The Impact of Socioeconomic Factors and Geriatric Syndromes on Frailty among Elderly People Receiving Home-Based Healthcare: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Purpose: To evaluate frailty and its relationship with geriatric syndromes in the context of socioeconomic variables. Patients and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, elderly people aged 65 years old and over who received homecare in the reference region of Crete, Greece, were enrolled. Geriatric syndromes such as frailty, dementia, and depression were evaluated using the SHARE-Frailty Index (SHARE-Fi), the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), respectively.

Interactions of Mediterranean Diet, Obesity, Polypharmacy, Depression and Systemic Inflammation with Frailty Status.

Comprehensive characterization of potential frailty determinants, including sociodemographic, clinical, dietary, psychological, cognitive and systemic inflammation parameters. A rural cohort of 186 subjects aged 60-89 years recruited from a community-based study in Crete, Greece (the Cretan Aging Cohort). Frailty was assessed with the Simple "Frail" Questionnaire Screening Tool.

Psychodrama with persons with dementia on zoom: Proof of concept.

COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns created a global public health crisis generating mental health problems including social isolation, stress, and anxiety especially for persons with dementia and their carers. This article reports on the use of digital technology to maintain social connectivity via a virtual group session that focused on the topic of "what is home." Participants in this session included 16 day-care center clients representing an immigrant community identified with mild to moderate cognitive impairment.

Dementia Family Carers' Quality of Life and Their Perceptions About Care-receivers' Dementia Symptoms: The Role of Resilience.

The study examined (a) the relationship between caregivers' (CG) quality of life (QoL) and their reports about care receivers' dementia symptoms and (b) whether CG's resilience would be a mediator in this relationship. This was a cross-sectional study based on a purposeful sampling. Face-to-face structured interviews were conducted with 118 CGs (79% females, mean age = 59, = 12).

The role of health determinants in the influenza vaccination uptake among older adults (65+): a scope review.

Background: Although the burden of influenza infection is the highest in older adults, vaccination coverage remains low, despite this age group being more vulnerable than others.

Aims: Given the current pandemic of SARS-CoV-2, it was the aim of this scope review to update knowledge on factors affecting seasonal influenza vaccine uptake among older adults to strengthen prevention approaches in the context of an overall burden of infectious diseases.

Methods: We searched bibliographic databases from 2012 to 2019.

Factors associated with the perception of services by dementia informal caregivers in Greece: the role of familism.

Aim: To investigate perceptions of informal caregivers of community-dwelling persons with dementia (PwD) regarding health and social care services and their correlates using the Behavioral Model of Healthcare Utilization as the theoretical framework.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study using a purposive sampling technique to identify, through community-based health and social care services, caregivers of PwD. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 118 informal caregivers (78.

Cognitive Impairment and Dementia in Primary Care: Current Knowledge and Future Directions Based on Findings From a Large Cross-Sectional Study in Crete, Greece.

Dementia severely affects the quality of life of patients and their caregivers; however, it is often not adequately addressed in the context of a primary care consultation, especially in patients with multi-morbidity. A cross-sectional study was conducted between March-2013 and December-2014 among 3,140 consecutive patients aged >60 years visiting 14 primary health care practices in Crete, Greece. The Mini-Mental-State-Examination [MMSE] was used to measure cognitive status using the conventional 24-point cut-off.

Can Integrated Care Help in Meeting the Challenges Posed on Our Health Care Systems by COVID-19? Some Preliminary Lessons Learned from the European VIGOUR Project.

The COVID-19 pandemic puts health and care systems under pressure globally. This current paper highlights challenges arising in the care for older and vulnerable populations in this context and reflects upon possible perspectives for different systems making use of nested integrated care approaches adapted during the work of the EU-funded project VIGOUR ("Evidence based Guidance to Scale-up Integrated Care in Europe", funded by the European Union's Health Programme 2014-2020 under Grant Agreement Number 826640).

Cognitive impairment in a primary healthcare population: a cross-sectional study on the island of Crete, Greece.

Objectives: Cognitive impairment is known to have a significant impact on the quality of life of individuals and their caregivers, yet it is often underdiagnosed. The objective of this study is to assess the extent of cognitive impairment among elders visiting primary healthcare (PHC) practice settings, to explore associated risk factors and discuss current care challenges for PHC providers.

Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted between March 2013 and May 2014.

Rethinking palliative care in a public health context: addressing the needs of persons with non-communicable chronic diseases.

Non-communicable chronic diseases (NCCDs) are the main cause of morbidity and mortality globally. Demographic aging has resulted in older populations with more complex healthcare needs. This necessitates a multilevel rethinking of healthcare policies, health education and community support systems with digitalization of technologies playing a central role.

Integrated people-centred primary health care in Greece: unravelling Ariadne's thread.

The 40th anniversary of the World Health Organization Alma-Ata Declaration in Astana offered the impetus to discuss the extent to which integrated primary health care (PHC) has been successfully implemented and its impact on research and practice. This paper focuses on the experiences from Greece in implementing primary health care reform and lessons learned from the conduct of evidence-based research. It critically examines what appears to be impeding the effective implementation of integrated PHC in a country affected by the financial and refugee crisis.

Stigmatic beliefs towards persons with dementia: comparing Israeli and Greek college students.

Objectives: Increasing Alzheimer's Disease (AD) awareness and decreasing stigmatic beliefs among the general public are core goals of National Dementia Strategy programs. College students are one of the most important targeted populations for achieving this goal. The aim of the current study was to examine AD public stigma among Israeli and Greek college students.

The Cretan Aging Cohort: Cohort Description and Burden of Dementia and Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Our aim was to explore the burden of dementia in the Cretan Aging Cohort, comprised of 3140 persons aged ≥60 years (56.8% women, 5.8 ± 3.

Self-reported fatigue as a risk index for dementia diagnosis.

Introduction: Cognitive impairment and frailty are major problems of older age. This study aims to explore the association between frailty and cognitive impairment in a rural cohort of older subjects in southern Europe (Cretan Aging Cohort).

Methods: Community-based, primary care, cross-sectional, study in the Heraklion Prefecture, Crete, Greece.

Designing Serious Computer Games for People With Moderate and Advanced Dementia: Interdisciplinary Theory-Driven Pilot Study.

Background: The field of serious games for people with dementia (PwD) is mostly driven by game-design principals typically applied to games created by and for younger individuals. Little has been done developing serious games to help PwD maintain cognition and to support functionality.

Objectives: We aimed to create a theory-based serious game for PwD, with input from a multi-disciplinary team familiar with aging, dementia, and gaming theory, as well as direct input from end users (the iterative process).

Cognitive screening tools for primary care settings: examining the 'Test Your Memory' and 'General Practitioner assessment of Cognition' tools in a rural aging population in Greece.

Background: Under conditions of high demand for primary care services in a setting of low financial resources, there is need for brief, easily administered cognitive screening tools for use in the primary care setting, especially in rural areas. However, interpretation of these cognitive tests' results requires knowledge on their susceptibility to cultural, educational and demographic patient characteristics.

Objectives: To assess the clinical validity of the 'Test Your Memory' (TYM) and 'General Practitioner assessment of Cognition' (GPCog) which was specifically designed for primary care practice, in a rural primary care setting in Greece, utilizing the 'Mini Mental State Examination' (MMSE) as a reference standard.

The right to mourn in dementia: To tell or not to tell when someone dies in dementia day care.

People with dementia (PwD) attending dementia day care often experience the death of others. Little research exists regarding whether PwD should be informed of the death, and if so, how? In this qualitative research, the authors explored, through semistructured interviews, the beliefs and practices of 52 staff members of adult day centers for PwD about these issues. Themes that emerged are that many staff members feel their clients have emotional capacity to mourn, despite their cognitive impairments.

Perspectives on the Role and Synergies of Architecture and Social and Built Environment in Enabling Active Healthy Aging.

Research has demonstrated that enabling societal and physical infrastructure and personal accommodations enhance healthy and active aging throughout the lifespan. Yet, there is a paucity of research on how to bring together the various disciplines involved in a multidomain synergistic collaboration to create new living environments for aging. This paper aims to explore the key domains of skills and knowledge that need to be considered for a conceptual prototype of an enabling educational process and environments where healthcare professionals, architects, planners, and entrepreneurs may establish a shared theoretical and experiential knowledge base, vocabulary, and implementation strategies, for the creation of the next generation of living communities of active healthy adults, for persons with disabilities and chronic disease conditions.

Technology-Based Innovations to Foster Personalized Healthy Lifestyles and Well-Being: A Targeted Review.

Background: New community-based arrangements and novel technologies can empower individuals to be active participants in their health maintenance, enabling people to control and self-regulate their health and wellness and make better health- and lifestyle-related decisions. Mobile sensing technology and health systems responsive to individual profiles combined with cloud computing can expand innovation for new types of interoperable services that are consumer-oriented and community-based. This could fuel a paradigm shift in the way health care can be, or should be, provided and received, while lessening the burden on exhausted health and social care systems.

Maintaining older brain functionality: A targeted review.

The unprecedented growth in the number of older adults in our society is accompanied by the exponential increase in the number of elderly people who will suffer cognitive decline and dementia in the next decades. This will create an enormous cost for governments, families and individuals. Brain plasticity and its role in brain adaptation to the process of aging is influenced by other changes as a result of co-morbidities, environmental factors, personality traits (psychosocial variables) and genetic and epigenetic factors.

Words matter: distinguishing "personalized medicine" and "biologically personalized therapeutics".

"Personalized medicine" has become a generic term referring to techniques that evaluate either the host or the disease to enhance the likelihood of beneficial patient outcomes from treatment interventions. There is, however, much more to personalization of care than just identifying the biotherapeutic strategy with the highest likelihood of benefit. In its new meaning, "personalized medicine" could overshadow the individually tailored, whole-person care that is at the bedrock of what people need and want when they are ill.

Cultural adaptation, standardization and clinical validity of the test your memory dementia screening instrument in Greek.

Background/aims: To adapt and standardize the Test Your Memory (TYM) dementia screening instrument in Greek.

Methods: Normative data on the Greek version of the TYM were obtained from a community sample of 239 adults aged 21-92 years. Clinical validity was assessed in a cohort of 134 Neurology Clinic patients.