METHODS: It was a cross-sectional study. The Malay elderly aged 60 years and above were selected through convenient sampling to give a total of 230 respondents. The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) was used to assess the symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Bivariate analyses were performed using chi-square tests and multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine the association between the factors and each of the mental health statuses assessed.
RESULTS: The results showed that the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress among the elderly respondents was 27.8%, 22.6%, and 8.7%, respectively. The significant factors for depression were single elderly (Adjusted OR = 3.27, 95%CI 1.66, 6.44), living with family (Adjusted OR = 4.98, 95%CI 2.05, 12.10), and poor general health status (Adjusted OR = 2.28, 95%CI 1.20, 4.36). Living with family was the only significant factor for anxiety (Adjusted OR = 2.68, 95%CI 1.09, 6.57). There was no significant factor for stress.
CONCLUSIONS: Depression and anxiety among the Malay elderly in the rural community were very worrying. More equity in health should be created or strengthened in order to intensify the opportunity to identify, diagnose, and treat those with mental health problems. Living arrangement in the rural community was an important factor that had influenced depression and anxiety. Therefore, further research is recommended for more comprehensive information, as a result of which appropriate intervention can be made.
DESIGN: This study was a two-arm within-participants trial with 4- and 12-wk follow-ups. Allocation ratio was 1:1, and pretraining and posttraining measurements were included. A total number of 25 healthy older adults were enrolled (mean = 63.32, SD = 4.44). Participants were randomly allocated into two conditions: (a) prospective memory training: participants underwent a multicomponent prospective memory training, and (b) control: participants were not contacted during the training phase. After the training phase was finished, participants crossed over to undergo the condition they did not experience before. The differences between pretraining and posttraining measures of prospective memory, activities of daily living, negative mood (depression), and anxiety were assessed. All changes in the measurements were analyzed using general linear method. This trial is registered at https://www.isrctn.com (#ISRCTN57600070).
RESULTS: Multicomponent prospective memory training program was significantly effective on both subjective and objective prospective memory performances among healthy older adults. Moreover, the training had significant positive effects on activities of daily living (independence) among participants. In addition, negative mood and anxiety levels were reduced after the training was finished.
CONCLUSIONS: This multicomponent prospective memory training improved prospective memory performance and activities of daily living and reduce negative mood (depression) and anxiety levels among healthy older adults.
Method: Potential studies were identified through a systematic search of Scopus, Science Direct, Google Scholar, and PubMed. The keywords used to identify relevant articles were "adherence," "AED," "epilepsy," "non-adherence," and "complementary and alternative medicine." An article was included in the review if the study met the following criteria: 1) conducted in epilepsy patients, 2) conducted in patients aged 18 years and above, 3) conducted in patients prescribed AEDs, and 4) patients' adherence to AEDs.
Results: A total of 3,330 studies were identified and 30 were included in the final analysis. The review found that the AED non-adherence rate reported in the studies was between 25% and 66%. The percentage of CAM use was found to be between 7.5% and 73.3%. The most common reason for inadequate AED therapy and higher dependence on CAM was the patients' belief that epilepsy had a spiritual or psychological cause, rather than primarily being a disease of the brain. Other factors for AED non-adherence were forgetfulness, specific beliefs about medications, depression, uncontrolled recent seizures, and frequent medication dosage.
Conclusion: The review found a high prevalence of CAM use and non-adherence to AEDs among epilepsy patients. However, a limited number of studies have investigated the association between CAM usage and AED adherence. Future studies may wish to explore the influence of CAM use on AED medication adherence.