125,607 research outputs found
Frailty in Clinical Practice
No full textFrailty is a geriatric syndrome characterized by reduced homeostatic reserves, exposing the organism to extreme vulnerability to endogenous and exogenous stressors. Since disability is considered as an almost irreversible condition at advanced age, frailty has been indicated as a promising target for specific interventions in order to prevent disability. From a theoretical viewpoint, the concept of frailty has been well established, but its operationalization is still subject to controversy. This impediment leads to the postponement of the integration of frailty in the clinical setting. In the present article, we discuss the main issues regarding the frailty syndrome in the clinical setting, describe possible solutions (especially on the basis of our experience derived from the frailty clinic we have set up in Toulouse, France), and present the most relevant research perspectives in the field
Response to the Letter to the Editor: "What Is Missing in the Validation of Frailty Instruments?"
No full text
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe 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
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
No full textWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
The frailty phenotype and the frailty index : different instruments for different purposes
No full textThe integration of frailty measures in clinical practice is crucial for the development of interventions against disabling conditions in older persons. The frailty phenotype (proposed and validated by Fried and colleagues in the Cardiovascular Health Study) and the Frailty Index (proposed and validated by Rockwood and colleagues in the Canadian Study of Health and Aging) represent the most known operational definitions of frailty in older persons. Unfortunately, they are often wrongly considered as alternatives and/or substitutables. These two instruments are indeed very different and should rather be considered as complementary. In the present paper, we discuss about the designs and rationals of the two instruments, proposing the correct ways for having them implemented in the clinical setting
Prevalence of Frailty and Mobility Limitation in a Rural Setting in France
No full textBACKGROUND:
The prevalence of frailty is variable according to the adopted operational definition, the tested population, and the setting where it is explored.
OBJECTIVE:
To estimate the prevalence of frailty and mobility disability in community-dwelling persons aged 60 years and older.
DESIGN:
Cross-sectional analyses.
SETTING:
The rural area of Labastide-Murat (France).
PARTICIPANTS:
All community-dwelling persons aged 60 years and older living in the area and answering to the study survey (n=572/1022).
MEASUREMENTS:
The study questionnaire included questions defining mobility disability (as ability to walk 400 meters and climb up 2 flights of stairs) and frailty (according to the FRAIL instrument and a modified version of the original definition proposed by Fried and colleagues).
RESULTS:
Mean age of participants was 72.4 years old. Mobility disability was reported by 47 (8.3%) participants. The sedentariness criterion of frailty was the most prevalent in the present population. Overall, according to the FRAIL instrument, 77.6%, 14.0%, and 8.3% could be defined as robust, pre-frail/frail, and disabled, respectively. When the alternative definition of frailty mirroring the definition proposed in the Cardiovascular Health Study was adopted, the prevalence of frailty increased and showed gender-specific differences (p=0.02).
CONCLUSIONS:
A relevant number of older persons living in rural areas experiences physical impairments and presents an increased risk for major negative health-related events. These results may support the ongoing clinical and research actions aimed at preventing the functional decline in elders
ESPEN guidelines for nutrition screening 2002
No full textAim: to provide guidelines for nutrition risk screening applicable to different settings (community, hospital, elderly) based on published and validated evidence available until June 2002.Note: these guidelines deliberately make reference to the year 2002 in their title to indicate that this version is based on the evidence available until 2002 and that they need to be updated and adapted to current state of knowledge in the future
Pragmatic Case Studies as a Source of Unity in Applied Psychology
No full textTo unify or not to unify applied psychology: that is the question. In this article we review pendulum swings in the historical efforts to answer this question—from a comprehensive, positivist, “top-down,” deductive yes between the 1930s and the early 60s, to a postmodern no since then. A rationale and proposal for a limited, “bottom-up,” inductive yes in applied psychology is then presented, employing a case-based paradigm that integrates both positivist and postmodern themes and components. This paradigm is labeled “pragmatic psychology” and, its specific use of case studies, the “Pragmatic Case Study Method” (“PCS Method”). We call for the creation of peer-reviewed journal-databases of pragmatic case studies as a foundational source of unifying applied knowledge in our discipline. As one example, the potential of the PCS Method for unifying different angles of theoretical regard is illustrated in an area of applied psychology, psychotherapy, via the case of Mrs. B. The article then turns to the broader historical and epistemological arguments for the unifying nature of the PCS Method in both applied and basic psychology.Peer reviewe
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