Prevalence of Disability and Relevant Risk Factors In Elderly Dwellers in Isfahan Province-2012

Objectives: Due to the increasing elderly population in the country, this study was conducted to determine the level of disability and associated factors, in order to plan for the prevention of disability and reduce the effects of aging. Methods & Materials: This study was conducted through cross-sectional, descriptive analysis and cluster sampling method among 300 patients aged 60 years and older in 8 districts of 14 urban areas of Esfahan. The Data was collected through face to face interviews at elderly people's home. The data collection tool was a questionnaire consisted of two parts: The first section contained demographic, socioeconomic, disease and the needs of the studied population and the second part WHODAS (World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule) standard questionnaire, from the World Health Organization resources. The data were analysed through descriptive and analytic statistics. Results: The mean age of the total study population were 71.4 years old, and the median age was 70 years. Among the studied population 15.7 had no disability and most of them (33.3%) were suffering from low levels of disability. The highest rate of people without disabilities - regardless of employed people - reffered to cope and live with other people (63.3%). However, the highest rate of severe disability was related to the mobility and doing the daily duties (25.3%). Disability scores increased with age (r=0.4) and decreased significantly with income enhancement (r=-0.3). Moreover, women, widows, those who were living with people other than family, illiteracy and workers had a significantly more disability. Considering disorders and diseases, musculoskeletal disorders, urinary and faecal incontinence, speech disorder, brain stroke, ataxia, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, cognitive and memory disorders were more severe disabilities. So that the mean disability score (out of 100) in patients with the musculoskeletal diseases was approximately 2.7 times, Alzheimer's 2.6 times, Parkinson's 2.7 times, and for urinary and faecal incontinence, speech disorder, brain stroke, cognitive and memory disorders 2 times more. Conclusion: Considering age as an effective factor of disability, it is necessary to contrive ways to postpone disability to older ages and provide rehabilitation services to preserve the independence and improve the performance of elderly especially older women. According to the results of this study, it seems that the most major diseases which cause disability in elderly people are musculoskeletal disorders and depression. Considering these results, it is necessary to provide early diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation facilities for elderly

Home Visit Services Provided for Elderly Dwellers in Isfahan Province: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: As the elderly population increases, chronic diseases and disabilities also become more prevalent. Home care programs as hospital services supplement, not only can prevent elderly from get worse in their disabilities but also make it easier for governments to manage elderly people's needs therefore, we aimed to determine the home visit services provided for elderly residing in Isfahan province, Iran.  Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted on 100 elderly persons aged 60 years and above who were randomly selected from the list of the aged people which took services from seven home visit service centers. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics. Results: Mean± standard deviation age of the participants was 76±8.8 years and about 70% were illiterate. Only about 56% of included participants were able to care themselves. A large number (56.3%) of participants' income source was personal and 5.7% were did not have any insurance at all. The costs of 93.5% of services were provided by the Welfare Organization. The services provided at these centers include general physician visits, nursing cares, physiotherapy and occupational therapy services, psychologist and social worker visits.  Conclusion: As the home visit services might be effective for providing health care for the aged people and increasing their quality of life, policymaking to spread these services seems to be crucial especially for Iran

Level of knowledge about the effect of obesity on hypertension among the patients of Isfahan Oil Company Polyclinic, Iran

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is a chronic disease and is one of the complications of Obesity. Based on this serious complication and the importance of preventing hypertension, we decided to study the level of public knowledge about the effect of obesity on hypertension. &nbsp;&nbsp; METHODS: The present study was conducted through simple random sampling (SRS) on 262 patients of Isfahan Oil Company Polyclinic, Iran. In order to collect the required data, we provided special questionnaires which were completed by the patients. &nbsp;&nbsp; RESULTS: Most of the patients participating in our study were over 40 years of age (50%). The next largest age group consisted of 40‐45 year olds (14%). The lowest educational status was high school diploma (41.3%), and 75.7% were married. 60.7% of the participants mentioned hypertension as a complication of obesity. 21.1% stated that hypertension is not a complication of obesity and18.2% did not know. &nbsp;&nbsp; CONCLUSION: Since public knowledge about the effect of obesity on hypertension is rather moderate, efforts to increase public knowledge and treat obesity are important in reducing the rate of patients with hypertension. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Keywords: Knowledge, Obesity, Hypertension</p

Malnutrition is associated with depression in rural elderly population

Background: Aging induces physiological changes and affects all of organs. Nutritional status and mental health deteriorate with aging. As malnutrition and depression are main problem in elderly this study was performed to assess the association between malnutrition and depression among rural elderly. Materials and Methods: Three hundred and seventy rural elderly aged over 60 years were examined in a cross-sectional study by systematic sampling method and using mini nutritional assessment (MNA), which is a standard questionnaire for evaluating nutrition status. Depression was evaluated by a validated questionnaire in the elderly. Correlation between Socio-demographic characteristic, diseases, and nutrition status was obtained by t-test, Chi-square test and logistic regression in elderly population. Results: Mean ± SD age was 70.6 ± 7.3 years. Frequency of malnutrition was similar in both genders. According to MNA, 3.8% of subjects suffered from malnutrition, 32.7% were at risk of malnutrition and 63.5% were well-nourished. Nutrition status correlated with body mass index (P = 0.028) and depression (P = 0.001). The risk of severe depression in patients with malnutrition was 15.5 times higher than non-depressed persons (odd ratio: 15.5; 95% CI: 2.9-82.5). Conclusion: Depression could act as a powerful risk for malnutrition in elderly population that it should be controlled by physicians