Background: The frontal assessment battery (FAB) is reported to be a useful tool for assessing frontal dysfunction. However, the neural substrates involved in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) remain to be elucidated. The aim of the present study was to identify the regional perfusion patterns of the brain associated with performance scores on the FAB of patients with AD using brain perfusion assessed by single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT).

Methods: Twenty-four AD patients with high scores and 24 age- and sex-matched AD patients with low scores on the FAB were selected from 470 consecutive Japanese patients of the Memory Clinic of Okayama University Hospital. All 48 participants underwent brain SPECT with 99mTc-ethylcysteinate dimer, and the SPECT images were analyzed by statistical parametric mapping.

Results: No significant differences were found between high and low FAB scoring groups with respect to Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination scores, Mini-Mental State Examination scores, or the depression score of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory subscale. Compared with patients with high scores on the FAB, AD patients with low scores showed significant hypoperfusion in the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and the right superior frontal gyrus (SFG) extending to the left SFG.

Conclusion: Our results suggest that functional activity of the SFG and MFG is closely related to the FAB score. The FAB might be a promising strategy to detect early stages of AD with low SFG and MFG function.

Background: Social and lifestyle activities may serve as potential moderators of the association between negative life events (NLEs) and depressive symptoms among older adults. In this study, we examined whether social and lifestyle activities moderate the association between NLEs and depressive symptoms among older adults, and which activities are significant moderators.

Methods: The data came from a community-based sample of non-institutionalized adults aged 65 years or older. Of the 731 eligible older adults, 682 completed the Japanese version of the 30-item Geriatric Depression Scale. We measured 15 specific negative life events as well as 17 social and lifestyle activities which were grouped into four categories.

Results: Specific NLEs pertaining to human relationships, physical condition and financial status were all or were mostly associated with depressive symptoms. Significant moderating roles of social and lifestyle activities on the association of NLEs with depressive symptoms were observed between “loss of a significant other” and “contact with family members and friends” (β = −0.282, SE = 0.091, p = 0.002); “change in human relationships” and “contact with family members and friends” (β = −0.270, SE = 0.137, p = 0.048); and “change in human relationships” and “community involvement” (β = −0.344, SE = 0.133, p = 0.010).

Conclusions: The most statistically significant variable moderating the associations between negative life events and depressive symptoms was “having frequent contact with family members”. Depressive symptoms arising from troublesome interpersonal relationships in one's proximal network might be moderated by positive interpersonal relationships.

Background: The Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI) was developed for assessing anxiety in older adults. The objectives of this work were: (a) to analyze the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the GAI, and (b) to explore the associations between anxiety and other variables related to emotional distress (depression) and emotion regulation (rumination, experiential avoidance, and emotion suppression).

Methods: Three-hundred-and-two people (75.5% female) aged 60 years and over living in the community participated in this study. Anxiety, depression, rumination, suppression and experiential avoidance were measured.

Results: Three factors explaining 50.11% of the variance were obtained. The obtained internal consistency for the total scale was 0.91, with alphas ranging between 0.71 and 0.89 for the factors. Significant associations between all the GAI factors, the GAI total score, and depression, rumination, and experiential avoidance were found (all p < 0.01). Women reported higher scores than men for both the GAI total score and for all of the subscales. However, no significant gender differences were found between people with scores higher than the cut-off score for the GAI.

Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that the Spanish version of the GAI displays good psychometric properties. Further, our data suggest that the scale can be recommended for measuring anxiety in non-clinical older Spanish persons, and may be a useful instrument to be used in research studies aimed at analyzing anxiety and its correlates among older adults.

Background: Balance exercise is an important component of falls-prevention interventions, with growing evidence that it can be beneficial for people with Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, to implement a balance exercise program successfully for people with AD it is important to consider factors that can affect commencement and adherence to the program. This qualitative study explored these factors.

Methods: Ten participants with AD, who had completed a six-month home-based balance exercise program, and their caregivers (n = 9) participated. A phenomenological theoretical framework with semi-structured interviews was used for data collection and analysis.

Results: Factors influencing the decision to commence the program were: possible benefits of the program, recommendations from health professionals, value of research, positive attitude towards exercise, and minimizing caregivers’ burden. Factors influencing adherence to the program were grouped under 11 themes: six themes facilitated completion (program characteristics, physiotherapist, exercise recording sheet, caregivers’ support, sense of commitment, and perceived benefit) and five themes were barriers (pre-existing conditions, dislike of structured exercise, absence from home, caregiver's health or commitment, and bad weather).

Conclusions: A home-based exercise program with regular support from a physiotherapist and caregiver are key elements facilitating continuing program adherence in people with AD.

Background: Women report higher rates of depression and anxiety than men; however, it is uncertain whether this gender difference continues into advanced old age.

Methods: 78 men and 111 women aged 82–87 years from the Men, Women and Ageing Project completed measures of anxiety (Geriatric Anxiety Inventory), depression (Patient Health Questionnaire; PHQ9), general psychological well-being (Mental Health subscale of SF-36), general health (general health item of SF-36) and cognitive status (Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status; TICS).

Results: Results revealed no significant gender differences on any of the psychological measures, after controlling for cognitive status, general health and education.

Conclusion: These results support the proposition that the female predominance in psychological distress diminishes with increasing age. The congruence between men and women may reflect changes in identity associated with age or the effect of decreased emotional valence of some social roles.

Background: The aim of this study is to evaluate aspects of inter-rater reliability of the Perceive, Recall, Plan, and Perform (PRPP) system of task analysis for assessing daily functioning of home-dwelling dementia patients.

Method: Videotaped recordings of 30 German patients with dementia performing a relevant daily task in their own homes were scored independently by ten Dutch PRPP trained occupational therapists, randomly selected from a pool of 25. Intra-class correlations (ICC) (one-way single measure) were calculated for PRPP Stage One independence score, and PRPP Stage Two information processing scale, quadrant scales, and subquadrant scales from a total of 300 PRPP scores.

Results: ICCs for Stage One PRPP independence score were good to excellent (0.63; 0.94) for both individual rater and test reliability. The Stage Two PRPP total score showed moderate correlations (0.46) for the single rater absolute agreement and excellent agreement (0.90) for test reliability. The four quadrant scale scores of the PRPP showed limited single rater absolute agreement (0.37–0.39) but excellent average test agreement (0.85–0.87). All subquadrants of information processing showed limited single rater absolute agreement (0.26–0.38) and good to excellent average test agreement (0.78–0.86). This suggests that the PRPP total is reliable in assessing information processing during activity performance in dementia patients.

Conclusions: The PRPP is a reliable measure to evaluate individual performances of routines and tasks in community-living dementia patients by multiple raters. Future research should address reliability and validity features of the PRPP for dementia patients with incorporation of criterion-referenced test characteristics.

Background: Life satisfaction is a subjective expression of well-being and successful aging. Subjective well-being is a major determinant of health outcomes in older people. The aim of this study was to determine which factors predicted well-being in older people living in the community as measured by their satisfaction with life.

Methods: The relationship between life satisfaction, as measured by the Life Satisfaction Index (LSI-A) and physical, cognitive and demographic variables was examined in 466 older people living in the community using a stepwise regression model

Results: Depression, loneliness, neuroticism, extraversion, recent participation in physical activity, age and self-reported exhaustion, were the independent predictors of life satisfaction in our elderly cohort.

Conclusion: Subjective well-being, as measured by the Life Satisfaction Scale, is predicted by depression, loneliness, personality traits, recent participation in physical activity and self-reported exhaustion. The mental and emotional status of older individuals, as well as their engagement in physical activity, are as important as physical functionality when it comes to life satisfaction as a measure of well-being and successful aging. These areas represent key targets for intervention.

Background: Little research has examined the diagnostic utility and factor structure of commonly used posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) assessment instruments in older persons.

Methods: A total of 206 adults aged 60 or older (mean age = 69 years; range = 60–92), who resided in the Galveston Bay area when Hurricane Ike struck in September 2008, completed a computer-assisted telephone interview two–five months after this disaster. Using the PTSD Checklist (PCL), PTSD symptoms were assessed related both to this disaster and to participants’ worst lifetime traumatic event. Total PCL scores were compared to PCL-based, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV)-derived probable diagnoses of PTSD to determine optimal cut scores. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were conducted to evaluate PTSD symptom structure.

Results: Receiver operating characteristic analyses indicated that a PCL score of 39 achieved optimal sensitivity and specificity in assessing a PCL-based, algorithm-derived DSM-IV diagnosis of worst event-related PTSD; and that a score of 37 optimally assessed probable Ike-related PTSD. CFAs revealed that a recently proposed five-factor model – comprised of re-experiencing, avoidance, numbing, dysphoric arousal, and anxious arousal factors – provided a better fitting representation of both worst event- and disaster-related PTSD symptoms than alternative models. Current Ike-related anxious arousal symptoms demonstrated a significantly stronger association with current generalized anxiety than depressive symptoms, thereby supporting the construct validity of this five-factor model of PTSD symptomatology.

Conclusions: A PCL score of 37 to 39 may help identify probable PTSD in older persons. The expression of PTSD symptoms in older adults may be best characterized by a recently proposed five-factor model with distinct dysphoric arousal and anxious arousal clusters.

Background: This study examined the use of low doses of antipsychotic medications (300 mg/day CPZeq or less) in older Asian patients with schizophrenia and its demographic and clinical correlates.

Methods: Information on hospitalized patients with schizophrenia, aged 55 years or older, was extracted from the database of the Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Patterns (REAP) study (2001–2009). Data on 1,452 patients in eight Asian countries and territories including China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, India, and Malaysia were analyzed. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics and antipsychotic prescriptions were recorded using a standardized protocol and data collection procedure.

Results: The prescription frequency for low doses of antipsychotic medications was 40.9% in the pooled sample. Multiple logistic regression analysis of the whole sample showed that patients on low doses of antipsychotic medications were more likely to be female, have an older age, a shorter length of illness, and less positive symptoms. Of patients in the six countries and territories that participated in all the surveys between 2001 and 2009, those in Japan were less likely to receive low doses of antipsychotics.

Conclusion: Low doses of antipsychotic medications were only applied in less than half of older Asian patients with schizophrenia.

Background: Delirium among long-term care (LTC) residents is frequent and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Identification of clinical changes during the prodromal phase of delirium could lead to prevention of a full-blown episode and perhaps limit the deleterious consequences of this syndrome. The aim of the present study was to identify clinical changes observable in the 2-week period prior to the onset of full-blown delirium.

Methods: Long-term care (LTC) residents aged 65 years and over, with or without dementia were eligible for this nested case-control study. Delirium was assessed weekly over a 6-month period using the Confusion Assessment Method. Cases with incident delirium were matched by time since enrolment to one or more controls without delirium.

Results: When compared to the controls, LTC residents who developed delirium (cases = 85) were more likely to have new-onset perceptual disturbances (OR = 4.75; 95% CI 1.65–13.66) and disorganized thinking (OR = 3.09; 95% CI 1.33–7.19) and a worsening of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) item measuring registration (OR = 2.59; 95% CI 1.24–5.41) during the preceding 2 weeks. However, the frequency of these changes was low. Residents with at least 3 clinical changes were more likely to develop delirium than those without any clinical change (OR = 2.52; 95% CI 1.08–5.87).

Conclusions: This study provides evidence of clinical changes during the prodromal phase of delirium among LTC residents. More studies are needed to further explore the role and relevance of these clinical changes as warning signs of imminent delirium.

Background: Appropriate neuropsychological tests for cross-cultural assessment of dementia in elderly ethnic and linguistic minorities are generally lacking in Europe. The aim of this study was to investigate the cross-cultural applicability of the Recall of Pictures Test (RPT), Clock Reading Test (CRT), and supermarket fluency (SF) in samples of Turkish immigrants and Danish elderly.

Methods: Samples of Turkish immigrants and Danish elderly were recruited from the Greater Copenhagen area. All participants were screened for factors known to affect cognitive test performance. Those who were included in the study underwent an approximately two-hour assessment, where the RPT, CRT, and SF were applied as a part of a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests.

Results: A total of 109 elderly participants were included in the study: 73 Turkish and 36 Danish. Significant differences were found between the Turkish and Danish samples in CRT and SF performances, but not in any of the RPT measures. Age and acculturation level were the only demographic variables with significant impact on test performances. Performance data for the three tests are presented as percentiles.

Conclusions: Although small differences were observed between the Turkish and Danish samples on the CRT and SF, we consider the three tests to be important neuropsychological tests for assessment of dementia in elderly patients from ethnic minority migrant populations.

Background: Frailty can be defined as the presence of multiple, interacting medical and functional problems. Frailty is associated with psychiatric conditions but its relation to psychological well-being is unclear. A “frailty identity crisis” has been proposed as a maladaptive response to the sense of self as health deficits accumulate. We evaluated this so-called identity crisis by investigating associations between well-being, frailty, and mortality in community-dwelling older Canadians.

Methods: In this secondary analysis of the Canadian Study of Health and Aging (N = 5,703; age 70+), frailty was defined by an index of 33 health deficits. Psychological well-being was measured using Ryff's 18-item scale, with six domains (autonomy, personal growth, environmental mastery, positive relations, purpose in life, and self-acceptance). Cognition was measured using the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination. Associations between well-being, frailty, and mortality were measured using linear regression, adjusting for age, sex, education, cognition, and mental health.

Results: For each additional frailty-defining deficit, the psychological well-being score worsened by 0.3 points (0.29, 95% CI: 0.22–0.36, p < 0.001), independent of age, sex, education, cognition, and mental health. Among the six domains of well-being, only “purpose in life” and “autonomy” were not associated with frailty (all others, p < 0.001). Worse psychological well-being was associated with five-year mortality independent of age, sex, education, frailty, and mental health; this association was not statistically significant when adjusting for baseline cognition.

Conclusions: Frailty was associated with low levels of well-being. Psychological well-being impaired by a frailty identity crisis may play an important role in defining subjective health in older adults.

Antidepressant treatments, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, are associated in older adults with an increased risk of adverse effects compared to younger adults. This is partly explained by multiple drug use causing drug–drug interactions. In the present report, we describe a case of serotonin syndrome in an 88-year-old woman receiving a low dose of escitalopram. The onset of this episode could have been induced by a drug–drug interaction with an acute treatment by miconazole gingival adhesive tablets. The lack of pharmacokinetic data in the elderly population should prompt us to be especially cautious about prescription of this new formulation of miconazole in association with drugs metabolized by cytochromes P450 isoenzymes.

Background: Humor therapy is a non-pharmacological intervention with potential to improve mood and quality of life for institutionalized older persons, including those with dementia. The primary aims of the Sydney Multisite Intervention of LaughterBosses and ElderClowns (SMILE) are to examine the effects of humor therapy on residents’ mood, quality of life, social engagement, and agitation.

Methods: SMILE is a single-blinded cluster-randomized controlled trial where 398 consented residents in 35 residential aged care facilities will be allocated to receive humor therapy or usual care. Residents allocated to the intervention group will engage in humor therapy with professional performers (ElderClowns) and trained facility staff (LaughterBosses) for a minimum of nine two-hour sessions over 12 weeks as well as engaging humorously with LaughterBosses during the course of daily care. The usual care control group will not engage in any formal humor therapy. Researchers, blind to treatment allocation, will assess residents at baseline (week 0), post-intervention (week 13), and follow-up (week 26). The measurement suite includes the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia, the Dementia Quality of Life Scale, the Multidimensional Observation Scale for Elderly Subjects, the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory, and the Neuropsychiatric Inventory. Observations of residents’ engagement will be recorded at each humor therapy session.

Conclusions: SMILE is the first large rigorous study of humor therapy in aged care.

Background: There is considerable debate about the prevalence of depression in old age. Epidemiological surveys and clinical studies indicate mixed evidence for the association between depression and increasing age. We examined the prevalence of probable depression in the middle aged to the oldest old in a project designed specifically to investigate the aging process.

Methods: Community-living participants were drawn from several Australian longitudinal studies of aging that contributed to the Dynamic Analyses to Optimise Ageing (DYNOPTA) project. Different depression scales from the contributing studies were harmonized to create a binary variable that reflected “probable depression” based on existing cut-points for each harmonized scale. Weighted prevalence was benchmarked to the Australian population which could be compared with findings from the 1997 and 2007 National Surveys of Mental Health and Well-Being (NSMHWB).

Results: In the DYNOPTA project, females were more likely to report probable depression. This was consistent across age levels. Both NSMHWB surveys and DYNOPTA did not report a decline in the likelihood of reporting probable depression for the oldest old in comparison with mid-life.

Conclusions: Inconsistency in the reports of late-life depression prevalence in previous epidemiological studies may be explained by either the exclusion and/or limited sampling of the oldest old. DYNOPTA addresses these limitations and the results indicated no change in the likelihood of reporting depression with increasing age. Further research should extend these findings to examine within-person change in a longitudinal context and control for health covariates.

Background: The International Wellbeing Index is a measure of general quality of life formed by two scales: the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) and the National Wellbeing Index (NWI). This paper studies the psychometric properties of the PWI and NWI, using Rasch analysis and classic psychometric methods.

Methods: The PWI and NWI were applied to a representative sample of 1106 community-dwelling adults, aged 60 years and over, residing in Spain. Mean ± standard deviation age was 72.07 ± 7.83 years and 56.3% were women.

Results: Five PWI items (achieving in life, relationships, safety, community connectedness, and future security), and five NWI items (economic situation, state of environment, social conditions, business, and national security of the country) fitted the Rasch model. After adjusting the response scale format, satisfactory fit was obtained, with good reliability (person separation index of 0.91 for both the PSI and NWI), local independency of items, and strict unidimensionality. The measures showed adequate external construct validity with related measures.

Conclusions: The PWI and the NWI, with fewer items and simpler response scale formats, provided valid and reliable linear measures in older adults, according to Rasch and classic psychometric analyses.

Background: As populations age, psychological distress in late life will become of increasing public health and social importance. This study seeks to bridge the gap in information that exists about psychological distress in late life, by exploring the prevalence of psychological distress among a very large sample of older adults to determine the impact of age and gender, and the modifying effect of these factors on the associations between measures of psychological distress and sociodemographic and comorbid conditions.

Methods: We analyzed self-reported data from 236,508 men and women in the New South Wales 45 and Up Study, to determine the impact of age and gender, and the modifying effects of these factors on associations between psychological distress and sociodemographic and comorbid conditions.

Results: Higher education, married status, and higher income were associated with lower risk of psychological distress. Although overall prevalence of psychological distress is lower at older ages, this increases after age 80, and is particularly associated with physical disabilities. Some older people (such as those requiring help because of disability and those with multiple comorbid health conditions) are at increased risk of psychological distress.

Conclusion: These findings have implications for both healthcare providers and policy-makers in identifying and responding to the needs of older people in our aging society.

Background: Source monitoring (SM) refers to our ability to discriminate between memories from different sources.

Methods: Twenty healthy high-cognitive functioning older adults, 20 healthy low-cognitive functioning older adults, and 20 older adults with dementia of Alzheimer's type (DAT) were asked to perform a series of SM tasks that varied in terms of the to-be-remembered source attribute (perceptual, spatial, temporal, semantic, social, and affective details).

Results: Results indicated that older DAT adults had greater difficulty in SM compared to the healthy control groups, especially with spatial and semantic details.

Conclusions: Data are discussed in terms of the SM framework and suggest that poor memory for some types of source information may be considered as an important indicator of clinical memory function when assessing for the presence and severity of dementia.

Background: Wartime rape is an atrocity with long-lasting impacts not only on victims but whole societies. In this brief report, we present data on experience and witness of sexual violence during World War II (WWII) and subsequent time of occupation and on indicators of mental health in a sample of elderly Austrians.

Methods: Interviews of 298 elderly Austrians from a larger epidemiological study on WWII traumatization were analyzed for the impact of experience and witness of sexual violence during the wartime committed by occupational forces. Interviews comprised a biographical/historical section and psychological measures (BSI, TLEQ, PCL–C). Participants were recruited in all nine provinces of Austria with respect to former zones of occupation (Western Allied/Soviet).

Results: Twelve persons reported direct experience of sexual violence, 33 persons witnessed such atrocities. One third of the victims and 18.2% of the witnesses reported post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD full/subthreshold). Sexual violence occurred more often in the former Soviet zone. Victims and witnesses displayed higher odds of post-traumatic symptoms and symptoms of depression and phobic fear than non-victims. Furthermore, witnesses displayed higher levels of aggression compared to victims and non-witnesses.

Conclusions: Our results corroborate previous findings that wartime rape has long-lasting effects over decades on current mental health and post-traumatic distress in victims and witnesses. We recommend integration of psychotraumatological knowledge on consequences of sexual violence on mental health into geriatric care and the education of dedicated personnel.