摘要:

Abstract:Since the period of great progress against epidemic and acute diseases, a host of major chronic diseases afflicting older adults have emerged as the key health problems of our time. Concomitantly there arises the need for deeper knowledge of the causes, dimensions and subtleties of age decline in the individual's reserve capacities and resistance to disease, and the need for better understanding of the relationship of chronic diseases to environmental factors as an integral part of our search for basic measures toward health maintenance and disease prevention in older adults. The age decline in reserve capacities and in resistance to disease can either be slowed down by preventive measures and even reversed to some extent by physical exercise, or it can be further aggravated by excessive demands beyond their declining limits.The relationship of chronic diseases to environmental factors is illustrated by the effects of nutrition on the life span, on atherosclerosis and on other diseases. The relationship of obesity, diabetes and coronary heart disease to one another, to the increased ingestion of fat or sugar, to gorging, and to long‐spaced, heavy meal‐eating habits is discussed.In view of the sum total of environmental influences, a lifetime application of basic measures for health maintenance and disease prevention is stressed. Unfortunately, much too often a compromise with health is becoming an accepted pattern, possibly because of an increasing willingness to consider health not as a pure and incontestable human good, but as a generally desirable element, in active competition with other human needs such as economic gain or just plain pleasurable liv

ISSN:0002-8614    

DOI:10.1111/j.1532-5415.1969.tb01167.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1969

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Abstract:Values (means and standard deviations) for serum total protein, albumin, electrophoretic protein fractions, protein‐bound iodine and triiodothyronine uptake were determined in 45 men and 55 women whose ages ranged between 60 and 102 years. Groups of healthy younger people were used as controls.In the elderly, the serum total protein and albumin levels were lower and the alpha‐2 globulin level was higher than in the younger persons.The elderly persons in the study group were residents of a home for the aged, and had varying degrees of minor degenerative illnesses. It is extremely difficult to find an old person for study who is completely free of disease.It is suggested that changes in the serum protein in the elderly result from degenerative and undetected pathological processes, and that chronological age by itself is probably unimportant. Our values would seem to be more useful in clinical geriatric practice than previously published values on small groups of completely disease‐free old persons or those with crippling disab

ISSN:0002-8614    

DOI:10.1111/j.1532-5415.1969.tb01168.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1969

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Abstract:An intensive analysis is needed of the roles not only of the general hospital and of the extended care facility, but also of the skilled nursing home, the intermediate care facility and noninstitutional alternatives in providing necessary services to the aged. At present, training programs are not geared to develop a significant cadre of professionals with the idealism, enthusiasm and absence of ambivalence to move the field rapidly toward reasonable programs and measures.Rate‐setting practices in geriatric services have often led to the perpetuation of apathy and incompetence, and programs have suffered accordingly. Currently, with Medicaid, the problem is more serious because experience with Medicaid suggests that even with massive intervention by subsidies from the Federal government, patterns of care of the elderly alter little, although there is an associated large shift in the price structure, including costs and charges for such care. Controls for monitoring the quality of care have been limited, especially in extended care facilities and in nursing homes and related institutions. Unless well‐defined steps are introduced, the relationship between costs and quality of care at all levels will be subject to further variability. A critical problem is the snail‐like momentum in the creation of alternate services which could provide competition for existing methods and services. Again, the problems of manpower and incentives come to the fore. Neither exists in the abundance required to create even a modest impact on the present s

ISSN:0002-8614    

DOI:10.1111/j.1532-5415.1969.tb01169.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1969

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Abstract:This study concerns the patterns and treatment of depressive syndromes occurring in 26 of the residents of a home for the aged, during a three‐year period.Depression is an omnipresent threat in such a setting. Admission to a geriatric facility, often the stimulus for a depressive reaction, may be experienced as a massive psychosocial insult calling for major coping activity on the part of the patient. Persons with a prior history of depressive episodes are most likely to become depressed at this time. Depressive behavior also can occur after a period of residence and usually is a reaction to an experienced loss (which may be judged minor by the staff) or a clue to somatic decline.Treatment of depression in a geriatric facility requires first of all an active, optimistic program which is individually oriented. Psychiatric treatment is required for those who are more severely depressed. The biological and social fragility of this group of patients is stresse

ISSN:0002-8614    

DOI:10.1111/j.1532-5415.1969.tb01170.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1969

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Abstract:Research data from many sources appear to confirm the theory that circulatory insufficiency of the brain plays a major role in the development of senile and presenile dementia. This insufficiency is probably caused most frequently by sclerotic narrowing of the arteries supplying the brain combined with blood sludging or thrombosis in the arteries, capillaries or veins. Experience gained thus far from therapeutic trials in a small number of patients indicates that progression of the dementia can usually be arrested at once by the use of bishydroxycoumarin (Dicumarol). In some patients there has been worthwhile improvement in mental status. These findings suggest that for many patients, early treatment wih Dicumarol may prevent progressive mental deterioration, and thus put senile dementia in the category of a preventable disease.

ISSN:0002-8614    

DOI:10.1111/j.1532-5415.1969.tb01171.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1969

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Abstract:A questionnaire survey was made of 48 patients concerning their attitudes toward old age and retirement. The patients were in either a nursing home or a group medical practice in the Greater New York area; their ages ranged from 56 to 90 years. The factors investigated were: choice of retirement area, retirement attitudes, employment, recreation, religion, marriage, relationships with neighbors, family living arrangements, illness and incapacitation, Medicare, the past, the future, and death. The findings led to certain conclusions which may be helpful as guidelines in the care of the aged and in early essential planning for retirement.In this study, the elderly person who was endowed with a feeling of mature, self‐earned independence and physical well‐being, who enjoyed adequate income and housing and was happily married, retained his self‐esteem and integrity. He was less likely to become a burden on his family, friends or community, or to regress into illness that required early admission to an institution. His morale was high, even with a multiplicity of physical disorders. He retained the strong desire to maintain the identity of his personality within the mainstream of community and family life. On the other hand,undueidentification with the aged and the process of aging, especially when complicated by unfortunate developments such as social, economic, emotional, personal and physical losses, evoked lifelong personality defenses in the elderly, even toward death with its increasing proximity.The best approach to care of the elderly would seem to lie in preventive medicine, i.e., averting illness by a program of health care throughout the years. This program would stress natural processes, minimizing the pathological while maintaining the physiolo

ISSN:0002-8614    

DOI:10.1111/j.1532-5415.1969.tb01172.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1969

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Abstract:A study was made to determine the relationship between prior lifetime activity and present participation of aged female residents in the activities of a geriatric home, as measured by the Prior Lifetime Activity and Present Participation check lists.The study sample (randomly drawn) consisted of 30 aged female residents in a selected geriatric home. Their ages ranged from 65 to 95 years. Statistical analysis of the data showed that prior lifetime activity had little influence on present participation of these aged females. This applied equally to career, housewife, and career/housewife categories. The only prior lifetime activities carried over into old age were the sedentary ones, such as reading and sewing. The relation to the disengagement and activity theories of old age is discussed. Implications for the nursing staff are emphasized.On the basis of the study findings, the hypothesis that the aged female resident in a geriatric home participates in a significantly greater number of present activities than she did in prior lifetime activities was rejected. However, the effect of past environmental, social and cultural factors must be considered as a possible determinant in the degree of present participation.

ISSN:0002-8614    

DOI:10.1111/j.1532-5415.1969.tb01173.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1969

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Abstract:Primary amyloidosis is reported as occurring more often in older animals and man. This study concerned 52 white Pekin ducks from which hepatic biopsy specimens were obtained at various ages. It was found that hepatic amyloidosis occurred more frequently in older ducks, but it did occur in young white Pekins. The age at onset of hepatic amyloidosis varied. The rapidity of development also varied, as indicated by liver biopsies and by the weight of the liver.Since primary amyloidosis in man may be genetically influenced, it is important to know when amyloid first appears in the tissues, and the rate of progression.

ISSN:0002-8614    

DOI:10.1111/j.1532-5415.1969.tb01174.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1969

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0002-8614    

DOI:10.1111/j.1532-5415.1969.tb01175.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1969

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0002-8614    

DOI:10.1111/j.1532-5415.1969.tb01176.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1969

数据来源: WILEY