Predictors of survival within 2 years of inpatient rehabilitation among older adults.

Background: Restoring functional independence in elderly people with disabilities is one of the main purposes of a geriatric rehabilitation unit. However, the rehabilitation period may also represent a useful circumstance to identify predictors of long-term health outcomes. The aim of this study was to evaluate a broad spectrum of characteristics in geriatric patients admitted to a rehabilitation unit in order to identify possible predictors of long-term survival.

Self-reported socio-economic status, social, physical and leisure activities and risk for malnutrition in late life: a cross-sectional population-based study.

Objectives: Our goal was to evaluate the proportion of community-dwelling elderly people at risk for malnutrition and the effect of different socioeconomic status (SES) indicators as well as social, physical and leisure activities in late life on the risk for malnutrition.

Design: A cross-sectional population-based study.

Setting: A sub-urban area in Northern Italy.

Predictors of successful rehabilitation in geriatric patients: subgroup analysis of patients with cognitive impairment.

Background And Aims: Understanding which patients benefit from rehabilitation programs may be useful in balancing resources and needs. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether cognitive and nutritional status are associated with functional improvement after rehabilitation in old persons.

Methods: 2650 patients (aged > or =60 years) consecutively admitted to a geriatric rehabilitation unit in Italy between August 2001 and December 2005, were included.

[Celiac disease in the elderly: a case report].

Celiac disease is not a negligible cause of malabsorption in the elderly. Diarrhea, loss of weight and abdominal discomfort are often absent so that celiac disease has indeed a subtle, paucisymptomatic, course in the elderly. More than 50% of the patients have extraintestinal symptoms; only 10-40% have typical complaints pointing to small-intestinal biopsy.

Poor mental and physical health differentially contributes to disability in hospitalized geriatric patients of different ages.

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between depressive symptoms, cognition and somatic diseases on functional status of geriatric patients at hospital discharge.

Method: Patients 65+ years consecutively admitted to the acute care geriatric ward of the Internal Medicine Department I, Civil Hospital of Brescia, Italy, from February 1998 to December 2000 (n = 830) were examined. Functional disability was defined as need of physical assistance in at least one of the basic Activities of Daily Living (ADL).

Adverse outcomes in older hospitalized patients: the role of multidimensional geriatric assessment.

Background And Aims: This study was carried out to detect the incidence of adverse outcomes in hospitalized older patients and the role of multidimensional assessment in identifying predictors of adverse outcomes, which include in-hospital mortality and the need for admission to rehabilitation units or nursing homes after hospital discharge.

Methods: 923 patients at least 65 years old (mean age 78.7 +/- 7.

[Cognitive deficiency in internal medicine].

Although patients admitted to Internal Medicine Departments are often older than 65 years, the "new geriatric culture" comes into conflict with the traditional goals of Medicine (diagnosis-therapy-recovery). Multidimensional assessment permits global evaluation of the needs and problems of the elderly patient and consequently guarantees an adequate and complete therapeutic plan. This approach is particularly valid if applied in a Medical Division because acute illnesses can compromise a functional state that is already in precarious equilibrium due to frequent multiple pathologies.

[Respiratory medicine in the aged. Therapeutic problemsd].

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is very common in the elderly, and its treatment needs special concern. Data from two clinical studies (in-patients of an Internal Medicine Department and Nursing-Home, respectively) have been evaluated in order to compare therapeutic approaches to COPD in three separate settings: home, hospital and Nursing-Home. Less than 50% of the overall patients received medical treatment according to the guidelines emerged in the literature.