Salmand: Iranian Journal of Ageing
Year:2010 | Volume:5 | Issue:17|Papers Count:8

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of 4-weeks rehabilitation, electrotherapy and kinesiotherapy programs on range of motion shoulder pain in men with idiopathic frozen shoulder.Materials and Methods: This was a semi experimental study on 18 patient (Means±SD; Age 56A±6.7 year, height 175.1±5.3cm, weight 73.H 7.5 kg, history patient 9.2±5.1 month) who referred to the ilam city clinical. The inclusion criteria were male cender, being affected with idiopathic frozen shoulder, considerable loss of activity and existence of nocturnal pain as well as pain in shoulder joint during activity. The exclusion criteria were: Being affected with secondary frozen shoulder, experience of illness and affective field damages in patients with frozen shoulder and previous history of using any treatment plan related to frozen shoulder.Instruments research were personal information questionnaire, visual analogue scale (VAS) and goniometr. After selecting subjects and doing primary pain test and measuring the range of motion; rehabilitation programs about I hours per day for 4- weaks including electrotherapy (50 minutes) and kinesiotherapy (60 minutes) programs performed regularly. For analysing data used t-tests.Results: The results of this study showed that shoulder pain after doing 4-weeks rehabilitation exercises had decreased significantly (P<0/05). But affected persons still had painboth when active and in rest, and the pain did not cure completely. The result in post test showed that range of shoulder movement in flextion, abduction, internal and external rotation had improved significantly (P<0/05). Although limitation of shoulder movement in affected person didn' t improve completely. The result in post-test also showed that rang of motion of joint shoulder in flextion (49A±21.2), abduction (42.8±15.6). internal (22.6±10.6) and external (28.3±1004) rotation have been improved.Conclusion: With regard to those findings, it can be concluded that execution and accomplishment of a 4-week rehabilitation, electrotherapy and kinesiotherapy programs had decreased shoulder pain and improved significantly shoulder flexion, abduction, internal and external rotation's range of motion in patients with frozen shoulder. Therefor, patients who have encountered pain and reduced shoulder range of motion can use the abovementioned rehabilitation programme efficiently and appropriately.

Objective: The present study investigated the factor structure of Persian version of Functional gait assessment for identifying falling risk in Iranian elderly.Materials & Methods: The study was designed 200 subjects divided into two falling history positive and falling history negative (each including 100 subjects).Subjects were community-dwelling adults aged 60- 90 years of Tehran. Criteria for entering the study, was acquiring minimum score of 24 from 30 in the MMSE scale.All subjects, performed items of FGA and their data were collected by researcher.FGA consisted of 10 items that measure functional status of subjects in range from 0 to 3 by Likert method. Data were analysed by means of exploratory factor analysis and Principle Component Analysis with Varimax Rotation and t-student.Results: The results showed that the FGA consists of two factors. These two factors predict the 52.53 percent of total variance based on Scree plot and pattern of factor weights were proposed. All items have higher than accepted factor load (0.5), so that ranged from 0.523 to 0.846.Conclusion: The results showed that the Persian version of FGA in the Iranian elderly is acceptably consistent with its English version and it could be used to identify elderly at risk of falling.

Objective: The growing social and economical changes in the life style, have made it difficult for many people to assume the responsibility of taking care of older adults in the family, consequently institutions become the inevitable option for many elderly adults. The aim of this study was to compare mental health of institutionalized and community living elderly adults in Kermanshah.Materials & Methods: The study was a cross-comparative one. 127 community livings (83 male and 44 female) and the same number of institutionalized persons were selected using the available' sampling method. General health questionnaire (GHQ-28) was the measure of the study.Results: The institutionalized elder adults gained higher mean scores in all the four subscales of GHQ-28. The findings showed a statistically significant difference in the mean scores of depression, somatic symptoms, and social dysfunction in the two groups. The women living in institutions showed more severe Social dysfunction compared to their men counterparts, Conclusion: Considering the results of this study it can be concluded that more attention should be given to the living environment of older adults living in institutions.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of core stabilization training program on falling in elderly population.Materials and Methods: For this clinical trial study, forty elderly female subject (age: 70.58±5.98 years, weight: 55.76±5.7k8g, height: 157.76±7.8 cm) voluntarily participated. A week prior to starting training program the balance measured with the Berg Balance Test (BBT) and subjects divided into two groups, based on obtained score in BBT; low risk falling (group 1), high risk falling (group 2) groups.Then subjects divided to two control & Experimental groups. The Experimental groups performed a core stabilization program included three levels for 6- week and three times per week on the alternate day and 30 min in section. The post-test of BBT were done for two groups afterwards. Independent and dependent t-test used to analyze the data. Significant level Considered to be %0.05.Results: In group 1 & 2 no Significant differences shown for pretest of balance between control & experimental groups (p=0.486, p=0.193). The balance of experimental groups compared to control groups improved after training program (p=0.007, p=0.000). Rate of improvement in experimental groups I and 2 were %3.38 and %15.06 and fore control groups were %0.95 and %3.7 respectively.Conclusion: Core stabilization training program may improve balance and decrease falling in elderly.

Objective: This descriptive study was conducted to determine the communicative problem between elders with Alzheimer disease and there caregivers.Materials & Methods: 100 main caregivers were selected by census. data was obtained by a questionnaire with a good validity and reliability. Its reliability was measured by internal consistency (de=0/96) and test-retest (d=0/96) methods. Data was analyzed by spss soft ware.Results: Findings showed that most caregivers (%74) expressed communicative problem with patient in high level, %17 in medium level and %9 in low-level.Significant correlation exist between age and sex of caregivers and amount of communicative problem with patient. Higher age was associated with increasing problems and female caregivers showed higher level of that problem. Also significant correlation exist between severity of patient disease and amount of communicative problem as with increases in disease severity, communicative problem increases.Conclusion: Effective communication is an important factor in gratifying physical and psychological needs. Besides, The results of present study indicate the seriousness of communication problems between the caregivers and patients. So, training the caregivers is necessary to enable them communicated effectively. This will also help them reduce their level of burden and fatigue.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the general health status in women as care givers of the elderly people with Alzheimer who attending to the Iranian Association of Alzheimer's Disease.Material & Method: In this descriptive -cross sectional study as a introductory stage of a randomized controlled field trial, 150 women were recruited with a consecutive sampling method. The study population of this study included the women as family care givers attending to the Iranian Association of Alzheimer Disease. In this study, the inclusion criteria was consisted of women who had 18-60 years old, be a close relative to elderly patients with Alzheimer disease, as well as they have had direct caring with the duration of at least six months. Data collection regarding assessment of general health of the women was a questionnaire including 28 items of Persian version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). For data analysis, descriptive statistics and chi square were used in the study.Results: The study findings showed that only 24% of the subjects had a good level of general health, but 58.7% and 17.3% of them had a moderate and weak general health respectively. There were significant relations between general health of the women as care givers and the variables stich as age (p=0.016), occupation (p= 0.008), type of relative (p=0.013), and economic status (p=0.049). However, there were not any significant relation between general health and the other variables of marriage situation (p=0.5), education (p=0.07), and duration of caring the elderly patients with Afzheimer (p=0, 205).Conclusion: According to the findings, the considerable percentage of the female care givers of elders with Alzheimer disease did not pose optimum level of general health. As Care givers' gender centered studies have seldom conducted in Iran, future researches should focus on different dimensions of health promotion among both male and female care givers.

Objective: The present study aimed at studying the health status of the elderly supported by Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation in Birjand in 2007.Materials and Methods: This descriptive analytical study was done on 250 elderly people who were supported by Imam Khomeini committee in Birjand. For data collection the comprehensive health questionnaire of the elderly was used. The questionnaire was filled out through interviewing with the subjects; and their weight, blood pressure, and height were measured under standard condition. The obtained data was analyzed by SPSS software and using chi-square test at the significant level p<0.05.Results: This study was conducted on 250 elderly people whose mean age was 7H8.7 years. The subjects included 119 (47.6%) females and 131 (52.4%) males.About 88.8% of the subjects were illiterate, 41.6% of them had problems in housing, 11.2% and 93.2% also had insurance and financial problems, respectively. Also 10.4% of the old people had a history of diabetes and 39.6% were hypertensive, 68% had vision problems and 10.8% was suffering urologic complications. As far as depression is concerned, 68.4% had mild depression and 3.2% had severed depression. Regarding cognitive problems, 24.4% ranged between mild to severe.Moreover, 24% of the subjects suffered malnutrition and 67.6% were at risk of it.Hypertension was more prevalent in males than in females (P=0.07); more in urban than in rural areas (P=0.04). There was a significant difference in the prevalence of depression in women compared with men (p<0.001); the prevalence was also more in the inhabitants of the urban areas in comparison with rural areas inhabitants (P=0.02). A significant difference was found between males and females in terms of daily activities.Conclusion: Regarding high prevalence of hypertension, hearing and vision problems- which are the underlying causes of other physical and mental problems of the elderly - it is necessary for health-care authorities, supporting committee (Imam Khomeini supporting committee), and other favoring organs to take more account of living and financial problems of the erderly.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of reminiscence therapy on elderly mental health.Materials and Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study. The sample was consisted of 57 elderly men and women who were residing in the HASHEMI NEJAD institution, were selected by stratified random sampling. Inclusion criteria were: 1) 65 years of age or more 2) Mental health score between 0-66.6 3) Speaking in Farsi 4) Listening and speaking ability acceptable to participate in meetings 5) Full-time life in nursing home 6) No history of psychiatric hospitalization and psychiatric treatment and grief experience during the past 6 months 7) Willingness to participate in research 8) orientation of data /place/person 9) At least six months staying in the nursing home 10) Not receiving any treatment that disturbed the mental ability or memory, or thought Mental health level of subjects was assessed with the use of the 28-item Goldberg General Health Questionnaire. The intervention consisted of 8 reminiscence sessions, twice in a week, for one hour and half. In these sessions the elderly told their good memories. The data were analyze by spssl 6 software and compared by t-test.Results: Findings of this study showed significant difference between pre and post test scores in all mental health dimensions (somatic symptom, anxiety and insomnia, social function and depression) and in total scores (p=0.001).Conclusion: Considering the results of this study, it is suggested that reminiscence therapy is effective on the elderly mental health improvement. Therefore we can use this easy, practicable and low cost technique in all nursing home.