PURPOSE This article describes, and provides data on, an innovative, comprehensive, dementia-specific training program designed to teach direct care staff in assisted living residences to improve care and reduce problems in residents with dementia. DESIGN AND METHODS STAR-which stands for Staff Training in Assisted living Residences-provides two 4-hr workshops augmented by four individualized...

Background Senior citizens tend to live longer and longer independently. Judging whether a senior person is still capable of living on his own is often based on the occurrence of incidents, with all consequences thereof. In the specific case of early dementia, the symptoms are not immediately apparent and the occurrence and severity of incidents progress gradually over time. In this case, the c...

Research suggests that performance on cognitive tasks resembling daily challenges (i.e., everyday problem-solving tasks) may be a better indicator of functional ability in old age compared to traditional measures of cognitive ability. Findings demonstrating this link, however, have yielded mixed results. The current study examined performance on the Everyday Problems Test (EPT) and self-reporte...

The aim of this study was to investigate the cohort differences in physical functioning levels among the older (cohort members born in 1916-1926 and in 1927-1937) participants of the Bambuí Cohort Study of Aging. The data came from participants aged 71-81 who took part at baseline in 1997 (n = 491) and in the 11th wave in 2008 (n = 620). The physical functioning variables included the following...

Fear of falling is associated with self-imposed restrictions of basic and instrumental activities of daily living (ADL/IADL), leading greater risk for functional decline and falls. The inability to independently grocery shop, a food-related IADL, negatively affects nutritional status and survival among seniors. Thus, this study examined the relationship between the fear of falling and difficult...

Results: It was found that 80.6% of the elderly were independent in the ADL and 79.8% were independent in the IADL. On the whole, they show a reasonable quality of life. The study of the correlation between the results of the perception of the quality of life and the levels of independence in the ADL and the IADL revealed that the more independent elderly people tend to perceive a better qualit...

BACKGROUND Because of the demographic change in industrial countries new technical solutions for the independent living of elderly will become important in the next years. Ambient Assisted Living seeks to address the upcoming challenges by providing technical aids for elderly and care givers. Therefore it is crucial to understand how those socio-technical solutions can address their needs and q...

BACKGROUND Both multimorbidity and activities of daily living (ADL) disability and instrument activities of daily living (IADL) disability are common among elderly individuals. ADL/IADL disability may reduce individuals' capacities for independent living and quality of life. This study aimed to examine the association between multimorbidity and ADL/IADL disability. METHODS A multi-stage clust...

This study examined death and dying in assisted living (AL) and the various factors that influence these processes. The study is set in a 60-bed assisted living facility outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Data collection methods included participant observation and in-depth interviews with 28 residents and 6 staff. Data were analyzed using the grounded theory approach and focused on the 18 residents ...

BACKGROUND physical functioning describes the underlying abilities that make activities necessary for independent living in the community possible. OBJECTIVE to test self-reported and objective measures of physical functioning in predicting subsequent disability in cooking, shopping and housework. DESIGN we used data from the first and second waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retire...