Search results for ‘Subject term:"older people"’ Sort:
Results 1 - 10 of 18
A country where dementia has come in from the cold
- Author:
- LINDSAY Margot
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Dementia Care, 10(1), January 2002, pp.11-12.
- Publisher:
- Hawker
Reports on services for people with dementia in Norway.
The prevalence of psychiatric symptoms and behavioural disturbances and the use of psychotropic drugs in Norwegian nursing homes
- Authors:
- SALBAEK Geir, KIRKEVOLD Oyvind, ENGEDAL Knut
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 22(9), September 2007, pp.843-849.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Psychiatric and behavioural symptoms in dementia are associated with a range of negative outcomes, including institutional placement and the widespread use of psychotropic drugs in spite of limited evidence for their efficacy. The aim was to determine the prevalence of psychiatric and behavioural symptoms and the pattern of psychotropic drug prescription in patients with various degrees of dementia. A sample of 1,163 non-selected nursing home patients were assessed by means of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory, the Clinical Dementia Rating scale and Lawton's activities of daily living scale. In addition, information was collected from the patients' records. Dementia was found in 81% of the patients and 72% of them had clinically significant psychiatric and behavioural symptoms. The frequencies of symptoms increased with the severity of the dementia. Psychotropic medication was being prescribed to 75% of patients with dementia. There was a significant relationship between the type of drug and the symptom for which it had been dispensed. Psychiatric and behavioural symptoms are frequent in nursing homes and the rate increases with the progression of the dementia. Systematic programmes are needed for disseminating skills and providing guidance regarding the evaluation and treatment of these symptoms in nursing homes.
Seven minute screen performance in a normal elderly sample
- Authors:
- SKJERVE Arvid, et al
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 22(8), August 2007, pp.764-769.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The Seven Minute Screen (7MS) is a brief cognitive case-finding instrument for dementia. The test is composed of four subtests that assess performance with regard to orientation, memory, visuospatial ability and language. The objective of this study was to describe 7MS performance in a normal sample of Norwegian people aged 65 years and older. The subjects were 66 Norwegian community-dwellers who met selection criteria modified from the Mayo Older American Normative Studies standard. Mean age was 73.2 years, age range was 65-93 years, and mean Mini-Mental State Examination score was 29.06, range 26-30. Analysis of the 7MS subtests revealed relatively modest influence of age, education and gender on test performance. The composite 7MS performance scores were associated with education. Normal performance was expressed as means, standard deviations and percentile values for the age groups 65-74 years and 75 + years. 7MS performance is described for a normal sample. These data have the potential to increase the clinicians' ability to interpret 7MS test results.
Factors affecting user participation for elderly people with dementia living at home: a critical interpretive synthesis of the literature
- Authors:
- HAUGEN Per Kristian, SLETTEBO Tor, YTREHUS Siri
- Journal article citation:
- European Journal of Social Work, 22(6), 2019, pp.974-986.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Professional caregivers are expected to facilitate user participation for people with dementia. At the same time, an increasing number of elderly people with dementia are now being cared for at their homes. Research is scarce on user participation for people with dementia, especially for people with dementia who live at home. This article aims to systematically and critically review the factors affecting user participation for elderly people with dementia living at home from the viewpoint of the patients, family caregivers, professional caregivers and researchers. A systematic literature search and critical interpretive synthesis were conducted. The search yielded 1,957 articles. In total, 112 full-text articles were retrieved, of which 27 met the inclusion criteria. Five broad analytical themes were identified during the analysis: individual characteristics, professional caregiver characteristics, decision characteristics, relational characteristics and organisational characteristics. The results show that the value placed on user participation can differ between family caregivers and professional caregivers. People with dementia still experience stigmatisation, preventing user participation, and relations with both family and professional caregivers play a key role in enabling user participation for people with dementia. (Edited publisher abstract)
Let me grow old and senile in peace: Norwegian newspaper accounts of voice and agency with dementia
- Author:
- SIINER Maarja
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 39(5), 2019, pp.977-997.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
This study analyses the remaking of dementia as a social and cultural phenomenon in the public media discourse in a welfare state Norway. A content analysis was carried out of articles on dementia published in Norwegian paper media from 1995 to 2015. The study combined the tools from quantitative corpus analyses and qualitative critical discourse analyses, making it possible to detect and interpret diachronic changes in the dementia discourse. Although the main focus in Norwegian dementia discourse has changed from the disease to the personhood, the agents defining what it means to live well with dementia continued to be predominantly institutional: non-governmental organisations, municipalities, health-care institutions and politicians. An analysis of the uses of the politically incorrect Norwegian term for dementia, ‘senility’, revealed that this term offered an alternative to the institutionalised dementia discourse and functioned as an unconventional and therapeutic-free space where older people and persons with dementia could use humour to subvert these norms and power relations. (Publisher abstract)
Imagining transitions in old age through the visual matrix method: thinking about what is hard to bear
- Author:
- LIVENG Anne
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Social Work Practice, 31(2), 2017, pp.155-170.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Dominant discourses of ageing are often confined to what is less painful to think about and therefore idealise or denigrate ageing and later life. The authors present findings from an exploratory psychosocial study, in a Nordic context, into three later-life transitions: from working life to retirement, from mental health to dementia and from life to death. Because, for some, these topics are hard to bear and therefore defended against and routinely excluded from everyday awareness, the authors used a method led by imagery and affect – the visual matrix – to elicit participants’ free associative personal and collective imagination. Through analysis of data extracts, on the three transitions, we illustrate oscillations between defending against the challenges of ageing and realism in facing the anxieties it can provoke. A recurring theme includes the finality of individual life and the inter-generational continuity, which together link life and death, hope and despair, separation and connectedness (Edited publisher abstract)
Burden of care, social support, and sense of coherence in elderly caregivers living with individuals with symptoms of dementia
- Authors:
- STENSLETTEN Kari, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Dementia: the International Journal of Social Research and Practice, 15(6), 2016, pp.1422-1435.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Family members are often the care providers of individuals with dementia, and it is assumed that the need for this will increase. There has been little research into the association between the burden of care and the caregiver’s sense of coherence or receipt of social support. This study examined the relationship between the social support subdimensions and sense of coherence and the burden of care among older people giving care to a partner with dementia. The study was a cross-sectional observation study of 97 individuals, ≥65 years old and living with a partner who had symptoms of dementia. The authors used the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly, the Relative Stress Scale, the Social Provisions Scale, the Sense of Coherence Scale, and a questionnaire on sociodemographic variables. They used multiple regression analysis in a general linear model procedure. The authors defined statistical significance as p < 0.05. With adjustments for sociodemographic variables, the association with burden of care was statistically significant for the subdimension attachment (p < 0.01) and for sense of coherence (p < 0.001). The burden of care was associated with attachment and with sense of coherence. Community nurses and other health professionals should take necessary action to strengthen attachment and sense of coherence among the caregivers of people with dementia. Qualitative studies could provide deeper understanding of the variation informal caregivers experience when living together with their partner with dementia. (Edited publisher abstract)
Older people with and without dementia participating in the development of an individual plan with digital calendar and message board
- Authors:
- HOLTHE Torhild, WALDERHAUG Stale
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Assistive Technologies, 4(2), June 2010, pp.15-26.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
The EU-funded project Middleware Platform for eMPOWERing older people and people with cognitive impairments (MPOWER) aims to develop a technical middleware platform that enables rapid development of flexible, domain-specific applications that can be personalised for individual use. This paper presents the findings from a proof of concept application of this platform. Seven older people and their family carers from Trondheim participated in the pilot trial (February 2008-April 2009), which aimed to evaluate the services provided through an individual internet-based digital plan displayed as a calendar page. Both family carers and staff from domiciliary services could, from their home computer, add appointments and messages on the user's digital calendar. The respondents were 5 women and 2 men, aged between 65 and 92, and only 3 of them had used a computer before. The data collection regarding use, usability, utility and acceptance took place on a regular basis after a preset schedule. The results are presented as case histories, and analysis of the causes of the observed effects are divided into personal, technical and structural issues. The main conclusion is that the digital calendar with a message board demonstrated the potential to support older people at home, particularly older people with memory problems who need support in structuring the day and keeping an overview of their daily activities and appointments.
Prevalence and correlates of disruptive behavior in patients in Norwegian nursing homes
- Authors:
- TESTAD I., AASLAND A.M., AARSLAND D.
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 22(9), September 2007, pp.916-921.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Although behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) increase with increasing dementia severity, and institutionalization of an individual with dementia is often caused by behavioural symptoms, relatively few studies have explored the prevalence of BPSD in nursing homes. This study has taken place in dementia wards in four Norwegian nursing homes. To measure agitation in residents with dementia we used the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI), consisting of 29 agitation items. Dementia stage was measured by Functional Assessment Staging (FAST). Two hundred and eleven patients (71% female) were included in the study: mean (SD) age 85.5 (8.4), FAST 4.7 (2.1), CMAI total sumscore 39.5 (12.6). Dementia was present in 167 (79%) subjects. Among those with dementia, weekly occurrence of at least one CMAI item (i.e. a score of 3 or higher) occurred in 75.4% (95% CI 68.4-81.4). Six of the items occurred at least weekly in 20% of the residents with dementia, and 11 of the items, including physical aggression, occurred in less than 5% of the residents. Agitation was associated with more severe dementia (p = 0.001), but not with age and gender. Symptoms of agitation were common, but may nevertheless be lower compared to findings in other geographical areas. Further studies are warranted to test this hypothesis, and if confirmed, to explore possible causes for such differences.
Are nursing home patients with dementia diagnosis at increased risk for inadequate pain treatment?
- Authors:
- NYGAARD Harald A., JARLAND Marit
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 20(8), August 2005, pp.730-737.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Mentally impaired and demented nursing home patients are at increased risk of under-treatment for pain. This study examines pain assessment and complaints and pain treatment of nursing home patients according to mental state, and with special regard to treatment of patients with dementia diagnosis and cognitively impaired patients who did not have a dementia diagnosis. Cross sectional study from three nursing homes in Bergen, Norway including 125 persons (median age 84 years), living permanently in a nursing home was carried out. Diagnoses and prescribed and administered analgesic drugs were recorded. An experienced nurse interviewed nurses in charge and patients regarding presence of pain during the last week. Patients who were able to answer whether they had experienced pain during the last week were categorised as communicative. Cognitive function was assessed by means of the Abbreviated Mental Test. Seventeen percent of the patients were cognitively intact, 30% cognitively impaired and 54% had a dementia diagnosis. Forty-seven percent of communicative patients complained of pain, nurses reported pain in 67% patients. Twenty-nine percent of the patients had received scheduled analgesics during the last week, cognitively intact patients 38%, cognitively impaired 30%, demented 25%. Twenty percent were given analgesics PRN: cognitively intact patients 33%, cognitively impaired 27%, demented 12%. Logistic regression analyses revealed that patients with dementia diagnosis were less likely to receive PRN medication compared to mentally impaired patients. Regarding scheduled medication there was no difference between the groups. Nurses' opinion of pain was a significant factor for receiving analgesic drugs. The study concludes that a label of dementia may bias the interpretation of pain cues of demented patients, while complaints from cognitively impaired patients may be taken for granted. This may contribute to lower use of PRN medication in demented patients compared to cognitively impaired patients.