Reactions to caregiving during an intervention targeting frailty in community living older people

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The demands and consequences of caregiving are considerable. However, such outcomes are not commonly investigated in the evaluation of interventions targeting frailty. This study aims to explore family carers’ reactions to caregiving during an intervention targeting frailty in community living older people.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>A study of carers (n=119) embedded in a 12 month randomised controlled intervention targeting frailty in people 70 years or older, compared to usual care. Reactions to caregiving were measured in the domains of health, finance, self-esteem, family support and daily schedule. Anxiety and depression levels were also evaluated. Carer outcomes were measured at baseline, 6 months and 12 months and at 3 months post frailty intervention.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Carers of frail older people in the intervention group showed a sustained improvement in health scores during the intervention targeting frailty, while health scores for carers of the frail older people in the control group, decreased and therefore their health worsened (F=2.956, p=0.034). The carers of the frail older people in the intervention group reported overall better health (F=5.303, p=0.023) and self-esteem (F=4.158, p=0.044), and co-resident carers reported higher self-esteem (F=4.088, p=0.046). Anxiety levels increased for carers in both intervention and control groups (F=2.819, p=0.04).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The inclusion of carers in trials targeting frail older people may assist in the identification of at-risk carers and facilitate the provision of information and support that will assist them to continue providing care. Further research that explores the features of frailty interventions that impact on the caregiving experience is recommended.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: ACTRN12608000565347</p

Trace element geochemistry as a tool for interpreting microbialites

Microbialites are critical for documenting early life on earth and-possibly elsewhere in the solar system. However, criteria for microbialite identification are controversial. Trace element geochemistry provides two types of information that aid interpretation of putative microbialites. Firstly, because most microbialites-consist of hydrogenous precipitates, trace elements can be used to investigate the fluids in which the structures formed, thus aiding identification of environments of formation. For example, rare earth elements preserved in microbialites have proven very useful in discriminating depositional environments. Secondly, microbes utilize and concentrate a wide range of elements, including many metals. Preservation of such elemental enrichments may provide a valuable biosignature. Although research in this field is relatively young, high precision, in situ measurement of metals in microbialites using techniques such as laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, now with spatial mapping, have identified consistent enrichments in biologically important metals in microbialites. Hence, trace element studies are finding increasing utility in studying microbialites, and so long as diagenesis and the degree to which specific precipitates represent microenvironments are taken into account, trace element inventories may provide important information about depositional settings and, potentially, metabolic processes within biofilms