The ‘Active Ageing’ report by Anchor Hannover – England’s largest not-for-profit provider of care and homes for over 55’s – in association with Demos, highlights the costs of physical inactivity in older people to the NHS. By 2030 this could be as much as £1.3bn. The report also highlights the human cost of inactivity in later life, illustrating how inactivity not only contributes to poorer physical health, but also cognitive decline, reduced emotional wellbeing and loneliness.
Alcohol consumption constitutes a substantial burden of disease. Older people are being admitted to hospital for alcohol problems in increasing numbers. A recent systematic review reports cautious supportive evidence for primary prevention interventions in reducing excessive alcohol consumption in older drinkers, but does not focus on treatment of dependent drinkers. The evidence base for treatment interventions for dependent drinkers is comparatively limited, but it is growing.. To read the full article, log in using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens details. SSOTP - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
We’ve just heard that SSOTP will not be renewing their agreement with SSSFT LKS for library services for this financial year. Because of this we will be reviewing our Be Aware bulletins. Sadly we won’t be accepting any new sign-ups from SSOTP staff and will be withdrawing some of the physical healthcare bulletins that we…
We're currently making some changes in the background of our email updates to solve some problems we've been having recently. During our testing phase this may automatically generate some alerts, which will show below, but you can ignore these! If all goes according to plan we will be resuming normal service in the next week…
The Government’s Loneliness Strategy will be its first step in tackling the long-term challenge of loneliness. Loneliness is a complex issue that affects many different groups of people, and its evidence base is still developing.
Our approach is to focus the Strategy where we have the clearest opportunity for government action and further learning. Alongside this we will also be working with partners to explore how we can improve the evidence base, to inform future government policy.
There are a number of recent studies that demonstrate dementia as being preventable in around 30% of all cases, through the control of modifiable risk factors, such as obesity, diabetes, alcohol consumption, high blood pressure and smoking (e.g. Livingston et al, 2017). Frankish and Horton (2017) estimate that delaying the onset of dementia by just 1 year could reduce its prevalence by 11% by 2050. To read the full article, log in using your MPFT NHS OpenAthens details.
Retirement is a major life transition which may influence health behaviours and time use. Little is known about how sedentary behaviour changes as a result of increased time availability after retirement. The aim of this study was to examine changes in non-occupational sedentary behaviours across the retirement transition. In addition, we examined which preretirement characteristics were associated with these changes. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Open access. The number of older adults with different ethnic and socioeconomic background is steadily increasing. There is a need for community-based health promotion interventions for older adults that are responsive to ethnic and socioeconomic diversity among target populations. The aim of this study is to explore encounters between older adults living in disadvantaged areas and health care professionals in the context of community-based health promotion.
Open access. Although currently available evidence suggests that physical exercise can be beneficial for depressed patients and might be comparable to antidepressant treatment, the best way of implementing this recommendation in clinical practice is not known. This study therefore aims to ascertain the non-inferiority of supervised physical exercise to antidepressant drug treatment, in terms of reducing depressive symptoms among patients presenting with clinical criteria of a depressive episode (ICD-10), across a follow-up period of 6 months.
The messages the public receive concerning research on alcohol and health are confusing. One-day research tells us that moderate drinking is acceptable and that abstaining from alcohol altogether can lead to health problems such as dementia [1]. The following week, the latest research says that there are no safe levels of alcohol consumption [2]. Syntheses of research evidence, usually meta-analyses, suggest that there are harmful effects of drinking in older age; the apparent protective effects of moderate consumption may be due to misclassification bias, with previously heavy drinkers stopping drinking and being classified as non-drinkers [3, 4]. Unsafe and risky patterns of alcohol consumption have tended to be associated with binge drinking teens and young adults. We have only recently begun to pay attention to the drinking patterns of those in the middle and older age groups. Reports state that it is now older adults who are most at risk of unhealthy patterns of drinking. Specific public health interventions are needed to address this group [5, 6].. Please contact the library to request a copy of this article - http://bit.ly/1Xyazai
The elderly have long been neglected as the addressee of health promotion activities. The need to promote health among older people was first highlighted in the 1990s [1]. Before that, it was commonly assumed that the older generations were not a good target for health promotion as it was thought it was too late to change their lifestyle. Requiring the elderly to radically change their diet and start exercising was perceived as disturbing to their peace and wellness. Therefore, it was only after 2001, when WHO experts unanimously stated the importance of a healthy lifestyle at every stage of life, health promotion measures targeted to the elderly started to grow in numbers. Evidence has shown that exercising, quitting smoking and limiting alcohol consumption, participating in learning activities and integrating in the community can help to inhibit the development of many diseases and prevent the loss of functional capacity, thus improving quality of life and lengthening life expectancy. Most of these health promotion activities among the elderly focus on the relatively younger seniors. Within the group of those aged 85+, the emphasis is more on appropriate medical attention from physicians and care givers rather than on their health behavior.
This paper sets out the case for why NHS England should make some bold commitments to healthy ageing in its long-term plan and suggests some ideas for actions it could take and some areas for action with others.
Older people who drink have been shown to have better health than those who do not. This might suggest that moderate drinking is beneficial for health, or, as considered here, that older people modify their drinking as their health deteriorates. The relationship between how often older adults drink and their health is considered for two heath states: self-rated health (SRH) and depressive symptoms. Open Access Article
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Age‐related decline in muscle oxidative capacity reduces muscle function and physical performance, leading to disability and frailty. Whether age‐related decline in oxidative capacity is modified by exercise and other lifestyle practices is unclear. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that physical activity is associated with better oxidative capacity, independent of age.. To read the full article, log in using your NHS Athens details. To access full-text: click “Log in/Register” (top right hand side). Click ‘Institutional Login’ then select 'OpenAthens Federation', then ‘NHS England’. Enter your Athens details to view the article.
We've added 10 new Be Aware updates following your suggestions:
Musculoskeletal ; Osteoporosis ; Nutrition and obesity ; Falls ; HR ; Research Methods ; Information Governance ; Bladder, bowel and pelvic healthcare ; Rheumatology ; Medicines and healthcare products regulatory agency (circulated email)
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Older Men at the Margins was a two-year study to understand how men aged 65 and over from different social backgrounds and circumstances experienced loneliness and social isolation. It also explored the formal and informal ways they sought to stay connected with others and feel less lonely.
regular physical activity is one of the key components of a healthy lifestyle. It is associated with better physical and cognitive functioning in later life and with increased life expectancy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of, and factors related to, physical inactivity among older adults across Europe. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
Our research found that while a number of barriers exist, planning and preparing for later life is both possible and likely to be beneficial. While it’s not a silver bullet, there are plenty of things that can be done ahead of time to try and ensure we have a good later life.
Come and visit our first pop-up library at Severn Fields, Shrewsbury 19th July 11.00am-3.00pm. Join the library, borrow and return books, get help finding information and evidence, set up an Athens account, find out what the library can do for you and your team.
Older women have poorer survival from breast cancer, which may be at least partly due to poor breast cancer awareness leading to delayed presentation and more advanced stage at diagnosis. In a randomised trial, an intervention to promote early presentation of breast cancer in older women increased breast cancer awareness at 1 year compared with usual care (24 versus 4%). We examined its effectiveness in routine clinical practice.
Recruiting patients to health promotion programmes who will benefit is crucial to success. A key policy driver for health promotion in older people is to reduce health and social care use. Our aim was to describe service use among older people taking part in the Multi-dimensional Risk Appraisal for Older people primary care health promotion programme.
Results Retirees who had two group memberships prior to retirement had a 2% risk of death in the first 6 years of retirement if they maintained membership in two groups, a 5% risk if they lost one group and a 12% risk if they lost both groups. Furthermore, for every group membership that participants lost in the year following retirement, their experienced quality of life 6 years later was approximately 10% lower. These relationships are robust when controlling for key sociodemographic variables (age, gender, relationship status and socioeconomic status prior to retirement). A comparison with a matched control group confirmed that these effects were specific to those undergoing the transition to retirement. The effect of social group memberships on mortality was comparable to that of physical exercise.
The results don't tell us anything about what happens in humans. They suggest this substance may be useful for further research in humans at some point. They certainly don't provide a reason to drink gallons of red wine, in the hope of seeing an anti-ageing effect.
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Conclusions Clustered poor health behaviours are associated with increased risk of hospital admission among older people in the UK. Lifecourse interventions to reduce number of poor health behaviours could have substantial beneficial impact on health and use of healthcare in later life. To read the full article, log in using your NHS Athens
Based on epidemiological and clinical studies, current guidelines recommend that for health benefits, adults should accumulate 150–300 minutes/week of moderate-intensity physical activity, such as walking, or 75–150 min of vigorous activity or equivalent combinations of the two. A pooled analysis of six studies found that compared with inactive people, those that meet these guidelines have a 31% lower mortality risk. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
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