The objective of this research project was to compare alumni perceptions of predoctoral dental education in the care and management of patients with complex needs to alumni practice patterns. Alumni from the University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry who graduated from 1997 to 2007 were surveyed regarding perceptions of their predoctoral education in the care of patients cat...

BACKGROUND Previous research on frailty in older adults has focused on morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this study was to elicit the relationship between being non-frail, pre-frail, or frail and health related quality of life in a representative sample of older Mexican Americans surveyed in 2005-2006. METHODS Data were from a representative subsample of the Hispanic Established Populat...

This article reports findings from interviews that explored the meanings occupational therapists attach to independence as a value and a therapeutic goal in interactions with elderly clients. Through a historical review of the literature, we trace the changing use of this term and identify two analytically distinct concepts associated with it: independence as self-reliance in activity and indep...

OBJECTIVE Firstly, to, through instrumentation with the iPhone4 smartphone, measure and describe variability of tridimensional acceleration, angular velocity, and displacement of the trunk in the turn transition during the ten-meter Extended Timed-Get-up-and-Go test in two groups of frail and physically active elderly persons. Secondly, to analyse the differences and performance of the variance...

This paper describes the evolution of an early illness warning system used by an interdisciplinary team composed of clinicians and engineers in an independent living facility. The early illness warning system consists of algorithms which analyze resident activity patterns obtained from sensors embedded in residents' apartments. The engineers designed an automated reasoning system to generate cl...

BACKGROUND This study explored the effects of an integrated care model for the frail elderly on informal caregivers' satisfaction with care and support services. METHODS A 62-item instrument was developed and deployed in an evaluative before/after study using a quasi-experimental design and enrolling a control group. The definitive study population (n=63) consisted mainly of female informal c...

Like many welfare states, France is faced with increasing demand for long term care (LTC) services. Public LTC coverage has evolved over the past 15 years, reaching a coverage depth of 70%. Nonetheless, it does not provide adequate and equitable financial protection for the growing number of frail elderly individuals, who are expected to constitute 3% of the population by the year 2060. Since 2...

Current federal policy is directed toward encouraging reliance on the voluntary sector for the provision of personal care services to the frail elderly. "Of particular interest is the development of volunteer and peer group support. . . which will reduce dependence on social services" {Federal Register, 1982, p. 55114). One impetus behind this policy is the fear that the expansion of formal com...

Elderly participants experiencing difficulty in chair rising and with a maximum knee-extensor torque below 87.5 N . m were randomized to different versions of a strength-training program for the knee-extensors: to a high-guidance group (HG; two group sessions supervised by a physical therapist and one unsupervised home session per week, n = 17), a medium-guidance group (MG; one supervised group...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this work was to analyze and compare the movement kinematics of sit-to-stand (STS) and back-to-sit (BTS) transfers between frail aged adults and young subjects, as well as to determine the relationship between kinematic changes and functional capacities. METHODS We analyzed the Timed Up and Go (TUG) movements by using a 3D movement analysis system for real-time balanc...