Medical, psychological and sociological factors were related to laboratory values in an 80-year-old population encompassing 211 persons. 21% of the men and 17% of the women had elevated ESR. 36% had elevated blood glucose (7% had diabetes). 13% of the men and 7% of the women had anaemia. Persons with anaemia generally had a lower quality of life compared with non-anaemic persons. Low haemoglobin, elevated ESR and low serum iron were all associated with impaired subjective and objective health. There were no significant correlations between the laboratory data and psychological and social parameters. The survival over 5 years was significantly decreased for those with anaemia, elevated ESR, high white blood count, high blood glucose, low serum iron or deviating serum potassium.

Journal Article↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Medical, psychological, and sociological aspects of drug treatment in 80-year-olds.

The use of drugs was related to medical, psychological, and sociological parameters in an 80-year-old population. Use of drugs on the whole, as well as the use of specific drug categories such as digitalis, diuretics, other cardiovascular drugs, hypnotics, sedatives, analgesics and laxatives were related to an impaired quality of life. However, the use of vitamins and herbal pills was not related to an impaired quality of life. Use of hypnotics was related to neuroticism and to depressed mood. Persons using digitalis, diuretics and other cardiovascular drugs felt more lonely and had a stronger feeling of loneliness. According to a discriminant analysis, five questions could identify 70% of the persons using drugs. These questions were: frequency of visits to the doctor, subjective health, smoking (smokers used fewer drugs), feeling of loneliness, and objective health.

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