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Anxiety symptoms in mild cognitive impairment
- Authors:
- ROZZINI Luca, et al
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 24(3), March 2009, pp.300-305.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This study aimed to validate the Italian version of Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI), an instrument that measures dimensional anxiety in elderly people, and assess whether MCI subjects with anxiety symptoms show different neuropsychological profiles in comparison with MCI without anxiety symptoms. Fifty-seven outpatients with MCI were consecutively recruited. All patients were assessed using a complete neuropsychological battery to detect the cognitive impairment, and the GAI for the presence of anxiety symptoms. Anxiety + patients (GAI 10) show more behavioral and psychological disturbances than patients with Anxiety- (GAI < 10); in particular they had more agitation, anxiety, depression and more sleep disorders. Moreover, Anxiety + patients are more compromised on instrumental daily functions and on executive functions evaluated with Trail Making B test (TMB). Linear Regression analysis was completed to estimate the coefficients of the linear equation, involving neuropsychological, psychobehavioural and functional characteristics: the executive functions (TMB) are the only variable independently related to the presence of anxiety disturbances. It is concluded that executive functions are independently related to anxiety disorders in MCI patients. It is hypothesized that the strict interaction between anxiety symptoms and executive functions could depend on specific pathological features at the level of caudate nucleus characterizing early phases of dementia.
Quality of private personal care for elderly people in Italy living at home with disabilities: risk of nursing home placement at a 1-year follow-up
- Authors:
- BILOTTA Claudio, NICOLINI Paola, VERGANI Carlo
- Journal article citation:
- Health and Social Care in the Community, 16(6), November 2009, pp.543-547.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The correlation between the self-perceived quality of private personal care for elderly people living at home and the 1-year risk of hospital admission, nursing home placement and death was evaluated. The study enrolled 100 outpatients who living at home (mean age 85 years), who had been receiving private personal care for at least 1 month, and 88 informal care givers. Quality of care was described by both the elderly person without overt cognitive impairment and their informal caregivers, and this was categorised for analysis as 'poor or fair' or 'optimal or intermediate'. Rates of hospital admission, long-term care placement and death were assessed at a 1-year follow-up. One year after enrolment, 67 elderly people were still living at home, 10 had been institutionalised and 23 had died. Forty-six had experienced at least one hospital admission. The elderly people belonging to the 'poor or fair care' group (n = 16) showed a higher risk of nursing home placement when compared to the people belonging to the 'optimal or intermediate care' group (n = 84), without there being any significant difference between the two groups in terms of baseline assessment and basic functional status at follow-up. The quality of personal care was not a predictor of either hospital admission or death. A poor or fair quality of personal care turned out to be a 1-year predictor of placement in a long-term care facility for community-dwelling older adults with a disability.