The Role of Subjective Age in Predicting Post-Hospitalization Outcomes of Older Adults.

INTRODUCTION: Studies of community-dwelling older adults find subjective age affects health and functional outcomes. This study explored whether younger subjective age serves as a protective factor against hospital-associated physical, cognitive, and emotional decline, well-known consequences of hospitalization among the elderly. METHODS: This study is a secondary data analysis of a subsample (N = 262; age: 77.5 ± 6.6 years) from the Hospitalization Process Effects on Mobility Outcomes and Recovery (HoPE-MOR) study. Psychological and physical subjective age, measured as participants' reports on the degree to which they felt older or younger than their chronological age, was assessed at the time of hospital admission. Independence in activities of daily living, life-space mobility, cognitive function, and depressive symptoms were assessed at hospital admission and 1 month post-discharge. RESULTS: The odds of decline in cognitive status, functional status, and community mobility and the exacerbation of depressive symptoms were significantly lower in those reporting younger vs. older psychological subjective age (odds ratio [OR] = 0.68, 95% CI = 0.46-0.98; OR = 0.59, 95% CI = 0.36-0.98; OR = 0.64, 95% CI = 0.44-0.93; OR = 0.64, 95% CI = 0.43-0.96, respectively). Findings were significant after controlling for demographic, functional, cognitive, emotional, chronic, and acute health predictors. Physical subjective age was not significantly related to post-hospitalization outcomes. CONCLUSION: Psychological subjective age can identify older adults at risk for poor hospitalization outcomes and should be considered for preventive interventions.

Adapting the Geriatric Institutional Assessment Profile for different countries and languages: A multi-language translation and content validation study.

BACKGROUND: Hospitalization can be hazardous for older people, but most hospitals in Europe are not prepared to meet the unique needs of older adult inpatients. Adaptations of the physical environment, care processes, and staff knowledge and skills in geriatric care are essential to improve the quality of care for older people. An assessment of baseline organizational approaches to older adult care is an important first step toward recognizing the challenges organizations face when delivering acute care services to older adults and attempting to improve them. The Geriatric Institutional Assessment Profile could be a promising tool for this endeavor. OBJECTIVES: To describe a systematic process implemented across seven countries and languages that sought to develop valid and culturally-appropriate translations of the Geriatric Institutional Assessment Profile. DESIGN: Cross-cultural instrument translation and content validation study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Expert review panels comprised of 68 practicing nurses from seven European or EU associated countries (Austria (German), Belgium (Dutch), Denmark (Danish), Israel (Hebrew), Poland (Polish), Switzerland (German, French), and Turkey (Turkish)) evaluated cross-cultural relevance, including translation, of the Geriatric Institutional Assessment Profile. METHOD: A systematic approach to translating and validating a cross-cultural survey instrument, including back-to-back translation, adaptation, and evaluation of content validity using content validity indexing (CVI) techniques for each country and language, assessing translation and relevance content validity separately. The item, subscale and domain content validity index scores were calculated and adjusted for chance agreement among raters for all parts of the Geriatric Institutional Assessment Profile: the four subscales of geriatric care environment, the general knowledge about older adults subscale, and the clinical geriatric knowledge subscale. Consensus discussions among the raters then finalized translations. RESULTS: CVI scores for relevance and translation were all in the "good" to "excellent" range. The geriatric care environment scale's CVI scores were 0.84 to 0.94 for relevance and 0.82 to 0.98 for translation. The clinical geriatric knowledge subscale's CVI scores were 0.83 to 0.97 for relevance and 0.94 to 0.98 for translation. The general knowledge about older adults subscale received high translation agreement (0.93 to 0.99) but slightly lower scores for relevance, ranging from 0.46 to 0.94. CONCLUSION: Study results provided preliminary evidence of the applicability and validity of a multi-factor measure of age-friendly care in diverse health care systems, in German, Dutch, Danish, Hebrew, Polish, French, and Turkish languages.