Self-reported health status of older adults in Malaysia and Singapore: evidence from the 2007 Global Ageing Survey

The aim of this study is to investigate the correlates of self-reported health (SRH) among older adults in Malaysia and Singapore. The study uses data collected in the Global Ageing Study (GLAS) 2007, one of the largest surveys of its kind, specially designed to investigate attitudes towards later life, ageing and retirement. Data were collected from 1002 and 1004 respondents from Malaysia and Singapore respectively. The study found that Singaporeans report a healthier life than Malaysians. The two countries have consistent results with regard to the influences of selected covariates on individual health. Poorer health is more prevalent among people with lower education, among those widowed, divorced or separated, and those working in blue-collar occupations. Although social support is found to be an important determinant of SRH, the effects are partially confounded with other covariates. These findings enhance our knowledge about the health status of older people, and in turn will be useful for governments to ensure effective policy making

Older women, breast cancer, and social support

One in ten women over the age of 65 will develop breast cancer. Despite this high incidence of breast cancer among older women, social support for them is often inadequate. This paper describes a qualitative study of the impact of a breast cancer diagnosis on older women from racially/ethnically diverse populations and their subsequent need for social support. Forty-seven older African American, Asian American, Caucasian and Latina women between the ages of 65 to 83 participated in a larger study examining the impact of breast cancer on women from racially/ethnically diverse populations and the meaning and nature of social support. The women completed an in-depth qualitative interview on the psychosocial impact of breast cancer and the meaning and nature of social support. The results indicate that there are variations in reactions to a breast cancer diagnosis among older women, and that these reactions impact their experiences with seeking social support at diagnosis and during treatment. Respondents were concerned about their aging bodies, potential dependency on others, and loss of autonomy. At the same time, the severity of cancer treatment and existing co-morbidities often meant they needed to learn to receive support, and to reach out if they had no support. The implications of these findings underscore the older cancer patient’s need to strengthen her supportive networks at the time of diagnosis, during treatment, and post-treatment

The validation of a new measure quantifying the social quality of life of ethnically diverse older women: two cross-sectional studies

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To our knowledge, the available psychometric literature does not include an instrument for the quantification of social quality of life among older women from diverse ethnic backgrounds. To address the need for a tool of this kind, we conducted two studies to assess the initial reliability and validity of a new instrument. The latter was created specifically to quantify the contribution of a) social networks and resources (e.g., family, friends, and community) as well as b) one's perceived power and respect within family and community to subjective well-being in non-clinical, ethnically diverse populations of older women.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In Study 1, we recruited a cross-sectional sample of primarily non-European-American older women (<it>N </it>= 220) at a variety of community locations. Participants were administered the following: a short screener for dementia; a demographic list; an initial pool of 50 items from which the final items of the new Older Women's Social Quality of Life Inventory (OWSQLI) were to be chosen (based on a statistical criterion to apply to the factor analysis findings); the Single Item Measure of Social Support (SIMSS); and the Medical Outcome Study 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (MOS SF-36). Study 2 was conducted on a second independent sample of ethnically diverse older women. The same recruitment strategies, procedures, and instruments as those of Study 1 were utilized in Study 2, whose sample was comprised of 241 older women with mostly non-European-American ethnic status.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In Study 1, exploratory factor analysis of the OWSQLI obtained robust findings: the total variance explained by one single factor with the final selection of 22 items was over 44%. The OWSQLI demonstrated strong internal consistency (<it>α </it>= .92, <it>p </it>< .001), adequate criterion validity with the SIMSS (<it>r </it>= .33; <it>p </it>< .01), and (as expected) moderate concurrent validity with the MOS SF-36 for both physical (<it>r </it>= .21; <it>p </it>< .01) and mental (<it>r </it>= .26; <it>p </it>< .01) quality of life. In order to confirm the validity of the 22-item OWSQLI scale that emerged from Study 1 analyses, we replicated those analyses in Study 2, although using confirmatory factor analysis. The total variance accounted for by one factor was about 42%, again quite high and indicative of a strong single-factor solution. Study 2 data analyses yielded the same strong reliability findings (i.e., <it>α </it>= .92, <it>p </it>< .001). The 22-item OWSQLI was correlated with the SIMSS (<it>r </it>= .27, <it>p </it>< .001) in the expected direction. Finally, correlations with the MOS SF- 36 demonstrated moderate concurrent validity for physical (<it>r </it>= .14; <it>p </it>< .01) and mental (<it>r </it>= .18; <it>p </it>< .01) quality of life, as expected.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The findings of these two studies highlight the potential for our new tool to provide a valid measure of older women's social quality of life, yet they require duplication in longitudinal research. Interested clinicians should consider using the OWSQLI in their assessment battery to identify older women's areas of lower versus higher social quality of life, and should establish the maximization of patients' social quality of life as an important therapeutic goal, as this variable is significantly related to both physical and mental health.</p

Do positive or negative experiences of social support relate to current and future health? Results from the Doetinchem Cohort Study

Cross-sectional studies have reported associations between social support and health, but prospective evidence is less conclusive. This study aims to investigate the associations of positive and negative experiences of social support with current and future lifestyle factors, biological risk factors, self-perceived health and mental health over a 10-year period

Search for dijet resonances in 7 TeV pp collisions at CMS

This is the Pre-print version of the Article. The official published version of the paper can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2010 APSA search for narrow resonances in the dijet mass spectrum is performed using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.9  pb-1 collected by the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Upper limits at the 95% confidence level are presented on the product of the resonance cross section, branching fraction into dijets, and acceptance, separately for decays into quark-quark, quark-gluon, or gluon-gluon pairs. The data exclude new particles predicted in the following models at the 95% confidence level: string resonances, with mass less than 2.50 TeV, excited quarks, with mass less than 1.58 TeV, and axigluons, colorons, and E6 diquarks, in specific mass intervals. This extends previously published limits on these models.This work is supported by FMSR (Austria); FNRS and FWO (Belgium); CNPq, CAPES, FAPERJ, and FAPESP (Brazil); MES (Bulgaria); CERN; CAS, MoST, and NSFC (China); COLCIENCIAS (Colombia); MSES (Croatia); RPF (Cyprus); Academy of Sciences and NICPB (Estonia); Academy of Finland, ME, and HIP (Finland); CEA and CNRS/IN2P3 (France); BMBF, DFG, and HGF (Germany); GSRT (Greece); OTKA and NKTH (Hungary); DAE and DST (India); IPM (Iran); SFI (Ireland); INFN (Italy); NRF and WCU (Korea); LAS (Lithuania); CINVESTAV, CONACYT, SEP, and UASLP-FAI (Mexico); PAEC (Pakistan); SCSR (Poland); FCT (Portugal); JINR (Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan); MST and MAE (Russia); MSTD (Serbia); MICINN and CPAN (Spain); Swiss Funding Agencies (Switzerland); NSC (Taipei); TUBITAK and TAEK (Turkey); STFC (United Kingdom); DOE and NSF (USA)

Transverse-momentum and pseudorapidity distributions of charged hadrons in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

This is the pre-print version of the Published Article which can be accessed from the link below.Charged-hadron transverse-momentum and pseudorapidity distributions in proton-proton collisions at √s=7  TeV are measured with the inner tracking system of the CMS detector at the LHC. The charged-hadron yield is obtained by counting the number of reconstructed hits, hit pairs, and fully reconstructed charged-particle tracks. The combination of the three methods gives a charged-particle multiplicity per unit of pseudorapidity dNch/dη||η|<0.5=5.78±0.01(stat)±0.23(syst) for non-single-diffractive events, higher than predicted by commonly used models. The relative increase in charged-particle multiplicity from √s=0.9 to 7 TeV is [66.1±1.0(stat)±4.2(syst)]%. The mean transverse momentum is measured to be 0.545±0.005(stat)±0.015(syst)  GeV/c. The results are compared with similar measurements at lower energies