Medical status of elderly patients consulting two oral and maxillofacial surgery departments in Germany.

An increasing number of elderly patients requires dental care. The data concerning the medical risk profile of seniors consulting dentists are scarce. In this context, the comorbidity-polypharmacy-score (CPS) could be an effective clinical tool to quickly assess the medical status of elderly patients. The medical data from 648 patients (60 years and older) of two cohorts (Fulda group [Fg] and Marburg group [Mg]) from two maxillofacial surgical units were recorded using a standardised questionnaire and compared concerning the number of the regular medications and the CPS. No medication was needed in 57 patients and 311 took 1 to 4 medications per day. Polypharmacy (5 or more medications per day) could be observed in 280 patients. The average medication was 4.28 in the Fg and 4.57 in the Mg groups (p = 0.249). Antihypertensives and antithrombotics were the most common medications. The CPS was subdivided into three groups (minor, moderate, severe). In total, 332 patients belonged to the minor group and 80 to the severe group. The average CPS was 7.49 in the Fg and 7.99 in the Mg groups (not significant). CPS was strongly correlated with age (p < 0.001) but not with sex. The prevalence of elderly patients with polypharmacy presenting for dental care is increasing. Scores like CPS may be a useful adjunct for quantifying the burden of disease in the context of dental treatment.

The influence of experienced severe road traffic accidents on take-over reactions and non-driving-related tasks in an automated driving simulator study.

Road traffic accidents (RTAs) are an ever-existing threat to all road users. Automated vehicles (AVs; SAE Level 3-5) are developed in many countries. They are promoted with numerous benefits such as increased safety yielding less RTAs, less congestion, less greenhouse gas emissions, and the possibility of enabling non-driving related tasks (NDRTs). However, there has been no study which has investigated different NDRT conditions, while comparing participants who experienced a severe RTA in the past with those who experienced no RTA. Therefore, we conducted a driving simulator study (N = 53) and compared two NDRT conditions (i.e., auditory-speech (ASD) vs. heads-up display (HUD)) and an accident (26 participants) with a non-accident group (27; between-subjects design). Although our results did not reveal any interaction effect, and no group difference between the accident and the non-accident group on NDRT, take-over request (TOR), and driving performance, we uncovered for both groups better performances for the HUD condition, whereas a lower cognitive workload was reported for the ASD condition. Nevertheless, there was no difference for technology trust between the two conditions. Albeit we observed higher self-ratings of PTSD symptoms for the accident than for the non-accident group, there were no group differences on depression and psychological resilience self-ratings. We conclude that severe RTA experiences do not undermine NDRT, TOR, and driving performance in a SAE Level 3 driving simulator study, although PTSD symptoms after an RTA may affect the psychological wellbeing.

Design of Paper-Based Visual Analogue Scale Items.

Paper-based visual analogue scale (VAS) items were developed 100 years ago. Although they gained great popularity in clinical and medical research for assessing pain, they have been scarcely applied in other areas of psychological research for several decades. However, since the beginning of digitization, VAS have attracted growing interest among researchers for carrying out computerized and paper-based data assessments. In the present study, we investigated the research question "Which different design characteristics of paper-based VAS items are preferred by women and men?" Based on a sample of 115 participants (68 female), our results revealed that the respondents preferred a paper-based VAS item with a horizontal, 8-cm long, 3 DTP ("desktop publishing point") wide, black line, with flat line endpoints, and the ascending numerical anchors "0" and "10", both for women and men. Although we did not identify any gender difference in these characteristics, our findings uncovered clear preferences on how to design paper-based VAS items.