Clara Rocha

Falls are a major cause of morbidity and mortality among older adults. While the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test has recently been identified as the best predictor of falls, it should not be used in isolation to identify individuals at risk. This study aims to develop a predictive model by combining the TUG test with fall risk factors that involve intrinsic and extrinsic elements to predict future falls in Portuguese community-dwelling adults aged 50–60, 60–70, and 70 years or older. A total of 403 participants aged 50 or older completed a questionnaire on demographic information and fall risk factors, underwent the TUG test, and were monitored for 12 months to record falls. ROC curve analysis demonstrated that the TUG test alone effectively distinguished fallers from non-fallers exclusively among adults aged 50–60, with a cut-off time of 6.9 s. Multivariate logistic regression defined three predictive models based on age groups, with ROC curve results as follows: 50–60 (AUC = 0.825, cut-off = 18.1), 60–70 (AUC = 0.754, cut-off = 17.8), and 70 or older (AUC = 0.708, cut-off = 24.8). These findings are clinically significant, demonstrating that the TUG test combined with a few self-reported questions can efficiently identify individuals at risk of falling in just a few minutes, without requiring specialized equipment.

Falls are a major cause of morbidity and mortality among older adults. While the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test has recently been identified as the best predictor of falls, it should not be used in isolation to identify individuals at risk. This study aims to develop a predictive model by combining the TUG test with other risk factors associated with falls in Portuguese community-dwelling adults aged 50–60, 60–70, and 70 years or older. A total of 403 participants aged 50 or older completed a questionnaire on demographic information and fall risk factors, underwent the TUG test, and were monitored for 12 months to record falls. ROC curve analysis demonstrated that the TUG test alone effectively distinguished fallers from non-fallers exclusively among adults aged 50–60, with a cut-off time of 6.9 seconds. Multivariate logistic regression defined three predictive models based on age groups, with ROC curve results as follows: 50–60 (AUC=0.825, cut-off=18.1), 60–70 (AUC=0.754, cut-off=17.8), and 70 or older (AUC=0.708, cut-off=24.8). These findings are clinically significant, demonstrating that the TUG test combined with a few self-reported questions can efficiently identify individuals at risk of falling in just a few minutes, without requiring specialized equipment.

Background: The dietary intake of hospitalised patients is often compromised during hospitalisation, which can be a causal factor for hospital malnutrition. This is considered a public health problem worldwide and is associated with an increased risk of other complications. Objectives: Our objective was to determine the dietary intake of hospitalised individuals and if the prescribed diet influences it. Methods: Food intake data were collected from 299 lunches of patients admitted to a hospital, using the visual estimation method with a five-point scale. Three existing diets were considered, and the energy and macronutrient values of the meal were calculated. The minimum energy and protein requirements were also calculated. Results: The components of the tray with the highest intake were soup and dessert; no significant differences were found between the percentage intake of each element and the prescribed diet. More than 50% of the individuals did not meet their minimum energy requirements, and only 36.5% had a protein intake that was within the recommendations. Conclusions: Dietary intake is much lower than prescribed, and nutritionists need to act to reduce the prevalence of hospital malnutrition.

Objectives: Investigate whether partial sleep deprivation for five nights causes vascular changes in healthy university students.Study design: Prospective observational study.Methods: The study involved 18 young and healthy university students who were instructed to sleep as recommended for their age group for three consecutive nights. On the study's fourth night, participants slept a maximum of 5 h and, on the following nights, they slept less than 8 h. The assessments consisted of carotid assessment, flow‐mediated dilation, and blood pressure (BP) monitoring. During the 8 days studied, participants used actigraphy in their daily routine.Results: A decrease in the BP of the common carotid artery (CCA), both systolic and diastolic resulted from partial sleep deprivation. After one night of partial sleep deprivation, there was a significant increase in peak systolic velocity and a significant decrease in the systolic diameter of CCA. However, the systolic velocity returned to values similar to those of the control group with the accumulation of nights with sleep deprivation.Conclusions: Our study indicates that those who do not get sufficient sleep, display sudden alterations in their cardiovascular parameters, which are consistent with an increased risk of developing coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, stroke, and hypertension.

Self-medication is considered one of the health-risk behaviours found among adolescents. The main objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of self-medication for Portuguese adolescents. An observational cross-sectional study was carried out. The sample comprised 420 adolescents, of whom 343 (81.7%; 95% CI: 77.8–85.2) had already self-medicated and 277 (66.0%; 95% CI: 61.4–70.5) self-medicated in the last 6 months. The main health problems that motivated self-medication were headache (76.7%), flu (70.6%), sore throat (56%), and fever (54.5%). Paracetamol was the most consumed drug (86.9%) followed by ibuprofen (83.1%). The pharmacy (87.8%) was the preferred place to purchase drugs; however, 221 adolescents (64.4%) reported that they self-medicated with the medicines they had at home. Of the adolescents who resorted to self-medication, only 59.6% sought additional information about the drug and 53.9% referred to the package leaflet of the medicinal product as the main source of clarification. A significant portion of the respondents (84.3%) believed that self-medication might be acceptable to treat minor illnesses. It was observed that self-medication is a very common practice among adolescents, making it an extremely important issue to carry out more studies on this section of the Portuguese population due to the scarcity of existing ones. These data can be used to define strategies for the dissemination of the rational use of the drug in the adolescent population.

With aging, some alterations in the perception and detection of sound in the auditory system occur and have repercussions in the communication process. The study of older adult's hearing must include the evaluation of the peripheral and central auditory system with the adequacy of behavioral and electrophysiological techniques that include the evaluation of the Central Auditory Processing in order to implement auditory training programs. The auditory training can be applied in different age ranges and are an excellent option for individuals with hearing loss, auditory device users and older adult with difficulties in speech understanding. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of auditory training on older adult's capacities to understand speech. The population of the study was constituted by 16 subjects aged between 58 and 91 years old, divided into two groups in which the type of auditory training varied in order to evaluate the training influence. All the individuals revealed benefits with the auditory training, once the speech perception in noise showed statistically significant improvement. The auditory training will benefit subjects with hearing loss and difficulties in speech perception, minimizing the impact hearing loss has in older people's lives.

Background: Impairment in speech perception is a common feature of older adults. This study aimed at evaluating the acute and sub-acute (after three months) effects of auditory training on central auditory processing in older people with hearing loss. Methods: A nonrandomized study was conducted enrolling 15 older adults with hearing loss and an average age of 78.6 ± 10.9 years. All participants underwent a baseline otoscopy, tympanogram, audiogram and speech-in-noise test with a signal-noise ratio (SNR) of 10 and 15 dB. Afterwards, auditory training intervention was implemented consisting of 10 training sessions over 5 weeks. Participants were divided into two groups: group 1 (G1) underwent auditory training based on a speech-in-noise test; group 2 (G2) underwent a filtered-speech test. Auditory processing was evaluated at baseline (T0) immediately after the intervention (T1) and 3 months after the intervention (T2). Results: Group 1 were quite efficient regardless of the SNR in the right ear with statistically significant differences from T0 to T1 (p = 0.003 and p = 0.006 for 10 dB and 15 dB, respectively) and T0 to T2 (p = 0.011 and 0.015 for 10 dB and 15 dB, respectively). As for the left ear, the increase of success was statistically significant for the SNR of 10 dB and 15 dB from T0 to T1 (p = 0.001 and p = 0.014, respectively) and from T0 to T2 (p = 0.016 and p = 0.003). In G2, there was a significant variation only from T0 for T1 in the left ear for an SNR of 10 dB (p = 0.001). Conclusion: Speech perception in noise significantly improved after auditory training in old adults.

Aging is a social and economic challenge of the highest importance and a multidisciplinary intervention seems to be a promising approach for improving the quality of life of elderly individuals. This project was designed aimed at promoting an active and healthy aging through the implementation of an intervention program based on the comprehensive geriatric assessment model (AGA@4life), focused on promoting health and wellbeing, independence and autonomy, mobility, and social inclusion. A non-randomized interventional study was designed to evaluate the effect of only a dietetic and nutritional approach (control group (CG)) and the combination of a tailored exercise program and a dietetic and nutritional approach (intervention group (IG)) in the biochemical and hematological profile of older adults in the framework of AGA@4life. The 34 participants enrolled, aged 65 years or over, were subject to a thorough baseline (T0) multidisciplinary diagnostic evaluation, including the gathering of clinical information and a battery of biochemical and hematological determinations, and reevaluated after eight weeks of intervention (T1). Between T0 and T1, an increase in albumin and total proteins serum levels were observed in both groups (p < 0.01); the hematological profile in CG and IG showed an increase in red cell count and hemoglobin (p < 0.05). In IG, an increase of HDL cholesterol (p < 0.001) and a decrease of triglycerides (p = 0.001) were still observed. The AGA@4life multidisciplinary intervention improved the hematological and biochemical profile of old adults, potentially contributing to delay the development of several aging comorbidities and increase the quality of life of participants.