Preexisting cognitive impairment is associated with postoperative cognitive dysfunction after hip joint replacement surgery.

Background: This study investigated the prevalence of cognitive impairment in elderly noncardiac surgery patients and any association between preoperative cognitive impairment and postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD). Additionally, the incidence of cognitive decline at 12 months after surgery was identified.

Methods: Three hundred patients for hip joint replacement and 51 nonsurgical controls aged 60 yr or older were studied in a prospective observational clinical trial.

Validity of self-reported versus hospital-coded diagnosis of stroke: a cross-sectional and longitudinal study.

Background: Population-based studies, as well as clinicians, often rely on self-report and hospital records to obtain a history of stroke. This study aimed to compare the validity of the diagnosis of stroke by self-report and by hospital coding according to their cross-sectional association with prevalent vascular risk factors, and longitudinal association with recurrent stroke and major cardiovascular outcomes in a large cohort of older Australian men.

Methods: Between 1996 and 1999, 11,745 older men were surveyed for a self-reported history of stroke as part of the Health in Men Study (HIMS).

The LINKIN Health Census process: design and implementation.

This paper describes the first phase of the LINKIN Health Study, which aims to evaluate health system functioning within a rural population. Locally relevant data on the health status and service usage of this population, including non-users and users, health service providers traditionally omitted from health services research, and multiple socio-economic indicators, was collected using a self-complete health census. Household response was 75% (N = 4425).

Are the national guidelines for health behaviour appropriate for older Australians? Evidence from the Men, Women and Ageing project.

Aim: To review findings from the Men, Women and Ageing (MWA) longitudinal studies and consider their implications for national health guidelines.

Methods: Guidelines for good health for older adults in the areas of body mass index (BMI), physical activity, alcohol consumption and smoking behaviours are compared with MWA findings.

Results: Findings from MWA suggest that current BMI guidelines may be too narrow because BMI in the overweight range appears to be protective for both older men and women.

Function after spinal treatment, exercise, and rehabilitation: cost-effectiveness analysis based on a randomized controlled trial.

Study Design: Cost-effectiveness analysis alongside a factorial randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To assess the cost-effectiveness of a rehabilitation program and/or an education booklet each compared with usual care for the postoperative management of patients undergoing discectomy or lateral nerve root decompression surgery.

Summary Of Background Data: There is little knowledge about the cost-effectiveness of postoperative management of patients after spinal surgery.