The benefits of a novel chicken-based oral nutritional supplement for older adults: A double-blind randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: A considerable proportion of older adults are lactose intolerant. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical safety, efficacy, and tolerability of a chicken-based oral nutritional supplement (ONS). METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: Double-blind randomized controlled trial. Subjects in the intervention group received chicken-based ONS, and those in the control group received a similarly flavored oral fluid placebo. All subjects were followed-up every two months for a total of 6 months. RESULTS: Thirty-eight older adults aged ≥70 years were recruited. The mean age and BMI were 81.5±5.6 years and 19.6±2.5 kg/m2. At the end of this trial, there was no statistically significant change in sarcopenia-related variables in the intervention group. However, the higher-level physical activity (PA) group within the intervention group had a significantly improved usual gait speed (UGS) compared to the lower-level PA group (p=0.04). The adjusted mean differences in UGS between the high and low level PA groups in the intervention and placebo groups were 0.149 m/sec and 0.083 m/sec, respectively. Significant difference was observed for changes in two bone markers between the intervention and placebo groups. CONCLUSIONS: The chicken-based ONS evaluated in this study was well-tolerated. No improvement of sarcopenia-related components was shown by the study ONS. Up to nearly an 80% increase in adjusted mean difference in UGS between the high and low level PA groups was observed in the nutritional intervention group compared to the zero-protein calorie placebo group. Significant improvement in age-related bone resorption was the earliest advantage of taking our ONS.

Risk factors for falls in the Thai elderly in an urban community.

BACKGROUND: Instability or falls in the elderly are a health condition meeting all criteria for prevention i.e. high frequency, evidence of preventability and a high burden of morbidity. The consequences of a fall affect not only the elderly per se such as fractures and various kinds of physical and mental impairment, but also the family and the society as a whole in terms of the financial expenditure involved. The need for a comprehensive study to identify the risk factors for falls among the Thai elderly is, therefore, crucial for further management. OBJECTIVE: To identify the significant risk factors for falls among the Thai elderly for further prevention and management. METHOD: A cross-sectional study in the urban community around Siriraj Hospital, Bangkok. 1,043 community-dwelling people aged > or = 60 years were recruited. A structured questionnaire, including mental test and physical examinations as well as various laboratory tests, were used to identify the risk factors for falls between faller and control groups. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of falls among elderly Thais in an urban area was 19.8 per cent during a period of 6 months. However, the prevalence was 24.1 per cent in women but only 12.1 per cent in men. Older people who were likely to fall also had a lower bone mass which predisposed them to future fractures. The independent risk factors for falls after multiple logistic regression analysis were: female gender, hypertension, deafness, poor memory, poor self-perceived health status, poor performance in the instrumental activities of daily living, kyphoscoliosis, use of spectacles, rapid pulse rate after a 5 minute rest, higher serum transferrin and poor nutrition in terms of low lean body mass and reduced serum albumin level. CONCLUSIONS: Special sense, activity of daily living, nutritional status, kyphoscoliosis, hypertension and cognitive ability were six important factors determining the likelihood of fall among the elderly in an urban area.

Strategy to prevent falls in the Thai elderly: a controlled study integrated health research program for the Thai elderly.

Instability or falls are one of the important warning symptoms of underlying serious illness among the elderly, so many studies have concentrated on the risk factors for falls. However, a study involving a strategic method to reduce the incidence of falls is the next step and is the main objective of this study. 1,043 elderly subjects living in the urban area around Siriraj Hospital Medical School, Bangkok, were recruited, 585 of them were allocated to the study group and 458 subjects to the control group. A leaflet containing information on important risk factors of falls within their community was enclosed with a follow-up postcard in the study group only. In addition, this particular group was allowed free access to the geriatric clinic at Siriraj Hospital if there was any health problem. All of them received a postcard asking about any falls which had occurred over the previous 2 months on 6 occasions and a telephone call if the postcards were not returned to the team. The percentage of elderly who kept in contact was 92.5 per cent, 90.6 per cent, 89.3 per cent, 89.2 per cent, 86.2 per cent and 85.45 per cent for the first to final follow-up respectively. After one year of longitudinal study, the overall incidence of falls was 6.6 per cent in the study group and 10.1 per cent in the control group. The incidence of falls began to show a statistically significant difference between the two groups at the fourth and sixth episodes of follow-up (P = 0.002 and 0.004). The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis also revealed a statistically significant difference in the incidence of falls between the two groups (P =0.01). In conclusion, the incidence of falls was significantly reduced in the study group and a repeated campaign to alert the elderly to the risk of falling is a cost-effective way of fall prevention among the healthy elderly in the community.

An electrocardiographic survey of elderly Thai people in the rural community.

UNLABELLED: Electrocardiographic findings in the elderly reflect both common cardiac diseases and physiologic ageing change. This cross-sectional population-based study explored the prevalence of various abnormalities in the electrocardiograms of active older people and those who are free from any cardiac pathology and determined their relationship to age and gender in a rural area of Thailand. Nine hundred and sixty three people aged 60 years or more were recruited. The electrocardiographic prevalence of ischemic heart disease, atrial fibrillation, left axis deviation and conduction defect were 5.5 per cent, 2.2 per cent, 2.5 per cent and 3.1 per cent respectively. After excluding diseases potentially affecting the heart, the prevalence of atrial fibrillation, left axis deviation and conduction defect decreased to 1.3 per cent, 2.0 per cent and 2.2 per cent. The prevalence of atrial fibrillation and ischemic heart disease were significantly less (p = 0.015 and 0.003) in the 80+ year old group. Regarding gender difference, only left axis deviation was found significantly more frequently in older men with an odds ratio of 5.23 (95% confidence interval, 1.28-30.29) in those who were free from diseases potentially affecting the heart. IN CONCLUSION: Atrial fibrillation should not be regarded as degenerative change, but the result of cardiac pathology instead. The most common electrocardiographic abnormality in normal older men was left axis deviation and was found consistently more often than in older women. Therefore, it is appropriate to investigate for any reversible causes of atrial fibrillation while it is not so for left axis deviation in older men.