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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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New and worsening conditions and change in physical and cognitive performance during weekly evaluations over 6 months
— the Women's Health and Aging Study | | Author(s) | Jack M Guralnik, Luigi Ferrucci, Brenda W J H Penninx |
| Journal title | The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological sciences and Medical Sciences, vol 54A, no 8, August 1999 |
| Pages | pp M410-422 |
| Keywords | Older women ; Ill health ; Mobility ; Self care capacity ; Cognitive processes ; Health [elderly] ; Evaluation ; Longitudinal surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | In a sub-study of the US Women's Health and Aging Study (WHAS), 102 women with mild to severe disability received weekly home visits over a 6-month period. Each week, they were queried as to onset of 14 acute, generally self-limiting conditions, and the worsening or new diagnosis of 12 chronic conditions. They also received a battery of physical and cognitive performance tests. There was a high rate of condition reporting over 24 weekly interviews. Nearly all women reported acute and episodic conditions, the average number of weeks reporting one or more condition being 11.8 per woman. For chronic conditions, this was 5.2 weeks per woman. Multiple reports of onset or worsening of specific conditions were common, especially for: arthritis of hands, hips, knees or feet; urinary problems; dizziness or unsteadiness on feet; and back pain. For specific conditions, there were generally small and non-significant changes in performance in those who reported onset or worsening after three or more weeks of not reporting this. While performance measures are not useful in monitoring modest, short-term changes in health, they may still be valuable for assessing more major changes in health and functioning over time. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-991220238 A |
| Classmark | BD: CH: C4: CA: DA: CC: 4C: 3J: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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