Background: Increasing attention is being given to the growing concerns about social isolation, loneliness, and compromised emotional well-being experienced by young adults and older individuals affected by Alzheimer disease and related dementias (ADRD). Studies suggest that reminiscence strategies combined with an intergenerational approach may yield significant social and mental health benefits for participants. Experts also recommended the production of a digital life story book as part of reminiscence. Reminiscence is typically implemented by trained professionals (eg, social workers and nurses); however, there has been growing interest in using trained volunteers owing to staffing shortages and the costs associated with reminiscence programs.
Objective: The proposed study will develop and test how reminiscence offered by trained young adult volunteers using a digital storytelling platform may help older adults with ADRD to improve their social and emotional well-being.
Methods: The proposed project will conduct a randomized controlled trial to assess the effects of the intervention. The older and young adult participants will be randomly assigned to the intervention (reminiscence based) or control groups and then be randomly matched within each group. Data will be collected at baseline before the intervention, in the middle of the intervention, at end of the intervention, and at 3 months after the intervention. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design will be used to take advantage of the strengths of both quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative data from surveys will be entered into SPSS and analyzed using covariate-adjusted linear mixed models for repeated measures to compare the intervention and control groups over time on the major outcomes of participants. Conventional content analysis of qualitative interviews will be conducted using data analysis software.
Results: The project was modified to a telephone-based intervention owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Data collection started in 2020 and ended in 2022. In total, 103 dyads were matched at the beginning of the intervention. Of the 103 dyads, 90 (87.4%) dyads completed the midtest survey and 64 (62.1%) dyads completed the whole intervention and the posttest survey. Although we are still cleaning and finalizing data analyses, the preliminary results from both quantitative and qualitative data showed promising results of this intergenerational reminiscence approach that benefits both the older adults who have cognitive impairments and the young adult participants.
Conclusions: Intergenerational reminiscence provided by young adult college student offers promising benefits for both the younger and older generations. Future studies may consider scaling up this pilot into a trackable, replicable model that includes more participants with diverse background (eg, public vs private college students and older adults from other agencies) to test the effectiveness of this intervention for older adults with ADRD.
Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05984732; https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05984732.
International Registered Report Identifier (irrid): DERR1-10.2196/49752.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/49752 | DOI Listing |
Endocrinol Diabetes Metab
January 2025
Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Objective: This study investigates the relationship between the albumin-to-creatinine ratio and diabetic retinopathy (DR) in US adults using NHANES data from 2009 to 2016. This study assesses the predictive efficacy of the urinary serum albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR/SACR Ratio) against traditional biomarkers such as the serum albumin-to-creatinine ratio (SACR) and urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) for evaluating DR risk. Additionally, the study explores the potential of these biomarkers, both individually and in combination with HbA1c, for early detection and risk stratification of DR.
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January 2025
Queensland Cerebral Palsy and Rehabilitation Research Centre, Child Health Research Centre, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Aim: To identify developmental trajectories of impaired hand function in infants aged 3 to 15 months with unilateral cerebral palsy (CP).
Method: Sixty-three infants (37 male; median gestational age 37 weeks [interquartile range 30-39.1 weeks]) recruited as part of a randomized trial with a confirmed diagnosis of unilateral CP were included.
Dig Dis Sci
January 2025
Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endoscopy, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Background: Chronic constipation, diarrhea, and fecal incontinence (FI) are prevalent with significant impact on quality of life and healthcare utilization. Thyroid dysfunction was recognized as a potential contributor to bowel disturbances in selected populations, but the strength/consistency of this association remain unclear.
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Metab Brain Dis
January 2025
Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus N, Denmark.
Background & Aims: Hepatic encephalopathy (HE), one of the most serious prognostic factors for mortality in alcohol-related cirrhosis (ALD cirrhosis), is not recorded in Danish healthcare registries. However, treatment of HE with lactulose, the universal first-line treatment, can be identified through data on filled prescriptions. This study aimed to investigate if lactulose can be used as a surrogate marker of HE.
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January 2025
Program for the Care and Study of the Aging Heart, Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, 420 East 70th St, New York, NY, LH-36510063, USA.
There are several pharmacologic agents that have been touted as guideline-directed medical therapy for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). However, it is important to recognize that older adults with HFpEF also contend with an increased risk for adverse effects from medications due to age-related changes in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of medications, as well as the concurrence of geriatric conditions such as polypharmacy and frailty. With this review, we discuss the underlying evidence for the benefits of various treatments in HFpEF and incorporate key considerations for older adults, a subpopulation that may be at higher risk for adverse drug events.
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