Nursing Home Group Research Articles

THE PSYCHOGERIATRIC RATING SCALE: A PRACTICAL TOOL FOR ASSESSMENT, MONITORING AND PROGRAMME DEVELOPMENT.

ABSTRACTThe development of the 50 item Psychogeriatric Rating Scale is described. Data is provided which show exceptionally high inter‐rater reliability between trained raters, ranging between 0.9 and 0.98 for the seven sub‐scales of Physical, Self Help, Confusion, Behaviour, Social, Psychiatric Observations and Nursing Dependency.Internal consistency of the scales is good, ranging from 0.68 to 0.93.Validity was assessed by comparing the Confusion scale with the Mini‐Mental Status Questionnaire (correlation = 0.84) and the Nursing Dependency scale with the Farr Dependency Scale (correlation = 0.74).All of the sub‐scales were foundto beableto discriminate between self care, hostel and nursing home groups in a large retirement village.

Amino acid levels in elderly nursing home residents.

We have compared levels of albumin and serum amino acids in a group of 87 recent admissions to a nursing home, average age 83 years, with a group of healthy moderately old subjects, average age 69 years. We found that the nursing home group was characterized by decreased levels of albumin, by increased total levels of the measured amino acids, and by increased levels of the nonessential amino acids. In contrast, there were no significant group differences in the essential amino acids. Among the nursing home patients, there was a negative correlation between essential amino acids and disability, consistent with nutritional deficits in the more disabled patients, and a positive correlation between essential amino acids and subjective complaints of pain, suggesting that pain is associated with breakdown or mobilization of endogenous protein stores. Though the nursing home patients had decreased serum levels of tryptophan, there was no association between serum tryptophan or other variables that could be related to the availability of tryptophan for transport into brain, with ratings of either depression or pain. Glutamine levels were significantly increased in the nursing home residents, and among these patients they were positively correlated with measures of cognitive impairment.

Electrocardiogram of Healthy Old Men : Electrocardiographic Findings relating to Aging and Physical Activity of Healthy Old Men

Many authors have described electrocardiographic changes with aging. But electrocardiographic ob-servations relating to the daily physical activity of the persons with age above seventy have reported rarely. The purpose of this paper is to observe the changes in electrocardiographic characteristics which were obtained by epidemiological study in the farming village from 1958 to 1968 and the electrocardiographic differences of the aged in the farming village and the nursing home. Materials and Methods: One study population consists of 96 farmers ranging in age from 65 to 74 years (FV-6, FV-7) and the other consists of thirty-nine persons ranging in the same age in the nursing home. Moreover, 69 farmers from 55 to 59 are examined as the control groups. The farmers are classified in active and retired groups, and then are subclassified in the hypertensive (-H) and non-hypertensive (-N) groups. In hypertensive groups are all subjects who have had pressure of 160 mmHg systolic and or 95 mmHg diastolic, or over. In non-hypertensive groups are all subjects who have had both a systolic pressure of less than 160 mmHg and a diastolic pressure of less than 95 mmHg. The nursing home group with typical retired life is classified in the same method. (NH-6, NH-7) The cases with myocardial infarction, bundle branch block, chronic lung disease or congestive heart failure were excluded from this study. Blood pressure, body weight, height and skinfold thickness (triceps + subscapular) were measured according to Cardiovascular Survey Methods of WHO. Amplitudes of R, S and T wave in leads I, II, 111, Vl, V4 and V5, sum of QRS and T wave in leads I, II and III, QRS axis, P-R interval and corrected QT in lead II were measured in electrocardiogram. Results: 1. Physical measurements as described above in farming village and nursing home; The lower mean values in body weight (-7-N), in systolic blood pressure (-7-N), in diastolic blood pressure (-7-N), in circumference of arm (-7-N, -6-N, -6-H) as well as in the sum of skinfold (-7-N) are observed in the nursing home group compared with active groups in the farming village.