the TUGdt test variables are presented for the 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles. The reliability of TUGdt time scores was excellent (ICCs between 0.85 and 0.86). "Number of animals" and "animals/10 seconds" as well as "months/10 seconds" showed fair to good levels of reliability (ICCs between 0.45 and 0.58), whereas the reliability for both cost measures and "number of months" was poor (ICCs between 0.34 and 0.39).CONCLUSION: Normative reference values, potentially useful for clinical and research purposes, were presented in 4 age- and sex-specific groups from 50 years and older. Reliability for the test variables varied between poor and excellent, the lower estimates partly explained by some variables being the ratio of 2 other variables. In UDDGait, TUGdt tests are intended for diagnostic and predictive purposes, for which these tests are promising and require further investigations.IMPACT: Normative reference values and test-retest reliability results for the UDDGait TUGdt test variables were presented. These results should be useful for both clinical and research purposes.
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| 1597. |
- Åkerlund, Britt Mari, 1943-
(författare)
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Dementia care in an ethical perspective : an exploratory study of caregivers' experiences of ethical conflicts when feeding severely demented patients
- 1990
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this study was to explore how caregivers caring for severely demented patients experience ethical conflict situations. Feeding patients in a late state of dementia was chosen as focus. Special attention was paid to analyses of the caregivers' experiences with regard to their feelings, use of force, interpretations of the patients' behaviour and their ethical reasoning.The study was carried out in five separate parts, presented as five papers. A phenomenological - hermeneutic approach was consistent. Personal interviews, a projective defence mechanism test, the Meta Contrast Technique and an analysis of patient/caregiver behaviour as shown in video taped feeding sessions were the methods used.Study participants were forty-one caregivers in psychogeriatric care, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and nurses' assistants.The result indicated that, when facing ethical decisions the caregivers were caught in a double bind conflict due to the contradicting ethical demands "Keep the patient alive!" and "Don't cause the patient suffering!". The difficulty to interpret what the patients experienced and the impossibility to know for sure what actions would be right or wrong were sources of anxiety. They defined force feeding individually, yet a pattern was found. Some caregivers defined force feeding according to the amount of persuasiveness or violence they had to perform. Some regarded force feeding from a patient wish perspective. A majority combined the two dimensions.The caregivers' ethical reasoning showed that their decision making was to be regarded as a process grounded on ethical rules. Interdependence in the relation caregiver/patient made them develop their reasoning in a direction of existential reasoning.
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| 1598. |
- Åström, Sture, 1946-
(författare)
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Attitudes, empathy and burnout among staff in geriatric and psychogeriatric care
- 1990
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study concerned assessments of attitudes towards demented patients among students and nursing staff as well as attitudes towards active euthanasia, wish to transfer to other jobs, ability of empathy and experience of burnout among nursing staff. The study aimed also to relate experience of burnout to attitudes towards demented patients, ability of empathy and experience of work with demented patients. The study was performed by use of questionnaires, scales measuring attitudes towards demented patients, experience of burnout and ability of empathy. Tape-recorded interviews were also included aiming to explore the staffs experience at work.The results showed that a majority of the students and staff held positive attitudes towards demented patients. A small proportion intended to work solely with demented patients. Staff working in psychogeriatric care and somatic long-term care held more positive attitudes than staff working in acute medical care. Proportions of staff with positive attitudes varied depending on age, duration of employment, education and place of work. A larger proportion of staff in geriatric care than in acute care reported a wish to transfer to another job. LPN’s in nursing homes to the largest proportion stated this wish to transfer.A majority of both students and staff expressed negative attitudes towards active euthanasia to severely demented patients in the finale stage of life. However, most favourable attitudes towards active euthanasia were found among students with shorter health care education and among nurse's aides and LPN’s.The staffs empathy was judged as moderately high and there were no differences found in relation to sex, staff category or place of work.Experience of burnout /tedium varied with the place of work and category of staff. Largest proportions at risk to develop burnout were found among those working in somatic long-term care and psychogeriatric care. RN’s showed lower burnout scores than nurse's aides and LPN’s.Experience of burnout was correlated to attitudes towards demented patients, indicating that the lower burnout score the staff have the more positive are the attitudes. Burnout was also related to the staffs ability of empathy i.e. the lower degree of burnout the higher is the empathie ability. Regression analysis showed that "Experience of feed-back at work” and "Time spent at present place of work" were the most important factors for the staffs experience of burnout.
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| 1599. |
- Öhlin, Jerry, et al.
(författare)
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Physical activity in late middle- to older-aged people and dementia, cognitive, and physical function two decades later
- 2022
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Ingår i: Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders. - : S. Karger. - 1420-8008 .- 1421-9824. ; 51, s. 135-141
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: Low physical activity (PA) is a potential risk factor for dementia and cognitive impairment. However, few studies have focused on very old people (aged ≥80 years), the age group with highest prevalence of dementia. The aim was to investigate if PA associated with subsequent dementia, cognitive function, and gait speed (GS), in very old people.Methods: A population-based survey was conducted in 1999 and followed-up between 2016 and 2019 in participants ≥80 years. Altogether 541 individuals (56.2% women), 64.9 ± 4.2 years of age at baseline participated. Self-rated baseline PA was categorized into low, medium, or high. Cognitive function was assessed with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), executive function with the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB), and GS (in meters/second) was measured over 2.4 m at follow-up.Results: During a mean of 19.0 ± 1.1 years, 175 (32.3%) developed dementia. Low or medium PA compared to high PA did not associate with subsequent dementia, and PA did not associate with future cognitive function (MMSE). PA associated with executive function (FAB) (unstandardized beta [95% confidence interval]) (0.67 [0.07–1.27]), but not after adjustments. PA associated with subsequent GS in the unadjusted model and after adjustment for age, sex, smoking, and education (0.06 [0.02–0.09], and 0.04 [0.01–0.08], respectively), but not after adding adjustment for hypertension, obesity, and glucose intolerance.Conclusion: No support was found for the hypothesis that low PA is a potential risk factor for dementia in very high age. However, PA and executive function were associated in unadjusted analyses which indicate that PA may be important for at least one aspect of cognitive function. The association between PA and GS around 2 decades later seems attenuated by cardiometabolic risk factors. Future investigations regarding PA, dementia, and cognitive decline may consider cardiometabolic risk factors such as hypertension, obesity, and glucose intolerance, and include repeated measures of PA over the life course.
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| 1600. |
- Abe, Takafumi, et al.
(författare)
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Assessing the impact of a hilly environment on depressive symptoms among community-dwelling older adults in japan : A cross-sectional study
- 2021
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Ingår i: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. - : MDPI AG. - 1661-7827 .- 1660-4601. ; 18:9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although some neighborhood environmental factors have been found to affect depressive symptoms, few studies have focused on the impact of living in a hilly environment, i.e., land slope, on depressive symptoms among rural older adults. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate whether a land slope is associated with depressive symptoms among older adults living in rural areas. Data were collected from 935 participants, aged 65 years and older, who lived in Shimane prefecture, Japan. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) and defined on the basis of an SDS score ≥ 40. Land slopes within a 400 m network buffer were assessed using geographic information systems. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of depressive symptoms were estimated using logistic regression. A total of 215 (23.0%) participants reported depressive symptoms. The land slope was positively associated with depressive symptoms (OR = 1.04; 95% CI = 1.01–1.08) after adjusting for all confounders. In a rural setting, living in a hillier environment was associated with depressive symptoms among community-dwelling older adults in Japan.
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