[Everyday Life and Mental Health of Elderly with Cognitive Impairment During the Covid-19 Pandemic].

Objective: The aim is to analyze pandemic-related effects on everyday life and psychosocial health in the understudied vulnerable group of cognitively impaired elderly people living at home.

Methods: Structured telephone interviews in 2020 (n+=+141) and 2021 (n+=+107) were used to survey over-65s with cognitive impairment (MMSE Ø 23.4).

A retrospective multicentre cohort study of the performances on attention tests in outpatients with cognitive dysfunctions without delirium.

Objective: Attention is the cardinal feature of delirium, but attentional domains may also be affected by dementia and its severity. It is, therefore, of interest to study the correlation between the severity of cognitive impairment in non-delirious patients and different measurements of attentional performance, to identify attention subdomains less affected by severity of cognitive impairment.

Methods: Neuropsychological data from non-delirious outpatients (age ≥ 65 years), presenting at two memory clinics were analysed retrospectively.

["You have to take it that way." A study of the subjective experience of the corona pandemic by older people in need of help and care living at home].

Background: As older people are at increased risk of severe and fatal courses of SARS-CoV‑2 infection, they receive special attention, which, however, often refers one-sidedly to their need for protection. What is needed is a discussion that considers the subjective reality and resources as well as risks.

Objective: The study focused on the perspectives of older people.

Technology-Assisted Home Care for People With Dementia and Their Relatives: Scoping Review.

Background: Assistive technologies for people with dementia and their relatives have the potential to ensure, improve, and facilitate home care and thereby enhance the health of the people caring or being cared for. The number and diversity of technologies and research have continuously increased over the past few decades. As a result, the research field has become complex.

The situation of elderly with cognitive impairment living at home during lockdown in the Corona-pandemic in Germany.

Background: The outbreak of the Corona virus is a challenge for health care systems worldwide. The aim of this study is to analyze a) knowledge about, and feelings related to the Corona-pandemic. Describe b) loneliness, depression and anxiety and, c) the perceived, immediate impact of the lockdown on frequency of social contacts and quality of health care provision of people with cognitive impairment during social distancing and lockdown in the primary care system and living at home in Germany.

Assessing fitness to drive in older adults: Validation and extension of an economical screening tool.

Objectives: Due to demographic change, the number of older drivers with impaired driving skills will increase in the next decades. The current study aimed at the validation and extension of the screening tool Safety Advice For Elderly drivers (SAFE) that allows a cost-efficient assessment of driving-related risk factors in older drivers.

Method: Seventy-four older drivers aged ≥65 years (M = 77 years) recruited from the general population were included in this prospective observational study.

Supporting elderly people with cognitive impairment during and after hospital stays with intersectoral care management: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: The sectorization of health-care systems leads to inefficient treatment, especially for elderly people with cognitive impairment. The transition from hospital care to primary care is insufficiently coordinated, and communication between health-care providers is often lacking. Consequences include a further deterioration of health, higher rates of hospital readmissions, and institutionalization.

Avoidance Behavior Is an Independent Indicator of Poorer On-road Driving Skills in Older Adults.

Objectives: The aim of the current work was to investigate the relationship between avoidance of specific driving situations and on-road driving skills in older drivers considering factors found to be related to both avoidance behavior and driving skills.

Method: Seventy-two older drivers (M = 76 years) from the general population were included in this study. Self-reported avoidance behavior, driving practice, perceived driving difficulties, driving-related cognitive functions, as well as medical conditions were assessed within two sessions.

Impairments in balance and mobility identify delirium in patients with comorbid dementia.

ABSTRACTDiagnosing delirium superimposed on dementia (DSD) remains challenging because of a lack of specific tools, though motor dysfunction in delirium has been relatively under-explored. This study aimed to use dysfunction in balance and mobility (with the Hierarchical Assessment of Balance And Mobility: HABAM) to identify DSD. This is a cross-sectional multicenter study, recruiting consecutive patients ≥70 years admitted to five acute or rehabilitation hospitals in Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Switzerland.

Does being physically active prevent future disability in older people? Attenuated effects when taking time-dependent confounders into account.

Background: Causal experimental evidence that physical activity prevents disability in older people is sparse. Being physically active has nonetheless been shown to be associated with disability-free survival in observational studies. Observational studies are, however, prone to bias introduced by time-dependent confounding.

Detecting delirium superimposed on dementia: diagnostic accuracy of a simple combined arousal and attention testing procedure.

Background: Detecting delirium superimposed on dementia (DSD) can be challenging because assessment partly relies on cognitive tests that may be abnormal in both conditions. We hypothesized that a combined arousal and attention testing procedure would accurately detect DSD.

Methods: Patients aged ≥70 years were recruited from five hospitals across Europe.

Sleep Disruption at Home As an Independent Risk Factor for Postoperative Delirium.

Objectives: To determine whether sleep disruption at home or in hospital is an independent risk factor for postoperative delirium in older adults undergoing elective surgery.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: German teaching hospital.

True Effects or Bias? MMP-2 and MMP-9 Serum Concentrations after Acute Stroke.

Background: Average serum matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) concentrations in patients with acute stroke have shown to be varying across studies. Possibly, next to true effects, other factors may influence MMP levels. The aim of this study was to investigate the dynamics of these enzymes in repeated measurements in the acute post-stroke period, in respect to different stroke etiologies, and highlight potential sources for variability.

Volume of hippocampal substructures in borderline personality disorder.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) may be associated with smaller hippocampi in comparison to hippocampal size in controls. However, specific pathology in hippocampal substructures (i.e.

Estimation of background incidence rates of Guillain-Barré syndrome in Germany - a retrospective cohort study with electronic healthcare data.

Background: The Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) occurs after infections and as an adverse reaction to vaccines. No detailed information on incidence rates (IRs) in Germany is available.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study estimated age- and sex-specific IRs of GBS in Germany in the years 2007-2009 based on electronic healthcare data from the German Pharmacoepidemiological Research Database (GePaRD).

The epidemiology of delirium: challenges and opportunities for population studies.

Delirium is a serious and common acute neuropsychiatric syndrome that is associated with short- and long-term adverse health outcomes. However, relatively little delirium research has been conducted in unselected populations. Epidemiologic research in such populations has the potential to resolve several questions of clinical significance in delirium.

Deterioration of gait and balance over time: the effects of age-related white matter change--the LADIS study.

Background: Cross-sectional studies have shown an association between the severity of age-related white matter change (ARWMC) and lower body motor function. However, the association between prevalent ARWMC and incident deterioration of balance and gait remains insufficiently investigated. This study investigates if the degree of prevalent ARWMC has a differential effect on lower body motor function as it changes over time, hypothesizing that individuals with more severe baseline white matter pathology experience greater clinical deterioration independent of potential confounders.

Risk of subarachnoid hemorrhage and early case fatality associated with outpatient antithrombotic drug use.

Background And Purpose: Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) accounts for <7% of all strokes, but is an enormous individual and societal burden. We investigated the risk of SAH associated with prior use of antithrombotic drugs and their influence on 30-day case fatality.

Methods: We conducted a nested case-control study in a cohort of 13.

MMP-2 concentrations in stroke according to etiology: adjusting for enzyme degradation in stored deep-frozen serum and other methodological pitfalls.

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) have a prominent role in the pathophysiology of stroke. We investigated potential differences in MMP-2 concentrations with respect to acute stroke etiology. For another MMP family member, MMP-9, significant degradation over time has been found even when stored at -80 °C, so we measured temporal degradation of MMP-2 and adjusted for this and other factors potentially affecting our results.

Diagnosing delirium in older hospitalized adults with dementia: adapting the confusion assessment method to international classification of diseases, tenth revision, diagnostic criteria.

Objectives: To compare performance characteristics of the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) algorithm for screening and delirium diagnosis with criteria for delirium from the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) in high-risk individuals.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Academic geriatric hospital.

Longitudinal assessment of serum anticholinergic activity in delirium of the elderly.

Background: Delirium, a frequently occurring, devastating disease, is often underdiagnosed, especially in dementia. Serum anticholinergic activity (SAA) was proposed as a disease marker as it may reflect delirium's important pathogenetic mechanism, cholinergic deficiency. We assessed the association of serum anticholinergic activity with delirium and its risk factors in a longitudinal study on elderly hip fracture patients.

Predictors and early outcome of hemorrhagic transformation after acute ischemic stroke.

Background: Hemorrhagic transformation (HT) after acute ischemic stroke is frequently detected using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), in particular in patients treated with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA). Knowledge about causes and early clinical consequences of HT mostly arises from computed tomography-based studies. We analyzed potential predictors and early outcome of HT after stroke detected by MRI with T(2)*-weighted gradient echo sequences (T(2)*-MRI).

Age effects on preattentive and early attentive auditory processing of redundant stimuli: is sensory gating affected by physiological aging?

The frontal hypothesis of aging predicts an age-related decline in cognitive functions requiring inhibitory or attentional regulation. In Alzheimer's disease, preattentive gating out of redundant information is impaired. Our study aimed to examine changes associated with physiological aging in both pre- and early attentive inhibition of recurrent acoustic information.

Pragmatic management of hyperglycaemia in acute ischaemic stroke: safety and feasibility of intensive intravenous insulin treatment.

Background: In patients with acute ischaemic stroke, hyperglycaemia has been retrospectively associated with negative outcome. There is an ongoing discussion as to which treatment algorithm, if any, provides the most effective prospective intervention. Here we test the safety and feasibility of an intravenous insulin-only infusion protocol designed for pragmatic routine clinical use.