Weight-Loss Outcomes from a Pilot Study of African Dance in Older African Americans.

Objective: Obesity is a risk factor for both cognitive and physical impairment in late adulthood. Though the rates of obesity are high in many groups, older African Americans are disproportionately affected. A randomized pilot intervention of African Dance was conducted with 28 African American older adults with obesity (mean age = 68.

Rhythm experience and Africana culture trial (REACT!): A culturally salient intervention to promote neurocognitive health, mood, and well-being in older African Americans.

The Rhythm Experience and Africana Culture Trial (REACT!) is a multi-site randomized controlled intervention study designed to examine the efficacy of using African Dance as a form of moderate-intensity physical activity to improve cognitive function in older African Americans. African Americans are almost two times more likely than Caucasians to experience cognitive impairment in late adulthood. This increased risk may be attributed to lower level and quality of education, lower socioeconomic status, and higher prevalence of vascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, all of which are recognized as risk factors for dementia.

The Impact of Exercise, Cognitive Activities, and Socialization on Cognitive Function: Results From the National Long-Term Care Survey.

Currently, there are no effective treatments for Alzheimer's disease and related disorders and age continues to be a robust risk factor. Thus, population aging in the United States may have catastrophic results if interventions are not found and implemented. This study examines possible associations between cognitive impairment and exercise, cognitive activities, and socialization.

Exercise and cognition: results from the National Long Term Care Survey.

Background: Age remains a robust risk factor for Alzheimer's disease as well as other dementias. Therefore, the aging of the population in the United States will result in dramatic increases in the prevalence of dementia if preventative interventions are not identified. The aim of this study was to examine potential associations between exercise and lowering the risk of cognitive impairment.

Physical activity and cognitive health.

Background: The industrialized nations are experiencing a demographic revolution due to the continuing increase in longevity and the rapid rise in the percentage of the population over 65 years old. Interventions that promote healthy aging will continue to gain significance as efforts to delay disability and loss of function intensify.

Methods: Since physical activity has been implicated in promoting healthy aging, here we review a large body of research that examines physical activity and cognitive health.

Living Longer and Paying the Price?

Over the past century, there have been tremendous increases in longevity in the United States and most other developed countries. If these trends continue, the costs of paying for public programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will escalate at a startling rate with the aging of the "baby boomer" generation. A meeting titled "Living Longer and Paying the Price?" was organized to consider whether current trends in longevity will continue at the current pace, accelerate, or decelerate as a result of public health problems such as obesity and infectious diseases.

Lowering the risk of Alzheimer's disease: evidence-based practices emerge from new research.

Background: The increasing prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other aging-related dementias as the population ages will have a dramatic impact on both provision of health care and the economy if nothing is done to prevent or delay the onset of AD or to slow its progression.

Methods: A comprehensive review of the literature in several promising areas of inquiry, other than those representing Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved AD- or dementia-specific pharmacologic therapies, that may impact the risk or progression of AD and related dementias was undertaken.

Results: Results highlight a number of factors associated with AD and dementia.

The art and science of anti-aging therapies.

A meeting entitled "The Art and Science of Anti-Aging Therapies: Convergence of Theory and Practice" took place on 18 and 19 March 2005 at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The symposium was held for health care professionals, researchers, and consumers to provide them with information about current trends in anti-aging therapies. The program, which combined medical, surgical, and nonpharmacological approaches to healthy successful aging, gave attendees the opportunity to make sense of the issues at hand and to sort out safe treatments from perilous quick fixes.

Carrier screening for cystic fibrosis: costs and clinical outcomes.

Objectives: To evaluate the costs and clinical effects of 16 alternative strategies for cystic fibrosis (CF) carrier screening in the reproductive setting; and to test the sensitivity of the results to assumptions about cost and detection rate, stakeholder perspective, DNA test specificity, chance of nonpaternity, and couples' reproductive plans.

Method: Cost-effectiveness analysis.

Results: A sequential screening strategy had the lowest cost per CF birth avoided.

The limits of suffering: critical care nurses' views of hospital care at the end of life.

This study explores critical care nurses' beliefs, motivations, and experiences regarding end of life care. We performed a content analysis of the text comments provided by 468 U.S.

Response rates to mail surveys published in medical journals.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to characterize response rates for mail surveys published in medical journals; to determine how the response rate among subjects who are typical targets of mail surveys varies; and to evaluate the contribution of several techniques used by investigators to enhance response rates.

Methods: One hundred seventy-eight manuscripts published in 1991, representing 321 distinct mail surveys, were abstracted to determine response rates and survey techniques. In a follow-up mail survey, 113 authors of these manuscripts provided supplementary information.

Genetic screening for reproductive planning: methodological and conceptual issues in policy analysis.

Objectives: This paper explores several critical assumptions and methodological issues arising in cost-effectiveness analyses of genetic screening strategies in the reproductive setting.

Methods: Seven issues that arose in the development of a decision analysis of alternative strategies for cystic fibrosis carrier screening are discussed. Each of these issues required a choice in technique.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization in a new nursing home.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has been detected in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Studies disagree about the risk of infection with MRSA in colonized patients. MRSA colonization and infection were tracked for one year in all admissions to a 60-bed ward at the Philadelphia VA Nursing Home Care Unit (NHCU) from the time of its opening in June, 1990.