In the twenty-first century, Japan will become an extremely aged society, where about one-quarter of the population is elderly [1]. To enable older people to achieve better health and fulfilling lives, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has introduced National Health Promotion (Active 80 Health Plan), which encourages a healthy life style and a sense that life is worth living (ikigai). Ikigai s...

For an older person in hospital a fall can have devastating consequences, prolonging hospital stay and leading to loss of confidence. Falls cost the NHS between pounds 5340 and pounds 12,500 per patient in delayed discharge, and can cause nurses to question their own practice and blame themselves. Further, the efforts of clinicians and researchers implementing falls prevention interventions are...

The experiment was initiated in the first instance for one year's trial period, in June 1958, with the approval of the County Council and the Ministry of Health. Care was taken, at the outset, to assure local general practitioners that there was no intention of usurping their own functions and that full reports would be supplied to them on any of their patients who were examined. No difficulty ...

Older people gradually begin to eat less and badly, discovering early on that nutritional deficiencies do not run into recently. A study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association reports that are to come under especially micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals, quoting that over half of people over 50 and elderly people are trying to contain the damage through supplemen...

Although common and disabling, depression in old age remains both underdetected and undertreated. This is particularly regrettable in view of its high risk of chronicity, recurrence and suicide, as well as the considerable burden of associated health care costs. Despite the availability of a variety of physical and psychological treatment options of well-established efficacy, there is little re...

The population is ageing, with the greatest proportional increase in those >80 years of age. Many of these people will be frail and at risk of stroke. Research has shown that the very old have much to benefit from hyperacute stroke intervention, but at the same time they suffer increased mortality. Their outcome following stroke and intervention is more often predicted by the presence of frailt...

Falls are common in older people and are the leading cause of injury related admissions to hospital in people of 65 years and over, accounting for about 14% of emer‐ gency admissions and 4% of all hospital admissions in this age group. A fall may result from acute disease (for example, chest infection), chronic underlying pathology (for example, Parkinson’s disease), or the interaction of a per...

Pacemaker syndrome arises from adverse electrophysiological and haemodynamic consequences of pacing— in particular ventricular pacing—despite normal pacemaker function [1, 2]. The symptoms are diverse, ranging from breathlessness, syncope, palpitations, neck pressure, dizziness and flushing to more vague symptoms of lethargy and impaired exercise tolerance. Clinical signs include cannon ‘a’ wav...

1. This study aimed to make projections, for the next 30 years, of future numbers of older people with cognitive impairment, their demand for long-term care services and the future costs of their care under a range of specified assumptions. Cognitive impairment is one of the manifestations of dementia. The most common dementia syndrome is Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), followed by vascular dementia ...