Impact of Reactive Balance Training on a Perturbation Treadmill on Physical Performance in Geriatric Patients:Results of a Single-Center, Assessor Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial.

Falls and related injuries are a frequent and serious health problem in older persons. Among the various strategies, different forms of active physical training, in particular, have demonstrated success in reducing fall risk. A task-specific training approach is perturbation-based training of reactive balance.

Is There an Association Between Inflammation and Serum-Vitamin D? - Results of a Retrospective Analysis of Hospitalized Geriatric Patients.

Purpose: Vitamin D deficiency is a common finding in geriatric patients. The ESPEN micronutrient guideline states that vitamin D serum levels significantly decrease in the presence of inflammation and should be interpreted with caution. This is of great interest for hospital care and would imply a significant change to the current approach to hospitalized patients with suspected vitamin D deficiency.

Fall prevention by reactive balance training on a perturbation treadmill: is it feasible for prefrail and frail geriatric patients? A pilot study.

Purpose: Prefrail and frail geriatric patients are at high risk of falling. Perturbation-based balance training on a treadmill appears to be highly effective, but there are no studies in prefrail and frail geriatric hospital patients. The aim of the work is to characterize the study population in whom reactive balance training on a perturbation treadmill was feasible.

Experiences of participants of a volunteer-supported walking intervention to improve physical function of nursing home residents - a mixed methods sub-study of the POWER-project.

Background: Regular physical activity improves physical health and mental well-being and reduces the risk of falling in older adults. The randomized controlled "Prevention by lay-assisted Outdoor-Walking in the Elderly at Risk" POWER-study investigates whether volunteer-supported outdoor-walking improves physical function and quality of life in older people living independently or in nursing homes. This sub-study explores the experiences of older participants and volunteers in relation to their physical and psychosocial well-being as well as the challenges faced by both groups.

Acute disease induced cognitive dysfunction in older patients - an unrecognized syndrome.

Background: It is unknown, how many older hospitalized patients experience cognitive changes independently from delirium.

Methods: In this retrospective study, cognitive function was assessed with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment on admission and discharge in 103 acute care geriatric hospital patients.

Results: Mean age was 80.

Interrater reliability of routine screening for risk of malnutrition with the Mini Nutritional Assessment Short-Form in hospital.

Background/objectives: The Mini Nutritional Assessment Short-Form (MNA-SF) is the recommended screening tool for older persons. Data on interrater reliability in clinical routine are rare. Thus, we wanted to quantify the interrater reliability of the MNA-SF in hospital.

Reliability of accelerometric measurement of physical activity in older adults-the benefit of using the trimmed sum.

There is general consensus that physical activity is important for preserving functional capacities of older adults and positively influencing quality of life. While accelerometry is widely accepted and applied to assess physical activity in studies, several problems with this method remain (e.g.

Optimal Jamar dynamometer handle position to assess maximal isometric hand grip strength in epidemiological studies.

Purpose: Hand grip strength is an indicator of general muscle strength that is measured using a hand dynamometer. In some studies, a subject's grip strength is taken to be the maximal grip strength achieved from measurements taken at several different dynamometer handle positions. However, little is known about the influence of these different positions on the measured grip strength.

[Patient stratification: interactions between diagnosis and therapy].

There is a high interest in developing diagnostic tests, e.g. in terms of molecular markers.