scholarly journals The Development of Subjective Checklist Measuring Change in Global Cognition

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 254-263
Author(s):  
Eunkyung Jeong ◽  
JungWan Kim
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Cognitive Changes ◽  
Life Patterns ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Measuring Change ◽  
Global Cognition ◽  
The Difference ◽  
With Memory

Purpose: There is enough evidence to support an informant based survey in screening efforts for the identification of cases of cognitive changes in community dwelling elderly. Therefore, this study focused on items affecting daily living activities more among the cognitive abilities in the elderly.Methods: The main focus of the current study was to assess the feasibility, reliability, and validity of a subjective checklist measuring change in global cognition (SCC-GC) for differentiation of subjects with memory impairment from community dwelling elderly. A total of 61 elderly individuals were administered a newly developed SCC-GC in order to determine its utility in measuring cognitive changes in the elderly.Results: SCC-GC consists of 1-3 questions in each of six sub-domains: subjective competence of cognition and language (1 item), reading and writing (2 items), usage and learning of internet (3 items), familiar daily activity (3 items), drinking alcohol (1 item), TV comprehension (1 item). Factor analysis indicated the total score of SCC-GC correlated with depression, memory and mental status. Also, we found that the difference in the total score of the SCC-GC has a significant difference between the groups.Conclusion: Through this study, it is expected that the cognitive changes can be easily checked by using their own daily life patterns and used periodically to help prevent cognitive impairment and dementia.

scholarly journals THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COGNITION, FUNCTIONAL ABILITIES, AND THE LATENT DEMENTIA PHENOTYPE AMONG CENTENARIANS

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S965-S965
Author(s):  
Jonathan Sober ◽  
John L Woodard ◽  
L Stephen Miller ◽  
Adam Davey ◽  
Peter Martin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Latent Variable ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Cognitive Status ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Functional Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Changes ◽  
Dementia Severity

Abstract Adequate assessment of cognitive abilities and functional capacity is essential for a diagnosis of dementia. However, cognition is only moderately related to functional status, and this relationship is poorly understood among centenarians, a group of older adults with high risk for dementia. A bifactor structural equation model can be used to delineate the variance attributed to dementia-specific related cognitive changes (i.e., the latent variable delta) and the variance due to general intelligence (i.e., g’). This study aimed to determine the validity of delta as a marker of cognitive decline among centenarians. It was hypothesized that delta was correlated with cognitive status, functional abilities and, dementia severity. Overall, 244 community dwelling centenarians (Mage = 100.58, 84.8% female) were recruited through the Georgia Centenarian Study, a population-based study of octogenarians and centenarians from northern Georgia. Older adults were administered measures of cognition and a self-report measure of functional abilities. Latent variable scores (i.e., g’ and delta) were modeled and correlated with standard global cognitive screening measures (i.e., MMSE) and measures of dementia severity. Results indicate that delta was significantly correlated with functional ability and cognitive abilities. Consistent with our hypotheses, delta was also significantly related to dementia severity. Overall, estimates of the latent dementia phenotype, delta, were significantly related to cognitive and functional abilities among centenarians, providing validation of delta as a useful index of dementia severity.

scholarly journals Evaluating A Math Instructors Clarity: An Analysis Of Low-To-Moderate Items Versus A High Inference Item

2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly D. Bradley ◽  
James W. Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Response Rate ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Student Evaluations ◽  
Introductory Statistics ◽  
College Level ◽  
Finite Mathematics ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Stability

Instructors and students identify communication skills as being essential to successful classroom teaching and student learning. This study investigates the stability of student evaluations with respect to items related to instructor’s clarity. The majority of student evaluations completed at the end of a semester at the college level contain a question directly related to clarity. A pilot study was conducted which utilized four finite mathematics courses being taught by the same instructor. After assessing reliability and validity, a follow-up study was conducted utilizing four sections of introductory statistics employing the same design as the pilot. Ninety-four students completed some component of the researcher-constructed evaluation resulting in an overall 96% response rate. Seventy-one students completed the entire evaluation, allowing for a comparison between the high inference and the low-to-moderate inference items used to measure instructor’s clarity, resulting in a useable response rate of 72%. After a statistical transformation of the high inference item, descriptive statistics were produced for each type of item. Through a t-test, a statistically significant difference was found between the high and low-to-moderate clarity items. The difference between the types of clarity ratings was then analyzed via ANOVA techniques to explore differences by gender and expected course grade. Males tended to rate the instructor inconsistently, assigning lower ratings for the low-to-moderate inference items, while other ratings appear to demonstrate consistency.

scholarly journals Cognitive decline after elective and nonelective hospitalizations in older adults

Neurology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 92 (7) ◽  
pp. e690-e699 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan D. James ◽  
Robert S. Wilson ◽  
Ana W. Capuano ◽  
Patricia A. Boyle ◽  
Raj C. Shah ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Decline ◽  
Sex Education ◽  
Hospital Admissions ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Education Medical ◽  
Global Cognition ◽  
Rate Of Decline

ObjectiveTo determine whether emergent and urgent (nonelective) hospitalizations are associated with faster acceleration of cognitive decline compared to elective hospitalizations, accounting for prehospital decline.MethodsData came from the Rush Memory and Aging Project, a prospective cohort study of community-dwelling older persons without baseline dementia. Annual measures of cognition via a battery of 19 tests were linked to 1999 to 2010 Medicare claims records.ResultsOf 777 participants, 460 (59.2%) were hospitalized over a mean of 5.0 (SD = 2.6) years; 222 (28.6%) had at least one elective and 418 (53.8%) at least one nonelective hospitalization. Mixed-effects regression models estimated change in global cognition before and after each type of hospitalization compared to no hospitalization, adjusted for age, sex, education, medical conditions, length of stay, surgery, intensive care unit, and comorbidities. Persons who were not hospitalized had a mean loss of 0.051 unit global cognition per year. In comparison, there was no significant difference in rate of decline before (0.044 unit per year) or after (0.048 unit per year) elective hospitalizations. In contrast, decline before nonelective hospitalization was faster (0.076 unit per year; estimate = −0.024, SE = 0.011, p = 0.032), and accelerated by 0.036 unit (SE = 0.005, p < 0.001) to mean loss of 0.112 unit per year after nonelective hospitalizations, more than doubling the rate in those not hospitalized.ConclusionsNonelective hospitalizations are related to more dramatic acceleration in cognitive decline compared to elective hospitalizations, even after accounting for prehospital decline. These findings may inform which hospital admissions pose the greatest risk to the cognitive health of older adults.

scholarly journals Assessing an Eliciting Narrative Tool Used for Studying the Development of Persian-speaking Children’s Narrative Discourse Skills

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-68
Author(s):  
Setareh Mojahedi Rezaeian ◽  
Abbas Ali Ahangar ◽  
Peyman Hashemian ◽  
Mehrdad Mazaheri
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Narrative Discourse ◽  
Oral Narratives ◽  
Children's Narratives ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Picture Story

Introduction: Developing children’s skills in producing oral narratives can reflect their linguistic and cognitive abilities. However, to evaluate these abilities appropriately, it is necessary to find and apply an efficient narrative assessment tool. This study primarily aimed to assess the reliability and validity of a picture story, as a narrative eliciting tool, based on Persian-speaking children’s narratives. This assessment is going to be done at the microstructure and macrostructure levels. Furthermore, to evaluate the power of the assessment tool, we explored the effect of age and gender variables on using different narrative elements at the microstructure and macrostructure levels. Materials and Methods: We used a picture story, “Frog, where are you?” to elicit oral narratives in 48 subjects, including 7-, 9-, and 11-year-old boys and girls. The reliability and validity of the tool were respectively assessed by test-retest and factor analysis. Results: The findings indicated a significantly high correlation between the evaluated features based on test-retest. Besides, factor analysis revealed four categories: sentence structures, references, conjunctions, measures of story length. They were valid indicators for assessing Persian-speaking children’s narratives. The results also showed a statistically significant difference among different age groups, but an insignificant effect of gender on using discursive features in the tales.Conclusion: The picture story “Frog, where are you?” can be used as a reliable and valid narrative eliciting tool for Persian data at the microstructure and macrostructure levels. Also, the age factor, but not the gender one, affects the stories recited by Persian children.

scholarly journals Is there a Difference between the Timed Up and Go Test and Physical Function due to the Difference in Perception of Slip?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuki Kubo ◽  
Yuta Suto ◽  
Shin Okazaki ◽  
Yuko Takahashi ◽  
Tonny Dian Effendi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Knee Extension ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Step Test ◽  
Elderly Subjects ◽  
Timed Up And Go ◽  
Wood Flooring ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Functional Reach Test ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Group 2

The purpose of this study was to examine whether there are differences in the timed up and go (TUG) test results and physical functions due to the differences in slip recognition when performing TUG on wood flooring. The study consisted of 30 community-dwelling elderly subjects, aging over 65 years old. The differences in the perception of floor slippage before and after TUG were as follows: (1) slippery-slipped group (S-S group), (2) slippery-not slipped group (S-N group), and (3) not slippery-not slipped group (N-N group). The modified falls efficacy scale, grip strength, knee extension strength, one-leg standing time, functional reach test, Trail Making Test (TMT), two-step test were used in this study. The results showed no statistically significant difference in TUG test. However, statistically significant difference was observed in TMT between the S-S and N-N groups (p = 0.019, r = 0.51, respectively) and between the S-S and S-N groups (p = 0.003, r = 0.65, respectively). It was found that there was no statistically significant difference in TUG results due to the recognition differences of slippage. However, it was suggested that the subject who reported a history of slippage had a high attention function and could pay attention to the floor environment.

scholarly journals Effects of Killing Liquids on the Larval Length of Forensically Important Lucilia sericata

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Halide Nihal Açıkgöz ◽  
Ali Açıkgöz
Keyword(s):  
Forensic Medicine ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Crime Scene ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Post Mortem ◽  
Larval Length ◽  
Honestly Significant Difference ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Paper Towels

Objective: Forensic entomological practices rely upon accurate larval identification and measurement of larval length, for the estimation of post-mortem intervals. The methods used for killing larvae may affect the length of larvae. In the autopsy hall, corpses which are contain entomological remains have been washed with grape vinegar. Besides, while collecting and killing the larvae on corpses, crime scene teams use ethanol 70% because it is practical. The aim of this study was to determine which of hot water (90°C), cold vinegar and cold ethanol 96% method, preserved the best the length of larvae. Materials and Methods: To achieve this aim, third instar larvae which are reared on 200 g of veal meat were killed using hot water, cold vinegar and cold ethanol. Before killing and after killing the maggots, their length was measured. To determine the difference between the groups to be compared ANOVA test, to reliability and validity analyses Kruskal-Wallis and whether there was any difference between the groups were made with Tukey’s Honestly Significant Difference (Tukey’s HSD) Results and Conclusion: Hot water was found to preserve the length of the larvae more accurately than cold vinegar and ethanol. Forensic medicine experts and crime scene teams should kill the larvae collected from a corpse for entomological examination using hot water, dry them in paper towels and preserve them in 96% ethanol and then send them to a forensic entomologist.

scholarly journals Occupational Complexity and Late-Life Global Cognition: The SONIC Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 780-780
Author(s):  
Yoshiko Ishioka ◽  
Yasuyuki Gondo ◽  
Yukie Masui ◽  
Takeshi Nakagawa ◽  
Hiroki Inagaki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Late Life ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Very Old ◽  
Multiple Group ◽  
Occupational Complexity ◽  
Path Models ◽  
Global Cognition ◽  
And Gender

Abstract Studies have reported that work exposure to cognitively demanding environments predicted the level of late-life cognitive abilities. To date, whether or not such a relationship between work complexity and cognitive function is maintained in very old adults remains unknown. In the present study, we examined how the associations between lifetime work’s complexity and global cognition vary by age groups (70s, 80s, and 90s). To this end, we used data from 2754 Japanese community-dwelling participants in the SONIC Project. Specifically, we tested multiple group path models comparing the models based on differences in age and gender. The effects of work complexities on global cognition were found for male septuagenarians and octogenarians, having controlled for the variables related to education. The relationships between them were marginally significant for male nonagenarians. Based on the analysis, we discuss the maintenance of cognitive reserve and implications for cognitive and physical health in very old ages.

Cranial crassicaudiasis in two coastal dolphin species from South Africa is predominantly a disease of immature individuals

2020 ◽  
Vol 139 ◽  
pp. 93-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
MF Van Bressem ◽  
P Duignan ◽  
JA Raga ◽  
K Van Waerebeek ◽  
N Fraijia-Fernández ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Bone Development ◽  
Bottlenose Dolphins ◽  
Fatal Outcome ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Cape Coast ◽  
Osteolytic Lesions ◽  
Immune Mediated ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Difference

Crassicauda spp. (Nematoda) infest the cranial sinuses of several odontocetes, causing diagnostic trabecular osteolytic lesions. We examined skulls of 77 Indian Ocean humpback dolphins Sousa plumbea and 69 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins Tursiops aduncus, caught in bather-protecting nets off KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) from 1970-2017, and skulls of 6 S. plumbea stranded along the southern Cape coast in South Africa from 1963-2002. Prevalence of cranial crassicaudiasis was evaluated according to sex and cranial maturity. Overall, prevalence in S. plumbea and T. aduncus taken off KZN was 13 and 31.9%, respectively. Parasitosis variably affected 1 or more cranial bones (frontal, pterygoid, maxillary and sphenoid). No significant difference was found by gender for either species, allowing sexes to be pooled. However, there was a significant difference in lesion prevalence by age, with immature T. aduncus 4.6 times more likely affected than adults, while for S. plumbea, the difference was 6.5-fold. As severe osteolytic lesions are unlikely to heal without trace, we propose that infection is more likely to have a fatal outcome for immature dolphins, possibly because of incomplete bone development, lower immune competence in clearing parasites or an over-exuberant inflammatory response in concert with parasitic enzymatic erosion. Cranial osteolysis was not observed in mature males (18 S. plumbea, 21 T. aduncus), suggesting potential cohort-linked immune-mediated resistance to infestation. Crassicauda spp. may play a role in the natural mortality of S. plumbea and T. aduncus, but the pathogenesis and population level impact remain unknown.

Perbedaan Penggunaan Antikoagulan K2EDTA DAN K3EDTA Terhadap Hasil Pemeriksaan Indeks Eritrosit

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 114
Author(s):  
Wahdaniah Wahdaniah ◽  
Sri Tumpuk
Keyword(s):  
Screening Test ◽  
Venous Blood ◽  
The Body ◽  
Ethylene Diamine ◽  
P Value ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Ethylene Diamine Tetra Acetate ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Index Value

Abstract: Routine blood examination is the earliest blood test or screening test to determine the diagnosis of an abnormality. Blood easily froze if it is outside the body and can be prevented by the addition of anticoagulants, one of which Ethylene Diamine Tetra Acetate (EDTA). Currently available vacuum tubes containing EDTA anticoagulants in the form of K2EDTA and K3EDTA. K3EDTA is usually a salt that has better stability than other EDTA salts because it shows a pH approaching a blood pH of about 6.4. The purpose of this research is to know the difference of erythrocyte index results include MCH, MCV and MCHC using K3EDTA anticoagulant with K2EDTA. This research is a cross sectional design. This study used venous blood samples mixed with K2EDTA anticoagulant and venous blood mixed with K3EDTA anticoagulants, each of 30 samples. Data were collected and analyzed using paired different test. Based on data analysis that has been done on MCH examination, p value <0,05 then there is a significant difference between samples with K3EDTA anticoagulant with K2EDTA to erythrocyte index value. Then on the examination of MCV and MCHC obtained p value <0.05 then there is no significant difference between samples with K3EDTA anticoagulant with K2EDTA to erythrocyte index value.Abstrak: Pemeriksaan darah rutin merupakan pemeriksaan darah yang paling awal atau screening test untuk mengetahui diagnosis suatu kelainan. Darah mudah membeku jika berada diluar tubuh dan bisa dicegah dengan penambahan antikoagulan, salah satunya Ethylene Diamine Tetra Acetate (EDTA). Dewasa ini telah tersedia tabung vakum yang sudah berisi antikoagulan EDTA dalam bentuk  K2EDTA dan  K3EDTA. K3EDTA  biasanya berupa garam yang mempunyai stabilitas yang lebih baik dari garam EDTA yang lain karena menunjukkan pH yang mendekati pH darah yaitu sekitar 6,4. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui perbedaan hasil indeks eritrosit meliputi MCH, MCV dan MCHC menggunakan antikoagulan K3EDTA dengan K2EDTA. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian dengan desain cross sectional. Penelitian ini menggunakan sampel darah vena yang dicampur dengan antikoagulan K2EDTA dan darah vena yang dicampur dengan antikoagulan K3EDTA, masing-masing sebanyak 30 sampel. Data dikumpulkan dan dianalisis menggunakan uji beda berpasangan. Berdasarkan analisis data yang telah dilakukan pada pemeriksaan MCH didapatkan nilai p < 0,05 maka ada perbedaan yang signifikan antara sampel dengan antikoagulan K3EDTA dengan K2EDTA terhadap nilai indeks eritrosit. Kemudian pada pemeriksaan MCV dan MCHC didapatkan nilai p < 0,05 maka tidak ada perbedaan yang signifikan antara sampel dengan antikoagulan K3EDTA dengan K2EDTA terhadap nilai indeks eritrosit.

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