Age and Ageing journal

The May 2021 issue of Age and Ageing, journal of the British Geriatrics Society, is out now.

The journal is available in full to subscribers and BGS members and there is a sizable proportion of free or Open Access content which can be read without a subscription, including all COVID articles.

Rowan Harwood’s Editor’s View gives an overview of this latest issue and highlights some of the hot topics for our readers.

Featured content includes

• The COVID rehabilitation paradox: why we need to protect and develop geriatric rehabilitation services in the face of the pandemic: Describes the international need for special geriatric rehabilitation services to enable older people to participate in social life again.
• Frailty is associated with in-hospital mortality in older hospitalised COVID-19 patients in the Netherlands: the COVID-OLD study: A further study to join the body of published reports on the association between frailty and increased mortality among patients with COVID.
• What is the relationship between validated frailty scores and mortality for adults with COVID-19 in acute hospital care? A systematic review: This meta-analysis will be updated as further studies are published, hosted here by the British Geriatrics Society
• Recent mortality in Britain: a review of trends and explanations: Increase to life expectancy abruptly ceased from 2011 to 2016. This article reviews the potential role of economic austerity, government policy and influenza epidemics are discussed, but the phenomenon remains largely unexplained.
• Recurrent delirium over 12 months predicts dementia: results of the Delirium and Cognitive Impact in Dementia (DECIDE) study: Study findings propose that delirium is a potentially modifiable risk factor for dementia.
• The effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of assistive technology and telecare for independent living in dementia: a randomised controlled trial:  This large RCT found that use of ATT does not increase the time that participants were able to stay in their homes.
• Time-efficient physical activity interventions to reduce blood pressure in older adults: a randomised controlled trial: Six weeks of high-intensity interval training reduced systolic blood pressure by clinically significant amounts in older adults.
• Atrial fibrillation and oral anticoagulation in older people with frailty: a nationwide primary care electronic health records cohort study: Using ‘big’ primary care data to examine AF prevalence, treatment and outcomes. Only about half were prescribed OAC. Wider use of OAC in patients at risk of stroke will likely reduce the burden of stroke and associated disability.
• The Clinical Frailty Scale predicts adverse outcome in older people admitted to a UK major trauma centre: According to prior frailty, frail patients had lower injury severity scores but greater 30-day mortality, increased risk of delirium and greater post-discharge care needs.
• Changes in health and functioning of care home residents over two decades: what can we learn from population-based studies? The prevalence of severe disability and complex multi-morbidity has increased. These figures suggest the need for systematic routine data collection on the health and functioning of care home residents in the UK.