Journal Article Risk Assessment

Weight will be recorded at the beginning of the study for all participants and the mini mental state evaluation and geriatric depression scale will be administered for initial scoring. In the first year of the study, participants will be weighed and retake the GDS and MMSE every three months. In the last two years of the experiment patients will be weighed and complete the GDS and MMSE every four months. The geriatric depression scale (GDS), a 30 item inventory, has been proven to have high discriminant

The participants were split into two samples, sample 1 had 484 adults that were age 55 to 85 and sample 2 had 520 adults that were age 55 to 92. At 3 years’ participants were examined by CFA (Confirmatory Factor Analysis) and after another 3 years they were re-examined using this technique again. After evaluating results and comparing them from previous years, the results concluded that adults showed both stability and change due to gender and age. Unlike other studies this study shows evidence for both stability and change. However; the study focuses on older adults as opposed to across the whole lifespan of a person which could raise questions as to whether it has any relevance, (Small,

An estimated 47.5 million people suffer from dementia. Every 4 seconds one new case of dementia is diagnosed. Dementia is a term that describes certain symptoms such as impairment to memory, communication and thinking. It is a group of symptoms and not just one illness. Even though one‘s chance of getting dementia increase with age, it is not a part of aging. Dementia is usually diagnosed after a series of assessments that includes a physical evaluation, memory tests, imaging studies and blood work. It affects three aspects of one’s mental function, cognitive dysfunction (Problems with memory, language, thinking and problem solving), psychiatric behavior (changes in personality, emotional control, social behavior and delusions) and difficulties with daily living activities (driving, shopping, eating and dressing). “The median survival time in women is 4.6 years and in men 4.1 years” (Warren, 2016).

(helpguide, 2012) Effective care for older patients requires an accurate assessment of the elderly's health status. Physical, psychological, social, and behavioral and health system factors may influence their health status. Functional health status includes: a) basic activities of daily living; dressing, feeding, bathing, toileting, transfer-moving inside and round the house, b) instrumental activities of daily living; shopping, laundry, cooking, housekeeping, taking medication, managing money, c) advanced activities of daily living; social activity, occupation, recreation. Cognitive function assessment includes: attention span, concentration, intelligence, judgment, learning ability, memory, orientation, perception, problem solving, psychomotor ability, reaction time, social intactness. (ispub, 2012)

From birth, the body and mind go through physical and cognitive changes that human beings will have to adapt to throughout life. Some individuals lose mental and physical abilities age they age that allow them to live a normal lifestyle. The most common age-related physical changes include hearing impairment, weakening vision, and the increasing probability of multiple chronic conditions such as arthritis, hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis (Abeles, 1998). The most common cognitive changes associated with normal aging are short-term, or primary, memory loss, long-term, or secondary, memory loss, and the overall levels of performance in sustained attention. Other issues relative to aging and cognitive memory impairments are anxiety disorder, panic disorder, chronic pain, and mood disorders. This issue may cause several social, medical and family problems as individual

The Geriatric Depression Scale is a 30 question self-report assessment used to identify depression in the elderly (Mental Disorders, 2013). The questions are answered with “yes” or “no”, and ask things such as “Do you feel happy most of the time”, or “Are you hopeful of the future”(NeuorscienceCME, 2013). The points scored on the test depend on the question; there is an answer grid. For example, the question “Do you feel that your life is empty” should be answered with no. It the elderly person answers with “no”, then no point is given. If they answer with “yes”, then a point is added (Mental Disorders, 2013). The lower you score on the test, the less likely you are to be depressed (NeuroscienceCME, 2013). The Scale is also available in a 15, 5, or even 1 question format (Edelman, 2010). The assessment is useful because it allows health professionals to know how the patient feels, their mind set, which will allow that patient to receive treatment in the form of therapy or antidepressant medication (Edelman,

The primary method and source of control variables in this study is a 10 minute questionnaire with 14 open and closed questions, though they fail to control for key aspects such as natural cognitive decline. Though the study does make a point of mentioning their methodological flaws in the form of lack of control over testing situations, such as time of day, distractors, and degree of traffic. One of the strengths of the design is its relatively short time span, preventing fatigue. Sampling was random in so far

Significance: In the elderly, depression (DEP) and cognitive impairment (CI) are the most common neuropsychiatric disorders; DEP in the presence of CI (DEP-CI) predicts a higher rate of conversion to dementia compared to CI alone.1-3 The neuropathology of CI in late-life is often a mixture

Mild cognitive impairment is rapidly becoming one of the most common clinical manifestations affecting the elderly. The aim of this study was to identify risk factors associated with the development of cognitive impairment in the elderly. A crosssectional study was conducted. Study independent variables such as age, gender, education level, daily sleep duration, and consumption of drugs were collected and two screening tests were used to detect the presence of cognitive impairment. It was observed that sleeping for more than 9 daily hours, the consumption of benzodiazepines, older age, female gender, and illiteracy were risk factors for cognitive

Test-retest reliability, which is the measurement of change over 2 different measures, is seen in regards to this assessment. This type of reliability determines if an assessment is reliable over repeated measures. The BADLS had good test-retest reliability with a coefficient of r = 0.95 (Fish, 2011, p. 452). When measuring the reliability or consistency of an assessment, the standard coefficient should be greater than 0.9 (Hinojosa, Kramer, & Rogers, 2014, p. 152). This means that the BADLS is consistent in measuring change over 2 occasions. The test-retest reliability was tested by having the caregiver of the client with dementia fill out the questionnaire regarding the client’s functional ability to complete ADL. Once the answers the form

All participants in this study will be drawn from older adult populations, defined as individuals above the age of 59. Participants will be drawn from two pools. The first participant pool will be drawn from a list of older adults that have agreed to participate in psychology research. This pool largely consists of older adults located in Greenville, SC, with significant amounts of the population being drawn from the Woodlands, an older adult community, and OLLI, a continuing education program for older adults. This pool will be acquired with the consent of Dr. Michelle Horhota. The second participant pool will be drawn from Otterbein, another older adult community located in Lebanon, OH. Otterbein is a similar

In order to make a selection of who would be participating, each person had to: (1) been able to communicate in English and walk independently which was assessed in the Maintenance of Balance, Independent Living, Intellect, and Zest in the Elderly (MOBILIZE) Boston Study (MBS), (2) take the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) because the researchers needed to exclude those who received less than an 18 on it because who do, fall into the category of moderate or severe cognitive impairment, and (3) take the MOBILIZE Boston II (MBS II) which included a number of neuropsychological

Cognitive impairment is a public health problem occurred in the elderly. In this chapter, we discuss the research results, consisting of prevalence and factors associated with cognitive impairment in the elderly as well as the consistency between the tools used for screening cognitive impairment include the modified IQCODE and MMSE-Thai 2002 by comparing the research results with previous studies.

The ideal sample is 150 participants between the ages of 50-80 years old with both male and females equally represented, all of whom suffer from and have been diagnosed with Alzheimer 's disease, other forms of dementia, or Parkinson 's disease according to the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders [DSM-5]. The selected participants will have volunteered for the study or were referred by physicians and caregivers, and come from multiple nursing homes. The probability sampling method, random sampling, will be used to ensure that the sample chosen represents the population and will be a method that will be easy to support and defend.

The variable age is the independent variable and is of a ratio level of measurement (Loiselle et al., 2011). The measure of central tendency to describe age in table 1.2 are the mean of 57.62 which is the average age, the median which is the middle score within the distribution when all scores are organized of 58.5 and the mode of 58 which is the most frequently occurring age (Loiselle et al., 2011).