Living alone is a risk factor for depressive symptoms among older adults, although it is unclear if it is a risk factor for older gay men. A sense of belonging to the gay community is protective and might compensate for living alone. This research investigated whether a sense of belonging with gay friends weakened the relationship between living alone and depressive symptoms among older gay men.

A community sample of 160 Australian gay men aged 65–92 years completed the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale and two visual analogue scales assessing a sense of belonging with gay friends.

Results supported the moderation model, with increasing levels of belonging with gay friends weakening the relationship between living alone and depressive symptoms.

Results imply that enhancing a sense of belonging with gay friends among older gay men who live alone is likely to be a protective factor in relation to depressive symptoms.

Transcultural studies regarding the comparison of levels of burden in caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) from Europe and Latin America are rare. We designed this study to investigate the differentiating factors associated with burden in Brazilian and Spanish caregivers of patients with AD.

This is a cross-sectional study composed by samples of outpatients with AD and their caregivers from Brazil (n = 128) and Spain (n = 146). Caregivers answered the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) and a Sociodemographic Questionnaire. Patients were assessed with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ), Disability Assessment for Dementia (DAD), Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI), and Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) Scale.

In the multivariate regression analysis, high burden levels were reported in Brazil, when caregivers were female (p = 0.025) and when patients did not attend Day Care Center (p = 0.025). In Spain, high burden levels were associated with living with the patient (p = 0.014), younger caregivers (p = 0.003), and participation of patients at Day Care Center (p = 0.046). Also, different neuropsychiatric symptoms explained high burden levels: in Brazil, depression (p < 0.001) and anxiety (p = 0.024) and, in Spain, apathy/indifference (p < 0.001), agitation/aggression (p = 0.019) and irritability/lability (p = 0.027).

Caregivers’ gender, patients who attended Day Care Center and neuropsychiatric symptoms were differentiating factors in the burden of Brazilian and Spanish caregivers.

This study evaluated the impacts of earlier traumatic events on the mental health of older adults, in terms of mental disorders and mental well-being, according to sociodemographic variables, trauma-related characteristics, and personality traits in a nationally representative sample of older Koreans.

A total of 1,621 subjects aged 60 to 74 years from a Korean national epidemiological survey of mental disorders responded face-to-face interviews. The Korean Composite International Diagnostic Interview was used to investigate lifetime trauma exposure (LTE) and psychiatric diagnoses. The EuroQol health classification system and life satisfaction scale were used to assess quality of life (QoL), and the Big Five Inventory-10 (BFI-10) to measure personality traits.

Five-hundred and seventy-seven subjects (35.6%) reported a history of LTE (mean age at trauma, 30.8 years old). Current mental disorders were more prevalent in elderly people with LTE, while better current QoL was more frequent in those without LTE. Among older people with LTE, lower extraversion and higher neuroticism increased the risk of current mood or anxiety disorders, whereas higher extraversion increased the probability of experiencing mental well-being after adjusting for sociodemographic and trauma-related variables.

Personality traits, especially extraversion, and neuroticism, may be useful for predicting the mental health outcomes of LTE in older adults. Further longitudinal studies investigating the relationship between traumatic events and mental health outcomes are needed.

It is recognized that people with dementia are likely to need to stop driving at some point following diagnosis. Driving cessation can lead to negative outcomes for people with dementia and their family caregivers (FC), who often experience family conflict and tension throughout the process. Family experiences surrounding driving cessation have begun to be explored but warrant further examination.

Using a descriptive phenomenological approach, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with key stakeholders, including 5 retired drivers with dementia, 12 FC, and 15 health professionals (HP). Data were analyzed inductively to explore the needs and experiences of people with dementia and FC.

The data revealed a range of possible interactions between people with dementia and FC. These were organized into a continuum of family dynamics according to levels of collaboration and conflict: in it together, behind the scenes, active negotiations, and at odds. At the in it together end of the continuum, people with dementia and FC demonstrated collaborative approaches and minimal conflict in managing driving cessation. At the at odds end, they experienced open conflict and significant tension in their interactions. Contextual factors influencing family dynamics were identified, along with the need for individualized approaches to support.

The continuum of family dynamics experienced during driving cessation may help clinicians better understand and respond to complex family needs. Interventions should be tailored to families’ distinctive needs with consideration of their unique contextual factors influencing dynamics, to provide sensitive and responsive support for families managing driving cessation.

The number of elderly caregivers is increasing in the world. It is important to know the attitudes toward the elderly, because they can influence a range of behaviors. Our aim was to determine factors associated with attitudes toward the elderly in a sample of older carers.

Three hundred and thirteen elderly caregivers (75.4% women, mean age 69.7 ± 7.1) who cared for a dependent older person at home completed a cross-sectional household interview. In addition to the four domains of the Neri Scale to Assess Attitudes Toward the Elderly, participants were evaluated regarding the demographics, care recipient (CR) characteristics, functional and cognitive status, general health, life satisfaction, perceived stress, and depressive symptoms.

Overall, attitudes toward the elderly were neutral in this sample. More negative attitudes in some Neri Scale domains were associated with being older, living in an urban setting, taking more medications per day, caring for an elderly dependent in basic Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), being “more or less” satisfied with life, and having higher levels of perceived stress. There was a negative association between positive attitudes and educational level.

The results highlight the need for public policies to promote more positive attitudes toward aging and change negative stereotypes usually used to designate older people. These public policies can try to modify some predictors of negative attitudes, such as perceived stress, which was associated with all four domains of Neri Scale.

In old age, both apathy and depression have been associated with an increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. This study evaluated the mediating role of cardiovascular risk factors in the relationship of apathy and mood symptoms with incident CVD.

Prospective cohort study of 1,790 community-dwelling older individuals (70–78 years) without a history of CVD or stroke. At baseline, apathy and mood symptoms were assessed with the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15), of which three items represent apathy symptoms. The mediational risk factors included were diabetes mellitus (DM), body mass index (BMI), current smoking, physical inactivity, systolic blood pressure, and total cholesterol. Incident CVD was evaluated after two years of follow-up. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM).

Incident CVD occurred in 59 (3.3%) participants. Apathy symptoms had a significant estimated total effect on incident CVD, with increases of 2.2% for each unit increase in apathy score. Of this total effect, 22.7% was due to the mediational effects of physical inactivity (13.6%), current smoking (4.5%), and DM (4.5%). The remaining 77.3% was due to direct effects reflecting other mediational dynamics. No significant (in)direct effects of mood symptoms on incident CVD were found.

Physical inactivity, smoking, and DM account for nearly one-fourth of the variation reflecting the link between apathy symptoms and incident CVD. This illustrates the relevance of unfavorable health behaviors and assessment of DM in older individuals with apathy. The majority of the effect of apathy symptoms on incident CVD is caused by other, yet unknown, factors.

To date, surveys of attitudes toward dementia have largely been conducted using unvalidated materials or have focused on healthcare professionals supporting people affected by dementia. The aim of this study was to carry out a survey of public attitudes toward people affected by dementia in Bristol and South Gloucestershire.

A survey was carried out using a modified version of the Approaches to Dementia Questionnaire (ADQ). Data from people living outside the area, and people who were working with people affected by dementia were omitted from the analysis. Responses from the remaining 794 ADQ questionnaires were weighted to correct for under-represented age, gender, and ethnic groups.

Younger people held more positive attitudes toward dementia than older people. Individuals who identified themselves as White held more positive attitudes than non-White individuals. Individuals with personal experience of dementia held more positive attitudes than those with no experience of dementia. When considering age differences, gender played a role, with younger men having more positive scores than other groups.

This is one of the first surveys of public attitudes to dementia to use a validated questionnaire such as the ADQ. The study provides a baseline of attitudes toward dementia for the Bristol and South Gloucestershire areas, against which we will be able to compare changes over time. This is important due to the emphasis in public health campaigns on improving attitudes toward dementia.

It is necessary to continue to explore the psychometric characteristics of key cognitive screening tests such as the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) to diagnose cognitive decline as early as possible and to attend to the growing need of clinical trials involving mild cognitive impairment (MCI) participants. The main aim of this study was to assess which MoCA subtests could best discriminate between healthy controls (HC), participants with MCI, and Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Cross-sectional analysis of 136 elderly with more than four years of education. All participants were submitted to detailed clinical, laboratory, and neuroimaging evaluation. The MoCA, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Cambridge Cognitive Examination (CAMCOG), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), and Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ) were applied to all participants. The MoCA test was not used in the diagnostic procedure.

Median MoCA total scores were 27, 23 and 18 for HC, MCI, and AD, respectively (p < 0.001). Word repetition, inverse digits, serial 7, phrases, verbal fluency, abstraction, and word recall discriminated between MCI and HC participants (p < 0.001). The clock drawing, the rhino naming, delayed recall of five words and orientation discriminated between patients with MCI and AD (p < 0.001). A reduced version of the MoCA with only these items did not improve accuracy between MCI and HC (p = 0.076) or MCI and AD (p = 0.119).

Not all MoCA subtests might be fundamental to clinical diagnosis of MCI. The reduced versions of MoCA did not add diagnostic accuracy.

Both diabetes and depression have become serious public health problems and are major contributors to the global burden of disease. People with diabetes have been shown to have higher risk of depression. The purpose of this study was to observe the differences in depression between older Chinese adults with known or unknown diabetes.

Data came from the national baseline survey of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale was used to assess depression. Participants with a history of diabetes diagnosis were considered to have known diabetes, and those with newly-diagnosed diabetes were considered to have unknown diabetes. Multiple logistic regression analysis was applied to estimate odds ratio (OR) for depression in predictor variables.

Overall, 39.1% of the 2,399 participants with diabetes suffered from depression. The prevalence of depression was significantly higher (p < 0.001) in people with known diabetes (43.5%) than those with unknown diabetes (35.1%). The biggest differences between the two groups were found in the middle aged, in women, in the less educated and in married people. In known diabetes, people treated with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) coupled with oral western medicine (WM) and/or insulin had two-fold odds of depression compared to those without treatment.

The knowledge of having diabetes, treatments and suffering from other chronic diseases were associated with the higher prevalence of depression in people with known diabetes compared to those with unknown diabetes. Prevention of depression in diabetics should receive more attention in the middle aged, women and the less education.

This study examines the associations between subjective memory complaints (SMC) and health variables: multimorbidity, presence of certain diseases, health perceived state, difficulties seeing and hearing, pain, and use of medications and health services. Furthermore, we aim to identify risk groups based on multimorbidity and calculate the effect size for each of these relationships.

Cross-sectional epidemiological study using a face-to-face interview with a structured questionnaire. Sample size: 1,342 people aged 65 years and older taken from a random sample of the census tracts. SMC were studied using questions regarding memory complaints.

Multimorbidity and polypharmacy are associated with SMC, so are impaired vision and hearing. SMC are more frequently present in people who use health services more intensively and exhibit reduced functional activity as a result of diseases. With respect to specific diseases, only cerebrovascular accidents and chronic constipation were associated with SMC. In regression analysis, predictors of SMC were vision and hearing impairment, poor self-perceived health, pain, and general practitioner visits. However, the effect size of these factors is low. The variables that indicate risk groups are number of diseases, reduced functional activity, hearing impairment, and poor self-perceived health.

Memory complaints are a heterogeneous phenomenon. Our results confirm that multimorbidity, polypharmacy, greater use of health services, pain, and poor self-perceived health are associated with SMC. We identified two risk groups with a high percentage of complaints and a healthy group with a low percentage. Detecting these factors and these risk and healthy groups is useful in achieving proper patients management.

The influence of organizational culture on how psychotropic medicines are used in nursing homes has not been extensively studied. Schein's theory provides a framework for examining organizational culture which begins with the exploration of visible components of an organization such as behaviors, structures, and processes. This study aimed to identify key visible components related to the use of psychotropic medicines in nursing homes.

A qualitative study was conducted in eight nursing homes in Sydney, Australia. Purposive sampling was used to conduct semi-structured interviews with 40 participants representing a broad range of health disciplines. Thematic analysis was used to derive concepts.

Three visible components were related to psychotropic medicine use. These were drugs and therapeutics committee meetings, pharmacist led medication management reviews and formal and informal meetings with residents and their families. We found that only a few nursing homes utilized drugs and therapeutics committee meetings to address the overuse of psychotropic medicines. Pharmacist led medication management reviews provided a lever to minimize inappropriate psychotropic prescribing for a number of nursing homes; however, in others it was used as a box-ticking exercise. We also found that some nursing homes used meetings with residents and their families to review the use of psychotropic medicines.

This study was the first to illustrate that visible components of organizational culture do influence the use of psychotropic medicines and explains in detail what of the culture needs to be addressed to reduce inappropriate psychotropic prescribing.

Positive reappraisal is an important cognitive strategy for older adults associated with wide-ranging improvements in psychological well-being. However, little is known about the relationship between positive reappraisal and positive and negative emotion, anxiety and depression, and whether positive reappraisal is associated with continued increases in positive emotion over time.

In the first study, 61 participants aged 62 to 88 years (M = 72, SD = 5.8) completed current measures of cognitive emotion regulation, positive emotion, negative emotion, anxiety and depression regarding their most distressing aging-related adverse life event, and rated (retrospectively) positive reappraisal use at the time of the stressor. Utilizing a longitudinal design, in a second study 60 participants aged 62 to 88 years (M = 71.2, SD = 5.7) completed the same measures for a recent adverse life event and repeated the measures 3 and 6 months later.

In the first study, positive reappraisal reported for both time periods was significantly correlated with current positive emotion, but not negative emotion with mixed findings for anxiety and depression, and positive reappraisal use increased with time since stressor onset. In the second study, positive reappraisal was significantly correlated with positive emotion and significantly predicted positive emotion from 3-month to 6-month follow-up, and was related to anxiety and depression but not general negative emotion.

These findings indicate that positive reappraisal is related to positive emotion but not consistently with negative emotion, and continues to be beneficial over time in older adults who have experienced a stressor.

Deficits in facial emotion recognition (FER) have been shown to substantially impair several aspects in everyday life of affected individuals (e.g. social functioning). Presently, we aim at assessing differences in emotion recognition performance in three patient groups suffering from mild forms of cognitive impairment compared to healthy controls.

Performance on a concise emotion recognition test battery (VERT-K) of 68 patients with subjective cognitive decline (SCD), 44 non-amnestic (non-aMCI), and 25 amnestic patients (aMCI) with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) was compared with an age-equivalent sample of 138 healthy controls all of which were recruited within the framework of the Vienna Conversion to Dementia Study. Additionally, patients and controls underwent individual assessment using a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery examining attention, executive functioning, language, and memory (NTBV), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and a measure of premorbid IQ (WST).

Type of diagnosis showed a significant effect on emotion recognition performance, indicating progressively deteriorating results as severity of diagnosis increased. Between-groups effect sizes were substantial, showing non-trivial effects in all comparisons (Cohen's ds from −0.30 to −0.83) except for SCD versus controls. Moreover, emotion recognition performance was higher in women and positively associated with premorbid IQ.

Our findings indicate substantial effects of progressive neurological damage on emotion recognition in patients. Importantly, emotion recognition deficits were observable in non-amnestic patients as well, thus conceivably suggesting associations between decreased recognition performance and global cognitive decline. Premorbid IQ appears to act as protective factor yielding lesser deficits in patients showing higher IQs.

As the global population ages, it is important that the professional care workforce is well prepared to support the needs of people with dementia. In Australia, the Dementia Behaviour Management Advisory Service (DBMAS) supports people with dementia and their carers through an interdisciplinary team approach. To provide DBMAS Behaviour Consultants with a tool to guide them in their professional development, this project aimed to develop a self-assessment tool to enable self-reflection on clinical competencies required for working in the service and identification of areas where further development would be required.

A multi-stage process was applied in the development of the tool, including review of the relevant literature and focus groups with DBMAS Behaviour Consultants and Team Leaders. The tool encompasses both skills and knowledge in working with people with dementia and caregivers. A pilot study including 14 DBMAS consultants was conducted to assess the utility of the measure and ensure variability of ratings across knowledge and skill areas relative to time working in DBMAS.

The Knowledge and Skills Assessment (KASA) was developed and is now used in DBMAS service both with novice Behaviour Consultants and more experienced staff, and is also being used as an on-line version, accompanied with case vignettes.

The KASA provides a valuable self-assessment tool for professional care staff working in dementia care, but would nevertheless still warrant further testing of its psychometric characteristics.

Peer volunteers can be key to delivering effective social cognitive interventions due to increased potential for social modeling. We consulted peer volunteers who had just taken part in an 8-week social and nutritional mealtime intervention with older adults living alone, to seek their evaluation of the intervention.

Semi-structured focus groups were used with a total of 21 volunteers (17 female) and two facilitators. Thematic analysis was used to interrogate the data.

Six themes (16 sub-themes) are discussed. Peer volunteers described the importance of the socializing aspect of the intervention, of pairing considerations and compatibility in peer interventions, of considering the needs of the participant, of benefits to the volunteers, and of the practical considerations of conducting an intervention. Volunteers also discussed considerations for future research and services for older adults living alone.

Volunteers found their involvement in the intervention to be personally beneficial, and revealed some valuable considerations for the researchers to take forward to future research. Results are pertinent to intervention design and could inform future social cognitive and other peer-oriented interventions for older adults living alone.

Young Onset Dementia (YOD), defined by first symptoms of cognitive or behavioral decline occurring before the age of 65 years, is relatively rare compared to dementia of later onset, but it is associated with diagnostic difficulty and heavy burden on affected individuals and their informal carers. Existing health and social care structures rarely meet the needs of YOD patients. Internet-based interventions are a novel format of delivering health-related education, counseling, and support to this vulnerable yet underserved group.

The RHAPSODY (Research to Assess Policies and Strategies for Dementia in the Young) project is a European initiative to improve care for people with YOD by providing an internet-based information and skill-building program for family carers. The e-learning program focuses on managing problem behaviors, dealing with role change, obtaining support, and looking after oneself. It will be evaluated in a pilot study in three countries using a randomized unblinded design with a wait-list control group. Participants will be informal carers of people with dementia in Alzheimer's disease or behavioral-variant Frontotemporal degeneration with an onset before the age of 65 years. The primary outcome will be caregiving self-efficacy after 6 weeks of program use. As secondary outcomes, caregivers’ stress and burden, carer health-related quality of life, caring-related knowledge, patient problem behaviors, and user satisfaction will be assessed. Program utilization will be monitored and a health-economic evaluation will also be performed.

The RHAPSODY project will add to the evidence on the potential and limitations of a conveniently accessible, user-friendly, and comprehensive internet-based intervention as an alternative for traditional forms of counseling and support in healthcare, aiming to optimize care and support for people with YOD and their informal caregivers.

Age-related cognitive decline is common and well-documented. Cognitive speed of processing training (SOPT) has been shown to improve trained abilities (Useful Field of View; UFOV), but transfer to individual non-trained cognitive outcomes or neuropsychological composites is sparse. We examine the effects of SOPT on a composite of six equally weighted tests – UFOV, Trail-making A and B, Symbol Digit Modality, Controlled Oral Word Association, Stroop Color and Word, and Digit Vigilance.

681 patients were randomized separately within two age-bands (50–64, ≥ 65) to three SOPT groups (10 initial hours on-site, 10 initial hours on-site plus 4 hours of boosters, or 10 initial hours at-home) or an attention-control group (10 initial hours on-site of crossword puzzles). At one-year, 587 patients (86.2%) had complete data. A repeated measures linear mixed model was used.

Factor analysis revealed a simple unidimensional structure with Cronbach's α of 0.82. The time effect was statistically significant (p < 0.001; ηp2 = 0.246), but the time by treatment group (p = 0.331), time by age-band (p = 0.463), and time by treatment group by age-band (p = 0.564) effects were not.

Compared to the attention-control group who played a computerized crossword puzzle game, assignment to 10–14 hours of SOPT did not significantly improve a composite measure of cognitive abilities.

Antipsychotic agents have limited efficacy for Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD) and there are concerns about their safety. Despite this, they are frequently used for the management of BPSD. This study aimed to assess the use of antipsychotics among people on anti-dementia medicines in Australian residential aged care facilities.

Data were obtained from an individual patient unit dose packaging database covering 40 residential aged care facilities in New South Wales, Australia. Residents supplied an anti-dementia medicine between July 2008 and June 2013 were included. Prevalence of concurrent antipsychotic use was established. Incident antipsychotic users between January 2009 and December 2011 were identified. We examined initial antipsychotic dose, maximum titrated doses, type and duration of antipsychotic use, and compared use with Australian guidelines.

There were 291 residents treated with anti-dementia medicines, 129 (44%) of whom received antipsychotics concomitantly with an anti-dementia medicine. Among the 59 incident antipsychotic users, risperidone (73%) was the most commonly used antipsychotic agent. Amongst the risperidone initiators, 43% of patients had initial doses greater than 0.5 mg/day and 6% of patients exceeded 2.0 mg/day for their maximum dose. 53% of concomitant users received daily treatment for greater than six months.

Our study using records of individual patient unit dose supply, which represents the intended medication consumption schedule, shows high rates of concurrent use of antipsychotics and anti-dementia medicines and long durations of use. The use of antipsychotics in patients with dementia needs to be carefully monitored to improve patient outcomes.

The WHOQOL-BREF, a generic quality of life (QoL) instrument, has been widely used clinically and for research on older populations. However, its measurement equivalence/invariance (ME/I) has not been well examined for the elderly (≥ 65 years) across some different demographics.

The data were derived from a cross-sectional study with a convenience sampling design in Taiwan. We enrolled 244 elderly participants: men = 143 (58.6%); educational level ≤ primary school = 121 (49.6%). The ME/I was examined using multiple group confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) across gender and educational level.

The fit indices were satisfactory for the configural models of gender and educational level (standardized root mean square residual [SRMR] = 0.0742 and 0.0770; root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] = 0.0655 and 0.0686; comparative fit index [CFI] = 0.953). In addition, MGCFAs showed that ME/I was supported across gender (ΔSRMR = 0.001 to 0.019; ΔRMSEA = −0.003 to 0.001; ΔCFI = −0.003 to 0.000) and educational level (ΔSRMR = 0.002 to 0.006; ΔRMSEA = −0.002 to 0.004; ΔCFI = −0.007 to 0.000).

The WHOQOL-BREF Taiwan version is appropriate for combined use and for comparisons in older people across gender and different educational levels.

Positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) brain imaging are widely used as diagnostic tools for suspected dementia but no studies have directly compared participant views of the two procedures. We used a range of methods to explore preferences for PET and SPECT.

Patients and controls (and accompanying carers) completed questionnaires immediately after undergoing PET and SPECT brain scans. Pulse rate data were collected during each scan. Scan attributes were prioritized using a card sorting exercise; carers and controls additionally answered willingness to pay (WTP) questions.

Few differences were found either between the scans or groups of participants, although carers marginally preferred SPECT. Diagnostic accuracy was prioritized over other scan characteristics. Mean heart rate during both scans was lower than baseline heart rate measured at home (p < 0.001).

Most participants viewed PET and SPECT scans as roughly equivalent and did not have a preference for either scan. Carer preference for SPECT is likely to reflect their desire to be with the patient (routine practice for SPECT but not for PET), suggesting that they should be able to accompany vulnerable patients throughout imaging procedures wherever possible. Pulse rate data indicated that brain imaging was no more stressful than a home visit (HV) from a researcher. The data do not support the anecdotal view that PET is a more burdensome procedure and the use of PET or SPECT scans in dementia should be based on diagnostic accuracy of the technique.