1,721,007 research outputs found
The value of serum albumin and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in defining mortality risk in older persons with low serum cholesterol
No full textOBJECTIVES: To investigate the relationship between low cholesterol and mortality in older persons to identify, using information collected at a single point in time, subgroups of persons with low and high mortality risk. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study with a median follow-up period of 4.9 years. SETTINGS: East Boston, Massachusetts; New Haven, Connecticut; and Iowa and Washington counties, Iowa. PARTICIPANTS: Four thousand one hundred twenty-eight participants (64% women) age 70 and older at baseline (mean 78.7 years, range 70-103); 393 (9.5%) had low cholesterol, defined as 38 g/L had a significant risk reduction compared with those with albumin or =47 mg/dl had a 62% risk reduction (RR = 0.38; 95% CI = 0.20-0.68), compared with the reference category; those with albumin < or =38 g/L and HDL-C <47 mg/dl. CONCLUSIONS: Older persons with low cholesterol constitute a heterogeneous group with regard to health characteristics and mortality risk. Serum albumin and HDL-C can be routinely used in older patients with low cholesterol to distinguish three subgroups with different prognoses: (1) high risk (low albumin), (2) intermediate risk (high albumin and low HDL-C), and (3) low risk (high albumin and high HDL-C)
Risk factors for falls in older disabled women with diabetes: The women's health and aging study
No full textBackground. The aim of this study was to determine whether older disabled women with diabetes have an increased risk
of falls compared to women without diabetes and to identify fall risk factors among this high-risk subgroup of patients.
Methods. Data are from the Women’s Health and Aging Study I (n1⁄41002, age . 65 years), a prospective, populationbased
cohort study of the one third most disabled women in the Baltimore (MD) urban community-dwelling population.
Participants were followed semiannually for 3 years. Falls were ascertained at each interview. Diabetes was ascertained by
means of a standardized algorithm using multiple sources of information.
Results. Baseline prevalence of diabetes was 15.5%. Of the 878 women who participated in at least one follow-up visit
and were able to walk at baseline, 64.9% fell at least once during the study and 29.6% experienced two or more falls
during a follow-up interval. After adjustment for traditional risk factors, women with diabetes had a higher probability of
any fall (odds ratio [OR] 1.38; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04-1.81) and of falling two or more times during a followup
interval (OR 1.69; CI, 1.18-2.43), compared with women without diabetes. Among diabetic women, presence of
widespread musculoskeletal pain (OR 5.58; CI, 1.89-16.5), insulin therapy (OR 2.02; CI, 1.10-3.71), overweight (OR
3.50; CI, 1.21-10.1), and poor lower-extremity performance (OR 7.76; CI, 1.03-58.8) were independently associated with
increased likelihood of recurrent falls, after adjusting for major risk factors. There were synergistic effects of diabetes and
lower-extremity pain and also diabetes and body mass index levels on the risk of falling ( p for interactions , .05).
Conclusion. Even among disabled older women diabetes is associated with an increased risk of falling, independent of
established fall risk factors. In this specific group of older women, pain, high body mass index, and poor lower-extremity
performance are powerful predictors of falling
Exploring how peak leg power and usual gait speed are linked to late-life disability: data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 1999-2002
No full textA new method for identifying antibiotic-treated infections using automated pharmacy records
No full textFor research purposes, there are few alternatives to costly surveillance for ascertaining infections in community populations. We propose a new approach based on antibiotic prescription fills in automated pharmacy records of the Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound, in Seattle, Washington, to identify treated infections in postmenopausal women. After excluding probable antimicrobial prophylaxis and chronic antibiotic use, four intervals between antibiotic fills (30, 45, 60, and 90 days) were tested for their ability to detect new infections. Concordance with outpatient medical record reviews was evaluated in 150 women. The sensitivity of the automated pharmacy records using the four cutpoints for detecting new infections ranged from 88 to 80%, from 30 to 90 days, respectively. Of the 81 women with no infection in the chart reviews, 75% also had no infection using the pharmacy method. Good agreement was found between the two methods for counts of infections per person over the 2-year follow-up, with the 60-day cutpoint showing the greatest overall agreement with chart reviews (kappa = 0.55). The pharmacy method presented here offers a useful new approach for infection ascertainment for epidemiologic research
Change in Muscle Strength Explains Accelerated Decline of Physical Function in Older Women With High Interleukin-6 Serum Levels
No full textOBJECTIVES: To test whether accelerated sarcopenia in older persons with high interleukin (IL)-6 serum levels plays a role in the prospective association between inflammation and disability found in many studies. DESIGN: Cohort study of older women with moderate to severe disability. PARTICIPANTS: Six hundred twenty older women from the Women's Health and Aging Study in whom information on baseline IL-6 serum level was available. MEASUREMENTS: Self-report of functional status, objective measures of walking performance, and knee extensor strength were assessed at baseline and over six semiannual follow-up visits. Potential confounders were baseline age, race, body mass index, smoking, depression, and medical conditions. RESULTS: At baseline, women with high IL-6 were more often disabled and had lower walking speed. After adjusting for confounders, women in the highest IL-6 tertile (IL-6>3.10 pg/mL) were at higher risk of developing incident mobility disability (risk ratio (RR) = 1.50, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.01-2.27), disability in activities of daily living (RR = 1.41, 95% CI = 1.01-1.98), and severe limitation in walking (RR = 1.61, 95% CI = 1.09-2.38) and experienced steeper declines in walking speed (P <.001) than women in the lowest IL-6 tertile (IL-6 < or =1.78 pg/mL). Decline in knee extensor strength was also steeper, but differences across IL-6 tertiles were not significant. After adjusting for change over time in knee extensor strength, the association between high IL-6 and accelerated decline of physical function was no longer statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: Older women with high IL-6 serum levels have a higher risk of developing physical disability and experience a steeper decline in walking ability than those with lower levels, which are partially explained by a parallel decline in muscle strength
Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD)
No full textIllustration for: Zhang Y, Leveille SG, Shi L, Camhi SM. Disparities in preventive oral health care and periodontal health among adults with diabetes. Prev Chronic Dis. 2021 May 13;18:E47Visual-Abstract-20_0627-Covid-W11.jp
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
- …
