OBJECTIVE: This study, therefore, identified any potential associations between knee OA symptoms and urinary incontinence and further explore sex differences in the associations.
DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.
SETTING: University Hospital.
PARTICIPANTS: This was a cross-sectional study from a longitudinal research study comprising 1221 community-dwelling older persons (57% women), mean age (SD) 68.95 (7.49) years.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Presence of urinary incontinence: mixed, stress and urge symptoms. Physical performance and C-reactive protein levels were also assessed.
RESULTS: Two hundred and seventy-seven (22.83%) individuals reported the presence of urinary incontinence: mixed (41.5%), stress (30%), and urge (28.5%) symptoms. In an unadjusted analysis, stratified by gender, the association between knee pain and urinary incontinence was only present in women with mixed symptoms. After further adjustment of demographics differences and body mass index, the association between knee pain with any urinary incontinence and mixed symptoms remained significant with the odds ratios (95% confidence interval): 1.48 (1.02-2.15) and 1.73 (1.06-2.83), respectively. This relationship was attenuated after further adjustment for waist circumference and impaired lower limb mobility.
CONCLUSION: Our study refutes previous assumptions that urinary incontinence in individuals with OA is attributed to impaired mobility alone, but introduces the role of abdominal obesity in this relationship, particularly in women. Future studies should assess the temporal relationship between body fat distribution and OA with urinary incontinence.
METHODS: A retrospective study cohort was conducted at the University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) on cases of MRSA bacteremia from 2012 to 2016. Patient demographic and clinical data were collected for risk factors analyses.
RESULTS: New cases of MRSA bacteremia showed a trend of increase from 0.12 to 100 admissions in 2012 to 0.17 per 100 admissions in 2016 but a drop was observed in 2014 (0.07 per 100 admissions). Out of the 275 patients with MRSA bacteremia, 139 (50.5%) patients were aged ≥ 65 years old. Co-morbidities and severity at presentation were significantly higher among older adults, including diabetes mellitus (p = 0.035), hypertension (p = 0.001), and ischemic heart disease (p
METHODS: The MELoR study recruited community-dwelling adults aged 55 years and over, selected through stratified random sampling from three parliamentary constituencies. The baseline data collected during the first wave was obtained through face-to-face interviews in participants' homes using computer-assisted questionnaires. During their baseline assessments, participants were asked whether they had ever experienced a blackout in their lifetime and if they had experienced a blackout in the preceding 12 months.
RESULTS: Information on blackouts and ethnicity were available for 1530 participants. The weight-adjusted lifetime cumulative incidence of syncope for the overall population aged 55 years and above was 27.7%. The estimated lifetime cumulative incidence according to ethnic groups was 34.6% for Malays, 27.8% for Indians and 23.7% for Chinese. The estimated 12-month incidence of syncope was 6.1% overall, equating to 11.7% for Malays, 8.7 % for Indians and 2.3% for Chinese. Both Malay [odds ratio (OR) 1.46; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.10-1.95 and OR 3.62, 95% CI 1.96-6.68] and Indian (OR 1.34; 95% CI 1.01-1.80 and OR 3.31, 1.78-6.15) ethnicities were independently associated with lifetime and 12-month cumulative incidence of syncope, respectively, together with falls, dizziness and myocardial infarction.
CONCLUSION: Ethnic differences exist for lifetime cumulative incidence of syncope in community-dwelling individuals aged 55 years and over in an urban area in Southeast Asia. Future studies should now seek to determine potential genetic, cultural and lifestyle differences which may predispose to syncope.
OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the effects of fish oil supplementation on cognitive function in elderly person with MCI.
METHODS: This was a 12-month, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study using fish oil supplementation with concentrated docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Thirty six low-socioeconomic-status elderly subjects with MCI were randomly assigned to receive either concentrated DHA fish oil (n = 18) or placebo (n = 18) capsules. The changes of memory, psychomotor speed, executive function and attention, and visual-constructive skills were assessed using cognitive tests. Secondary outcomes were safety and tolerability of the DHA concentrate.
RESULTS: The fish oil group showed significant improvement in short-term and working memory (F = 9.890; ηp (2) = 0.254; p
DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis was carried out using the first wave data from MELoR which is a longitudinal study.
SETTING: Urban community dwellers in a middle-income South East Asian country.
PARTICIPANTS: 1565 participants aged ≥55 years were selected by simple random sampling from the electoral rolls of three parliamentary constituencies.
OUTCOME MEASURES: Consenting participants from the MELoR study were asked the question 'Have you fallen down in the past 12 months?' during their computer-assisted home-based interviews. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to compare the prevalence of falls among various ethnic groups.
RESULTS: The overall estimated prevalence of falls for individuals aged 55 years and over adjusted to the population of Kuala Lumpur was 18.9%. The estimated prevalence of falls for the three ethnic populations of Malays, Chinese and Indian aged 55 years and over was 16.2%, 19.4% and 23.8%, respectively. Following adjustment for ethnic discrepancies in age, gender, marital status and education attainment, the Indian ethnicity remained an independent predictor of falls in our population (relative risk=1.45, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.85).
CONCLUSION: The prevalence of falls in this study is comparable to other previous Asian studies, but appears lower than Western studies. The predisposition of the Indian ethnic group to falls has not been previously reported. Further studies may be needed to elucidate the causes for the ethnic differences in fall prevalence.
METHODS: This prospective cohort study utilized stratified simple random sampling to recruit 1614 participants from the Malaysian Elders Longitudinal Research aged above 55 years within the Klang Valley region from 2013 to 2015. Individual items for the frailty tools, alongside baseline physical and cognitive measures were extracted from the initial survey. Mortality data up to 31 December 2020 were obtained through data linkage from the death registry data obtained from the Malaysian National Registration Department.
RESULTS: Data were available for over 1609 participants, age (68.92 ± 7.52) years and 57 % women, during recruitment. Mortality data revealed 13.4 % had died as of 31 December 2020. Five to 25 % of our study population fulfilled the criteria for frailty using all four frailty tools. This study found an increased risk of mortality with frailty following adjustments for potential factors of falls, total number of illnesses and cognitive impairment, alongside moderate to strong correlation and agreement between frailty tools.
CONCLUSION: Frailty was associated with increased mortality. All four frailty assessment tools can be used to assess frailty within the Malaysian older adult population. The four available tools, however, may not be interchangeable.
METHODS: Data from the Malaysian elders longitudinal research (MELoR) study were utilised. Baseline data were obtained from home-based computer-assisted interviews and hospital-based health-checks from 2013 to 2015. Protocol of MELoR study has been described in previous study (Lim in PLoS One 12(3):e0173466, 2017). Follow-up interviews were conducted in 2019 during which data on the adverse outcomes of falls, sarcopenia, hospitalization, and memory worsening were obtained. Sarcopenia at follow-up was determined using the strength, assistance with walking, rising from a chair, climbing stairs, and falls (SARC-F) questionnaire.
RESULTS: Follow-up data was available for 776 participants, mean (SD) age 68.1 (7.1) years and 57.1% women. At baseline, 37.1% were robust, 12.8% had isolated cognitive impairment, 24.1% were prefrail, 1.0% were frail, 20.2% were prefrail with cognitive impairment, and 4.8% had CF. Differences in age, ethnicity, quality of life, psychological status, function and comorbidities were observed across groups. The association between CF with hospitalisation and falls compared to robust individuals was attenuated by ethnic differences. Pre-frail individuals were at increased risk of memory worsening compared robust individuals [aOR(95%CI) = 1.69 (1.09-2.60)]. Frail [7.70 (1.55-38.20)], prefrail with cognitive impairment [3.35 (1.76-6.39)] and CF [6.15 (2.35-16.11)] were significantly more likely to be sarcopenic at 5-year follow-up compared to the robust group.
CONCLUSIONS: Cognitive frailty was an independently predictor of sarcopenia at 5-year follow-up. The relationship between CF with falls and hospitalization, however, appeared to be accounted for by ethnic disparities. Future studies should seek to unravel the potential genetic and lifestyle variations between ethnic groups to identify potential interventions to reduce the adverse outcomes associated with CF.
AIM: This study aims to determine the use of one of three physical performance tests (2-minute step, 2-minute walk, and 1-minute sit to stand) to effectively estimate cardiorespiratory fitness among older adults with CF.
METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, community-dwelling individuals aged 60 years old and above in Klang Valley were screened for CF. The participants performed three physical performance tests (2-minute walk, 2-minute step, and 1-minute sit to stand) followed by treadmill-based maximal exercise testing on another day.
RESULTS: A total of 32 older adults with cognitive frailty (mean age; SD: 67.1;4.7 years) participated in this study. Nearly half of them had hypertension (43.5 %), hypercholesterolemia (43.5 %), and multimorbidity (47.8 %). Among the endurance tests performed, only the 2-minute walk test independently predicted VO2 max by sex-specific with men (R2 = 0.58, p = 0.03) and women (R2 = 0.34, p = 0.01). The 2-minute walk test had good agreement with VO2 max (ICC = 0.77, 95 % CI: -3.1-2.4).
CONCLUSION: The 2-minute walk test is a valid tool for estimating cardiorespiratory fitness among older adults with CF. However, it should be further tested across a larger population.