COVID-19 pandemic partnership between medical students and isolated elders improves student understanding of older adults' lived experience.

Background: Evidence supports loneliness and social isolation as a strong risk factor for poor mental and physical health outcomes for older adults. The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated older adults isolate themselves for a prolonged duration. The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto established the Student-Senior Isolation Prevention Partnership (SSIPP), a volunteer program involving telephone calls between medical students and older adults.

Improved Self-Esteem in Artists After Participating in the "Building Confidence and Self-Esteem Toolbox Workshop".

Performing and creative artists have unique occupational and lifestyle stresses and challenges that can negatively affect self-esteem. Low self-esteem not only has serious implications for their psychological and physical health, it can also affect their performance, and creativity. There is a need to establish effective interventions to deal with this issue.

[Aborder les soins préventifs chez les aînés].

Objectif: Guider les médecins de famille dans l'élaboration de plans de dépistage et de traitements préventifs à l'intention de leurs patients âgés.

Sources De L'information: Une recension a été effectuée dans la base de données MEDLINE pour trouver des lignes directrices canadiennes sur les soins de santé primaires et les personnes âgées; des lignes directrices, des méta-analyses, des guides de pratique clinique ou des révisions systématiques portant sur le dépistage de masse chez les 80 ans et plus et les aînés fragiles, se limitant à ceux publiés entre 2006 et juillet 2016; et des articles sur les services de santé préventifs à l'intention des aînés et présentant un intérêt pour la pratique familiale ou les médecins de famille, limités à ceux publiés en anglais entre 2012 et juillet 2016.

Message Principal: L'estimation de l'espérance de vie n'est pas une science facile ou précise, mais la fragilité est un concept émergent susceptible d'être utile à cet égard.

Approach to preventive care in the elderly.

Objective: To guide family physicians in creating preventive screening and treatment plans for their elderly patients.

Sources Of Information: The MEDLINE database was searched for Canadian guidelines on primary health care and the elderly; guidelines or meta-analyses or practice guidelines or systematic reviews related to mass screening in those aged 80 and older and the frail elderly, limited to between 2006 and July 2016; and articles on preventive health services for the elderly related to family practice or family physicians, limited to English-language publications between 2012 and July 2016.

Main Message: Estimating life expectancy is not an easy or precise science, but frailty is an emerging concept that can help with this.

Five-weekend care of the elderly certificate course: continuing professional development activity for family physicians.

Problem Addressed: Primary care practitioners have unique clinical challenges in caring for elderly patients and require educational courses that are specifically designed for their needs in caring for this patient population.

Objective Of Program: To improve family physicians' knowledge of and confidence in managing common geriatric problems.

Program Description: The accredited course curriculum is delivered on 5 weekends over approximately 6 months.

Identification of inappropriate medication use in elderly patients with frequent emergency department visits.

Objective: To determine the demographic and health care characteristics of elderly family health team patients who are frequent emergency department (ED) users, focusing on potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) and access to primary care services.

Design: Cross-sectional retrospective chart review.

Setting: Academic family medicine clinic in Toronto, Ontario.

Patients' experiences following local-regional recurrence of thyroid cancer: a qualitative study.

Background And Objective: The psychosocial impact of local-regional thyroid cancer recurrence is not known. The aim of this study was to explore thyroid cancer patients' experiences relating to diagnosis and treatment of local-regional disease recurrence.

Methods: We conducted 15 semi-structured interviews with survivors of differentiated thyroid cancer who underwent neck reoperation for recurrent disease.

The role of ovarian steroid hormones in mood.

Fluctuations in ovarian hormones across the menstrual cycle have long been considered a determinant of mood in women. The majority of studies, however, use menstrual cycle phase as proxy for hormone levels. We measured ovarian hormone levels directly in order to examine the relationship between daily hormone levels and mood in non-help-seeking women.

Measuring estrogens and progestagens in humans: an overview of methods.

Estrogens and progestagens (ovarian steroids) not only play an important a role in sexual behavior and reproduction, but they are involved in the development, regulation, and function of all body systems, including aging, sleep, pain, pharmacodynamics, immune response, and cognition. They are essential to the maintenance of cardiovascular, renal, mental, and bone health. Often, their effects are positive and their absence, negative.

A usability study of a computerized decision aid to help patients with, early stage papillary thyroid carcinoma in, decision-making on adjuvant radioactive iodine treatment.

Objective: We tested the usability of a patient-directed decision aid (DA), intended for patients with early stage papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) deciding to accept or reject adjuvant radioactive iodine (RAI) treatment. This decision is complicated by uncertainty of the medical evidence relating to potential treatment benefits.

Methods: The DA was tested by 12 thyroid cancer survivors, 7 thyroid specialty physicians, and 30 lay individuals with no history of thyroid cancer.

Women's perceptions of influences on their mood.

Aims: Knowledge of prevailing community ideas about mood determination can guide research about variability in mood. A random sample of urban Canadian women, aged 18-40 years (n = 507), was asked to compare the relative importance of three specified domains (physical health, social support, stress) as influences on their mood and then to list additional life experiences they considered important. They also rated the frequency and recurrence patterns (cyclicity) of their daily positive and negative moods.