Publications by authors named "Bertil Steen"

Objective: The prevalence of caries and various risk factors was studied cross-sectionally in two cohorts of 72-year-olds over the course of 20 years. Incidence was also studied over a period of 6 years.

Material And Methods: Samples of two dentate subjects from cohorts of 70 to 72-year-olds were included; cohort III (n=135), born 1911-12, and cohort VI (n=139), born 1930.

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Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the association between body composition in the elderly and subsequent changes in muscle strength during aging.

Methods: This was a longitudinal study with a 5-y follow-up. Eighty-seven men (n = 38) and women (n = 49) from a random sample of 75-y-old subjects in the Göteborg part of the Nordic Research on Aging study who were investigated at ages 75 and 80 y and were free from any major diseases at baseline were included.

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Background And Purpose: Depression may increase the risk for stroke. Few studies have examined whether depression increases the risk for stroke in the very old and among the demented. We examined the relation between depression in 85-year-olds and the 3-year incidence of first-ever stroke.

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Objective: Although associations between number of teeth and mortality have been found in some studies, the results have not been conclusive. The aim of this study was to determine whether dental status at age 75 is an independent predictor of survival in three Nordic populations.

Material And Methods: The baseline study was conducted as part of a comparative Nordic investigation of systematic samples of 75-year-old men and women born in the period 1914-16 (n=1004) and living independently in three Nordic localities: Glostrup in Denmark, Jyväskylä in Finland, and Göteborg in Sweden.

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The aims of this study, which are part of the gerontological and geriatric population studies in Göteborg, Sweden (H70), were to describe cohort differences and trends in dental status and utilization of dental care in 70-year-olds. The study is based on five cohorts examined in 1971/72, 1976/77, 1981/82, 1992/93 and 2000/01 (called cohort I, II, III, V and VI, respectively). The total number of participants was 2290 and varied between 386 and 583 in the different cohorts.

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Objectives: To measure relative fitness and frailty in older people without specific frailty instruments and to relate that measurement to long-term health outcomes.

Design: Retrospective cohort studies.

Setting: Two population-based studies of people aged approximately 70 at baseline and followed up to 10 years (in the Canadian Study of Health and Aging (CSHA)) or 26 years in the Gothenburg H-70 cohort study.

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Aim: The aim of this study was to examine how older patients who had undergone hip surgery described their experience of pain.

Background: A verbal report of pain is considered to be the single most reliable indicator of a person's pain experience. When assessing pain, healthcare professionals must be able to interpret the content of pain reports in order to understand older patient's pain experiences.

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Background: Deficiencies of vitamin B-12, folic acid, and vitamin B-6-as defined by laboratory measures-occur in 10-20% of elderly subjects. The clinical significance remains unresolved.

Objective: The objective was to explore any association between vitamin status and vitamin treatment and movement and cognitive performance in elderly subjects.

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The aims of this study were to investigate what words elderly patients, who had undergone hip surgery, used to describe their experience of pain in spoken language and to compare these words with those used in the Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ) and Pain-O-Meter (POM). The study was carried out at two orthopaedic and two geriatric clinical departments at a large university hospital in Sweden. Altogether, 60 patients (mean age =77) who had undergone orthopaedic surgery took part in the study.

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In 1987, the International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS) subcommittee on Nutrition and Ageing, in conjunction with the World Health Organization (WHO) global program for the elderly, embarked on the 'Food Habits in Later Life' (FHILL): a cross-cultural study to determine to what extent health, social and lifestyle variables, especially food intake, collectively predict survival amongst long-lived cultures. A total of 818 participants aged 70 years and over were recruited from five IUNS centres. Mortality data were collected after five to seven years.

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To identify protective dietary predictors amongst long-lived elderly people (N= 785), the "Food Habits in Later Life "(FHILL) study was undertaken among five cohorts in Japan, Sweden, Greece and Australia. Between 1988 and 1991, baseline data on food intakes were collected. There were 785 participants aged 70 and over that were followed up to seven years.

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Background And Purpose: Incidental findings of infarcts on brain imaging are common, but their clinical significance is not clear. We examined the prevalence of symptomatic and silent infarcts on cranial computerized tomography (cCT) and their relation to dementia and mortality in a representative sample of 239 85-year-olds living in Gothenburg Sweden.

Methods: Information on stroke was obtained from an inpatient hospital linkage system, self-reports, and key informants.

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Background And Aims: Electrocardiographic (ECG) abnormalities are often found in older patients but relatively few epidemiological studies have been performed. This study describes: a) cross-sectional differences in ECG abnormalities among three 70-year-old cohorts born over a period of 30 years; b) longitudinal changes in ECG abnormalities from the age of 70 to 85; and c) the relationship between ECG abnormalities at age 70 and subsequent 10- and 15-year mortality in men and women.

Methods: Trends in the prevalence of ECG abnormalities were investigated among 2100 70-year olds (994 men, 1106 women) from three cohorts born in 1901/02 (I), 1911/12 (III) and 1930 (VI).

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The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of urinary incontinence and other urinary tract symptoms, the use of incontinence aids and how urinary incontinence influences daily life in two 85/86-year-old cohorts born 10 years apart. There were no statistically significant differences between the two cohorts except for the use of incontinence aids, where 23% of women born in 1901/1902 and 42% of women born in 1911/1912 used aids (P=0.002).

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The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of urinary incontinence and other lower urinary tract symptoms among an aged population and follow this prevalence longitudinally. A random sample of 70-years-olds participated and the survivors have been reinvestigated longitudinally, between 70 and 97 years of age. The prevalence of urinary incontinence was 17% among men and 48% among women 70 years of age.

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Background And Purpose: Dementia is common after stroke, but the dementia syndrome does not cover the whole spectrum of cognitive impairment. Our aim was to quantify and compare dementia and cognitive impairments in elderly patients 1.5 years after stroke and a matched normal population.

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Systolic murmurs are common in the elderly but there is a striking paucity regarding published reports on their clinical significance and relation with mortality. This study describes prevalence of systolic murmurs in the elderly and cardiovascular diseases in 70-year-olds with or without systolic murmurs, and investigates the relation between systolic murmurs at age 70 and 15-year mortality. This cohort study is based on 973 (449 males and 524 females) 70-year-olds from Göteborg, Sweden who were examined in 1971/1972 at the Department of Geriatric Medicine, Göteborg University, and was followed-up to the year 2001.

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Background And Purpose: Stroke and dementia are major health problems in the elderly. We examined the prevalence and incidence of stroke and their relation to dementia in a representative sample of 494 subjects 85 years of age from Gothenburg, Sweden, who were followed up to 88 years of age.

Methods: Information on stroke was obtained from an inpatient hospital linkage system, death certificates, self-reports, and key informants.

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The aim of this study was to describe cohort differences in health indicators among four birth cohorts of 70-year old men and women from Göteborg, Sweden, born in 1901/2, 1905/6, 1911/12, and 1922. With special reference to gender, education, and obesity, it is hypothesized that changes in health among elderly men and women may not be occurring in a uniform manner. The variables studied were: systolic and diastolic blood pressures, triglycerides, cholesterol, height, weight, body mass index, waist-hip ratio, physical inactivity, current smoking, and alcohol consumption, plus selected prevalent diseases.

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The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of pain and its characteristics, and to examine the association of pain with cognitive function and depressive symptoms, in a representative sample of 70-year-old men and women. Data were collected within the gerontological and geriatric population studies in Göteborg, Sweden (H-70). A sample of 124 men and 117 women living in the community took part in the study.

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