This study examined the maintenance of retest learning benefits in young old and oldest old adults over an 8-month period in 3 cognitive abilities: reasoning, perceptual-motor speed, and visual attention. Twenty-four young old (aged 70-79 years, M = 74.2) and 23 oldest old adults (aged 80-90 years, M = 83.6) who participated in a previously published study (Yang, L., Krampe, R. T., & Baltes, P....

Pre-term infants born four months before term have a very low birth weight; in an evolutionary sense, they were never 'meant' to survive through the evolutionary period preceding the technological age. In the same way, evolution failed to contemplate survival to ages 50, 60, 70 and beyond. Because peak reproductive performance comes before the vagaries of a given individual's survival is determ...

Cognitive assessment involves examination of higher cortical functions, particularly memory, attention, orientation, language, executive function (planning activities), and praxis (sequencing of activities). This article will focus on cognitive assessment of older people (those aged over about 65 years) in the context of possible dementia, delirium, and depression. These are common and serious ...

PURPOSE Relationships are examined between age and out-of-pocket costs for different health goods and services among the older population. DESIGN AND METHODS Age patterns in health service use and out-of-pocket costs are examined by use of the 1990 Elderly Health Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (N = 1,031, age 66+). Multivariate regression is used to examine how age effects a...

BACKGROUND the mortality is high in acutely ill oldest old patients. Understanding the prognostic factors which influence mortality will help clinicians make appropriate management decisions. METHODS we analysed prospective mortality audit data (November 2008 to January 2009) to identify variables associated with in-patient mortality in oldest old. We selected those with P < 0.10 from univari...

BACKGROUND As the population ages, increasing numbers of older adults are undergoing surgery. Frailty is prevalent in older adults and may be a better predictor of post-operative morbidity and mortality than chronological age. The aim of this review was to examine the impact of frailty on adverse outcomes in the 'older old' and 'oldest old' surgical patients. METHODS A systematic review was u...