Archives: March 2011

British Caregiver Survey Tool Can Help U.S.

A new manual to provide health and social workers with a tool to measure the quality of life of adult, unpaid caregivers has been launched by The Princess Royal Trust for Carers, in association with the University of Nottingham in the U.K. It is a simple 40-item questionnaire that measures...

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Osteoarthritis and Obesity Can Shave 3.5 Years of Healthy Life

Harvard Medical School conducted a study that showed that close to 40% of elderly Americans are obese or have osteoarthritis of the knee, or both, which, on average, eliminates 3.5 years of a positive quality of life. Researchers found that about 33% are obese and do not have osteoarthritisäóîand can...

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Iowa Eliminates 10 Nursing Home Inspectors

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) has cut 10 of the state’s 38 nursing home inspecting positions. That leaves just 28 people to inspect 442 nursing homes! Iowa’s financial challenges were the reason for the reduction. Officials said other staffers in the Inspections and Appeals department could be trained to fill...

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Nurse Dissatisfaction in Nursing Homes

Researchers at the Penn School of Nursing released information that shows 27 percent of nursing home nurses and 24 percent of hospital nurses reported being dissatisfied with their jobs.ξ Just 13 percent of nurses in other healthcare environments reported such feelings. 95,000 nurses in 614 U.S. hospitals and other healthcare...

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Video Games Good for Elderly

Studies show that video games that encourage physical activity also help with depression, sense of place and relevancy. At the Gerontological Society of America’s Annual Scientific Meeting in New Orleans late last year, Patricia Kahlbaugh, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology at Southern Connecticut State University presented a study that...

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Osteoarthritis Poses Disability Risk

At the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in February, researchers reported that the risk for disability from osteoarthritis of the knee is just as harmful as the risk for disability from cardiovascular disease.ξ Osteoarthritis researcher Fred Nelson, M.D. said that osteoarthritis of the knee is one...

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My Senior Care New Resource for Caregivers

I came across a new resource called My Senior Care. It is a resource for caregivers that has two things going for it.ξ First, they have assembled and advisory panel of aging services experts who you can write to with your questions about all aspects of caregiving. Second they have...

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Pain in the…..Negative Thinking, Pain and Healing

Should doctors consider the affect of negative thinking from patients? British and German researchers would think so. They concluded that pessimism could override the effectiveness of powerful treatments. They strapped a heat-beaming device onto the legs of 22 healthy volunteers, zapping it until people rated their pain at nearly 70...

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Longevity Project Busts Aging Myths

Thanks to the findings in a surprising new book, The Longevity Project, you can learn why some people make it to a very old age and others donäó»t.Œæ Howard S. Friedman, Ph.D., and Leslie R. Martin, Ph.D., have spent the past 20 years following subjects from childhood to adulthood to...

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