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Biomedical subjects

G B Frisoni

Publications and source records attributed to G B Frisoni.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1998

Depressive symptoms of Alzheimer caregivers are mainly due to personal rather than patient factors.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the predictors of caregiver's depressive symptoms in a sample of community-dwelling Alzheimer's patients. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study was conducted in an Alzheimer's unit specifically devoted to the care of demented patients in Brescia Province (Italy). One hundred and three dyads were consecutively recruited between July 1994 and July 1995. Caregivers were sons/daughters (65%) or husbands/wives; mean age was 54.6 +/- 13.2. Alzheimer's patients Mini Mental State Examination score was 11.3 +/- 8.3; patients were equally distributed among disease severity levels. The following variables have been collected: (a) background and context variables (caregiver's age, gender, marital status, education, relationship and cohabitation with the patient, employment status, satisfaction with household income);(b) caregiver's personal resources (health, social relationships and social interactions, formal supports use, assistance and vigilance); (d) primary stressors (patient's age and gender, cognitive status, functional status, frequency of behavioural disturbances). Caregiver's depressive symptoms represented the main outcome measure. RESULTS: Being husband or wife, low self-rated health and caregiving competence, high numbers of hours for assistance and patient's behavioural disturbances and younger age were associated caregiver's depressive symptoms. With multivariate analysis only relationship to the patient, caregiver's health and competence were independent predictors of caregiver's depressive symptoms. CONCLUSION: Factors related to the caregiver--relationship, health and competence--rather than to the patient constitute the main risk factors for caregiver's depressive symptomatology.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

LEIPAD, an internationally applicable instrument to assess quality of life in the elderly.

A questionnaire to assess quality of life in the elderly was developed under the auspices of the European office of the World Health Organization. Stages in construction of the instrument, which was designed for international application, particularly at the primary level, are described. The latest version of the questionnaire is composed of 49 self-assessment item, 31 of which can be grouped into 7 subscales: Physical Function, Self-Care, Depression and Anxiety, Cognitive Functioning, Sexual Functioning, and Life Satisfaction. The remaining 18 items serve as moderators for assessing the influence of social desirability factors and personality characteristics on the individual scores for the 7 core instrument subscales. The questionnaire has been administered to 586 individuals aged 65 years and over recruited in communities in Italy (Padua and Brescia), the Netherlands (Leiden), and Finland (Helsinki). The main psychometric characteristics of the instrument, together with its concurrent validity with the Rotterdam Questionnaire, are illustrated.

Aged↗
PubMed1998

Validity of direct assessment of functional status as a tool for measuring Alzheimer's disease severity.

OBJECTIVE: to assess the validity of the Direct Assessment of Functional Status (DAFS) performance-based functional scale for the staging of dementia severity by comparing it with established clinical, functional and cognitive scales. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 93 consecutive Alzheimer's disease patients underwent DAFS. Socio-demographic variables, cognitive status (Mini-Mental State Examination; MMSE), global disease severity (Clinical Dementia Rating; CDR), disease duration, physical performance (Physical Performance Test, PPT) and functional status (as reported by the primary caregiver) were also recorded and basic (B) and instrumental (I) activities of daily living (ADL) assessed. RESULTS: a significant correlation was found between DAFS and MMSE (Pearson's r = 0.60; P < 0.01), PPT (r = 0.54; P < 0.01) and CDR (Spearman correlation coefficient: -0.48; P < 0.01). A mild, significant correlation was found between DAFS score and daily function as reported by the primary caregiver (r = -0.30 for BADL and r = - 0.27 for IADL). On multiple regression analysis, only MMSE and PPT were independently associated with the DAFS score, explaining 56% of DAFS total variance. ADL scales did not independently contribute to DAFS variance. A multivariate regression model of the association of DAFS with CDR showed that the association was significant even after adjustment for MMSE and PET, suggesting that DAFS scores provide additional information on dementia severity. CONCLUSION: DAFS is a valid tool for the assessment of dementia severity, capturing cognitive and physical aspects of disability.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1998

Special care units for demented patients: a multicenter study.

The local government of Regione Lombardia, Italy, recently (1994) funded a clinical and research project specifically devoted to dementia (Piano Alzheimer). A central role in this project has been reserved for the special care units (SCUs) for demented patients with behavioral disturbances. In order to evaluate their effectiveness, eight SCUs took part in this study. A specifically designed care program, focusing on environment and staff, was implemented in each SCU. Cognitive, functional, and somatic health status, and use of psychotropic drugs and of physical restraints were assessed at baseline, and after 3 and 6 months in 55 consecutively admitted patients. The data show an overall reduction in behavioral disturbances and a decreased use of psychotropic drugs and physical restraints.

Aged↗
PubMed1998

The prevalence of apoE-epsilon4 in Alzheimer's disease is age dependent.

The epsilon4 allele of apolipoprotein E is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. However, other yet unidentified factors might be involved. It has been suggested that the epsilon4 allele might be relatively less relevant in Alzheimer's disease with onset before age 60 and after age 80. The aim was to evaluate the association of the epsilon4 allele with Alzheimer's disease across a wide range of ages at onset. 156 patients with age at onset between 46 and 89 and 120 cognitively unimpaired subjects aged 53 to 89 as controls were studied. Age at onset in the cases and age in the controls were stratified into six groups (60 and younger, 60 to 64, 65 to 69, 70 to 74, 75 to 79, and 80 and older). Multivariable sex adjusted probit regression analysis was used to model epsilon4 prevalences in cases and controls across age. The sex adjusted relation of epsilon4 with age in controls was slightly negative with prevalence of 0.16 in the youngest and 0.09 in the oldest age groups. The sex adjusted relation in cases with Alzheimer's disease had a bell shaped curve with prevalence of 0.23 in the youngest age group, rising to 0.54 and 0.51 in the age groups 65 to 69 and 70 to 74, and decreasing to 0.12 in the oldest age group. It is concluded that the relation of the epsilon4 allele with Alzheimer's disease is age dependent, indicating that other risk factors might be relevant in the younger and older ages.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1997

Co-occurrence of disadvantage conditions in elderly subjects with depressive symptoms.

The aim of this survey study is to describe the association of symptomatic depression with the co-occurrence of psycho-social, functional, and somatic disadvantage conditions in 390 over 70 subjects living at home. The most disadvantaged tertile of various conditions (age, social support, cognition, social interactions, self evaluation of health, disability, number of diseases, and somatic symptoms) was associated with greater risk of symptomatic depression. A subset of conditions that might be causally related to depression (age, social support, financial welfare, diseases, and disability) was used to divide subjects into five levels of increasing multiple disadvantage conditions (MDC). Increasing severity of MDC level was associated with greater risk of symptomatic depression even after adjustment for gender and all five conditions used to define MDC levels (odds ratios ranging from 2.7 to 11.3).

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1997

The effect of chronic diseases on physical function. Comparison between activities of daily living scales and the Physical Performance Test.

AIM: to verify the capacity of basic and instrumental activities of daily living (BADL and IADL) disability scales and of a performance-based test (Physical Performance Test; PPT) to detect the effect on the functional capacity of several common chronic conditions in elderly people. METHOD: a cross-sectional survey of the entire population aged 70 and over, living in Ospitaletto (Brescia, northern Italy)-549 subjects; 89.6% of the eligible population; 179 males and 370 females-was carried out in 1992. A multi-dimensional questionnaire administered at the subject's home was used to collect information on demographics, presence of several common chronic diseases and BADL and IADL. Objective physical capacity was assessed using the PPT. RESULTS: only cognitive deterioration and depression were independently associated with disability, as detected by BADL or IADL scales. Cognitive deterioration, stroke, parkinsonism, heart disease and hearing and visual loss were independently associated with PPT. The performance at PPT remained statistically associated with most of the same diseases when the analysis was restricted to subjects with no BADL or IADL disability. CONCLUSION: a performance-based measure, such as PPT, may detect a functional limitation before it becomes measurable by traditional self-reported BADL and IADL scales.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1997

An Italian model of dementia special care unit: results of a pilot study.

A small feasibility study was performed in Italy to evaluate whether the special care unit (SCU) model could minimize behavioral disturbances in demented patients. In a nursing home an area was selected to provide an appropriate environment for individuals with dementia. The physical environment was adapted, and the staff was trained to meet the needs of demented patients. Sixteen residents were transferred from traditional wards to the SCU. Functional status, cognitive performance, behavioral symptoms, and use of psychotropic drugs or physical restraints were assessed before and 6 months after admission to the SCU. Our findings show that transferring demented persons from traditional nursing home wards to an SCU significantly lessens behavioral problems but does not improve functional abilities or cognitive status after a short period of follow-up. Changes in caring strategies (in particular the use of physical restraints) seem to be important in reducing behavioral problems. The regional government of Lombardia (8.5 million inhabitants) decided to open small (20-bed) SCUs in 60 nursing homes (corresponding to 3.5% of the total nursing home beds in our region) and to reserve these units for demented patients with a high level of behavioral disturbances.

Aged↗
PubMed1997

The Bedford Alzheimer Nursing Severity scale for the severely demented: validation study.

We evaluated the floor effect and convergent, discriminant, and known-group validity of the Bedford Alzheimer Nursing Severity scale (BANS-s), a rating scale comprising cognitive and functional items recently developed for grading severe dementia. Ninety-nine demented patients (81 females and 18 males aged 55-100 years) in two nursing homes were assessed with the BANS-s, established cognitive and functional scales [Mini Mental State Examination, the extended version of the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), Katz's basic activities of daily living, Tinetti balance and gait, and Crichton scales], a behavioral scale (UCLA Neuropsychiatric Inventory), and indicators of malnutrition (Prognostic Nutritional Index). A relevant proportion (40%) of patients scored close to the floor of all scales except BANS-s and CDR, which showed a more uniform distribution of scores throughout the possible range. Convergent validity of BANS-s with the other cognitive and functional scales was good, with Pearson's r ranging from 0.62 to 0.79. Discriminant validity analysis of BANS-s versus the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Inventory showed that the two scales measure different domains (Pearson's r = 0.36). To test known-group validity, all patients were divided into two groups of different severity as defined by the Prognostic Nutritional Index. BANS-s and CDR were the scales with the best ability to discriminate malnourished from nonmalnourished patients. As a further validity test, the 37 patients reaching the floor on other cognitive and functional scales were divided into two subgroups of different dementia severity as defined by the Tinetti scale. BANS-s but not CDR was able to differentiate the two groups.

Aged↗
PubMed1997

Is celiac disease associated with Alzheimer's disease?

An increased prevalence of celiac disease has been reported in neurological disorders of unknown etiology. A large proportion of Alzheimer's cases is still of unexplained etiology. Thirty-three Alzheimer's patients and 24 elderly controls were screened for celiac disease. IgA and IgG antigliadin antibodies were assayed in serum samples with enzyme-linked immunoassay. Confirmation of celiac disease in positive subjects was made by assaying IgA anti-endomysium antibodies by indirect immunofluorescence. Two Alzheimer's patients and 2 controls were positive for antigliadin antibodies (6 versus 8%; NS). None was positive for anti-endomysium antibodies. We conclude that the prevalence of celiac disease in Alzheimer's disease is not higher than in cognitively unimpaired elders, suggesting that the immune changes in celiac disease are unlikely to play a role in Alzheimer's disease.

Aged↗
PubMed1997

Which diagnostic procedures in the elderly? The case of late-onset Huntington's disease.

The typical adult-onset form of Huntington's disease (HD) is a clinical condition in which the latest advances of genetic research can be usefully applied during the course of the diagnostic process; not so clear are the guidelines for the much less frequent late-onset variant. We have recently seen three patients in their late sixties who had been misdiagnosed for up to 10 years due to the apparently isolated, mild, and slowly progressive nature of their hyperkinetic movements or cognitive disorders. Only after the results of DNA sequencing on a blood sample became available could the appropriate diagnosis of late-onset HD be reached. By contrast, neuroimaging studies lacked sufficient sensitivity and specificity. Appropriate neurogeriatric assessment in these cases should follow specific guidelines and should always include selected high-technology procedures.

Aged↗