Publications by authors named "Pertti Era"

Background: Few multidisciplinary rehabilitation studies with a heterogeneous design have focused on individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS). This study compared subjective-reported changes in performance and satisfaction with daily activities among moderately and severely disabled individuals with MS during a 2-year, multidisciplinary, group-based, outpatient rehabilitation program comprising education in self-management and compensatory techniques, exercise, and guided peer support.

Methods: Thirty-eight adults with moderate disability (Expanded Disability Status Scale [EDSS] score of 4.

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Importance: Because multiple sclerosis (MS) affects many life areas, it is important to know how participation and autonomy are associated with the perceived impact of MS on everyday life.

Objective: To investigate how perceived quality of life, disease impact, gender, and disease severity predict participation and autonomy in people with MS.

Design: Cross-sectional study in which structural equation modeling was used to evaluate relationships between measured variables.

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Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the impact on participation and autonomy (IPA) questionnaire. The Finnish version of IPA (IPAFin) was translated into Finnish using the protocol for linguistic validation for patient-reported outcomes instruments.

Methods: A total of 194 persons with multiple sclerosis (MS) (mean age 50 years SD 9, 72% female) with moderate to severe disability participated in this study.

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Fatigue is considered an important indicator of aging-related declines in health and functional abilities. Previous studies have indicated strong associations between fatigue and depressive symptoms among younger populations and in patient groups with specific diseases. However, it is not known how different measures of fatigue are associated with depressive symptoms among general older populations.

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Background: Enhancing quality of life (QOL) of older adults is an international area of focus. Identifying factors and experiences that contribute to QOL of older adults helps promote optimal levels of functioning. This study examines the relationship between perceived benefits associated with choral singing and QOL among community-dwelling older adults.

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Background: Fatigue is an important early marker of functional decline among older people, but the mechanisms underlying this association are not fully understood. The purpose of the present study was to examine the association between mobility-related fatigue and walking speed and to test the degree to which muscle strength accounts for this association.

Methods: The study is based on baseline (n = 523) and 5-year follow-up data (n = 292) from a cohort of 75-year-old persons.

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Background And Aims: Slowing of psychomotor speed among older individuals has been shown in numerous studies. However, in most cases these studies were based on small and selected groups of people and, in some cases, the test procedures did not allow separation of decision time and motor components of the overall performance. The purpose of the present study was to analyse in a large, randomly selected population sample the differences in decision and movement times in simple and multiple-choice test conditions.

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Short and long self-reported sleep durations have been found to be associated with several seemingly disparate health risks and impaired functional abilities, including cognitive functioning. The role of long sleep is especially poorly understood in this context. Psychomotor slowness, shown to have analogous associations with cognitive performance and health risks as self-reported long sleep duration, has not been studied together with sleep duration in epidemiological settings.

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Background And Aims: Prospective studies on the simultaneous effects of multiple determinants on objectively assessed mobility are few. The aim of this study was to analyse mobility performance, its stability and sensory, psychomotor and musculoskeletal determinants in an older population from age 75 to age 80.

Methods: Sixty-three men and 121 women aged 75 participated at baseline and, five years later, in the follow-up phase of this population-based prospective study.

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Background: To examine the association between sleep-related factors and measured and self-reported mobility in a representative sample of older adults.

Methods: This study included 2,825 men and women aged 55 years and older participating in a cross-sectional representative population-based Health 2000 Survey in Finland. Sleep duration, insomnia-related symptoms, and fatigue were inquired.

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This study investigated the relationship between self-reported sleep factors (sleep duration, insomnia, use of sleeping medicine, probable sleep apnoea and feelings of fatigue and tiredness) with cognitive functioning in 5177 people aged 30 years or older from a cross-sectional representative sample of the adult population in Finland (The Finnish Health 2000 Survey). Previous studies have indicated a U-shaped association between increased health risks and sleep duration; we hypothesized a U-shaped association between sleep duration and cognitive functioning. Objective cognitive functioning was assessed with tasks derived from the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease test battery (verbal fluency, encoding and retaining verbal material).

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Purpose: To examine vision as a predictor of mortality in older people and the role of mobility, depressed mood, chronic diseases, body mass index, physical activity and injurious accidents in this possible association.

Methods: 223 persons aged 75 and 193 persons aged 80 years at the baseline participated in visual acuity measurements. Visual acuity (VA) of < 0.

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Background: Inability to maintain balance while standing increases risk of falls in older people. The present study assessed whether center of pressure (COP) movement measured with force platform technology predicts risk for falls among older people with no manifest deficiency in standing balance.

Methods: Participants were 434 community-dwelling women, aged 63-76 years.

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Background And Aims: Poor vision in older people is often related to increased fall risk. However, the association of the severity between visual deficit and risk for all kind of injurious accidents has not been widely studied. The aim of this study was to examine whether visual loss is associated with higher incidence of injurious accidents and whether walking speed or physical activity play a mediating role in the association.

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Purpose: To examine the heritability of intraocular pressure (IOP) among older women not diagnosed as having glaucoma.

Design: Cross-sectional twin study.

Participants: 94 monozygotic (MZ) and 96 dizygotic (DZ) female twin pairs aged 63-76 years and not diagnosed as having glaucoma.

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Background: This study examined the relative contribution of genetic and environmental effects on the air-conducted hearing threshold level (0.5-4 kHz) and speech recognition threshold level of the better ear as well as self-reported hearing in older women.

Methods: Hearing was measured as a part of the Finnish Twin Study on Aging in 103 monozygotic (MZ) and 114 dizygotic (DZ) female twin pairs aged 63-76 years.

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The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of a second task on postural balance and to determine the role of genetic influences on postural balance when dual tasking among 206 monozygotic and 227 dizygotic female twins, aged 63-76 years. Balance was measured as medio-lateral and antero-posterior velocity of the centre of pressure (COP) (mm/s) and velocity moment (mm(2)/s) while standing on a force platform. Doing an arithmetic task increased movement of the COP while the hand motor task had no effect on movement of the COP.

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Objectives: To determine whether genetic influences account for individual differences in susceptibility to falls in older women.

Design: Prospective twin cohort study.

Setting: Research laboratory and residential environment.

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Background: Poor postural balance is one of the major risk factors for falling. A great number of reports have analyzed the risk factors and predictors of falls but the results have for the most part been unclear and partly contradictory. Objective data on these matters are thus urgently needed.

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Background: Among older people, distraction while walking may increase the risk of falls. Factors underlying individual differences in dual tasking are not fully understood. Our aim was to study the effect of a second task on maximal walking speed and to examine whether individual differences in walking speed measured with and without a second task are accounted for by genetic and environmental influences shared across tasks or specific to each task.

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The aim of this study was to compare auditory functions and to analyse the prevalence of hearing impairment and the relationship of self-reported hearing disability with audiometric test results among 75-year-old people in three Nordic localities. The representative samples came from Glostrup, Denmark (n = 571), Göteborg, Sweden (n =450), and Jyväskylä, Finland (n =388). The median pure-tone thresholds were rather similar in all three populations.

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Background: The knowledge concerning balance training actually lowering fall rates among frail older persons is limited.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the effects of a 4-week individualized visual feedback-based balance training on the fall incidence during 1-year follow-up among frail older women living in residential care.

Methods: Twenty-seven older women from 2 residential care homes were randomized into exercise (n = 20) and control (n = 7) groups.

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The aims of this prospective 10-year longitudinal population study were to report changes in hearing in people aged 80 years at baseline, and to assess such changes by comparing results from both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. The study population comprised all residents of the city of Jyväskylä born in 1910 (n = 291). The subjects' hearing was tested on three occasions at 5-year intervals with the use of pure-tone audiometry, speech audiometry, and self-report on hearing difficulties.

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Background And Aims: Older fallers aged over 70 years have shown impaired balance abilities, but it is unclear if impairment in balance control can be detected among fallers who are in their 50's and 60's. The aim of this study was to analyze possible differences in balance control and other health-related factors between female fallers and non-fallers aged 50-68 years.

Methods: Women 50-68 years of age (N=40) who had fallen outside and needed medical attention were recruited through a larger fall accident study.

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Background: Balance training programs have not shown consistent results among older adults, and it remains unclear how different training methods can be adapted to frail elderly people.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a 4-week visual feedback-based balance training on the postural control of frail elderly women living in residential care homes.

Methods: Elderly women of two residential care facilities were randomized to an exercise group (EG, n = 20) and to a control group (CG, n = 7).

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