Estimating the effect of health assessments on mortality, physical functioning and health care utilisation for women aged 75 years and older.

Health assessments have potential to improve health of older people. This study compares long-term health care utilisation, physical functioning, and mortality for women aged 75 years or over who have had a health assessment and those who have not. Prospective data on health service use, physical functioning, and deaths among a large cohort of women born 1921-26 were analysed. Propensity score matching was used to produce comparable groups of women according to whether they had a health assessment or not. The study population included 6128 (67.3%) women who had an assessment, and 2971 (32.7%) women who had no assessment. Propensity matching produced 2101 pairs. Women who had an assessment had more use of other health services, longer survival, and were more likely to survive with high physical functioning compared to women with no assessment. Among women who had good baseline physcial functioning scores, women who had an assessment had significantly lower odds of poor outcomes at 1000 days follow-up compared to women who had no assessment (OR: 0.67, 95%CI: 0.52, 0.85). This large observational study shows the real-world potential for assessments to improve health outcomes for older women. However, they also increased health service use. This increased healthcare is likely to be an important mechanism in improving the women's health outcomes.

Peripheral neuropathy in military aircraft maintenance workers in Australia.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine possible persisting peripheral neuropathy in a group who undertook fuel tank repairs on F-111 aircraft, relative to two contemporaneous comparison groups. METHODS: Vibration perception threshold (VPT) was tested using biothesiometry in 614 exposed personnel, compared with two unexposed groups (513 technical trades and 403 nontrades). Regression modeling was used to examine associations, adjusting for possible confounders. RESULTS: We observed that 26% of participants had chronic persistent increased VPT in the great toe. In contrast, statistically significant higher VPT of the great toe was observed in the comparison groups; however, the effect was small, about 1/4 the magnitude of diabetes. Age, height, and diabetes were all significant and strong predictors in most models. CONCLUSION: This study highlights chronic persisting peripheral neuropathy in a population of aircraft maintainers.

Older Australian women's use of dentists: a longitudinal analysis over 6 years.

AIM: To identify factors associated with dentist consultation by older Australian women. METHODS: Participants from the older cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health which originally involved 12 432 older women. RESULTS: The percentage of women who consulted a dentist in the years 1999, 2002 and 2005 were 35%, 36% and 37%, respectively. Women were more likely to consult with a dentist if they lived in urban areas (RR = 1.26; 95% CI: 1.21, 1.32), were non-smokers (RR = 1.38; 95% CI: 1.21, 157), did not have diabetes (RR = 1.16; 95% CI: 1.08, 1.25), had better physical health (RR = 1.02 (95% CI: 1.01, 1.02). Women were less likely to consult with a dentist if they found it difficult to live on their income (RR = 0.90; 95% CI: 085, 0.95). CONCLUSION: Access to dentists, cost of consultations and poor health appear to be significant factors influencing visits to a dentist by older Australian women.