Age and Ageing journal

The January 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.

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:

• Frailty status predicts futility of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in older adults. This issue’s Editor’s Choice article investigates whether there is a “frailty threshold” beyond which CPR becomes futile. The findings may be useful in informing resuscitation discussions.
• The impact of COVID-19 on adjusted mortality risk in care homes for older adults. A large linked routine data set comparing mortality in nursing homes during the pandemic period with previous years.
• Care homes and COVID-19 in Hong Kong How the lessons from SARS were used to good effect in Hong Kong care homes, an interesting comparison.
• SARS-CoV-2 infection in care home residents and staff in Irish nursing homes. Describing the cases of COVID-19 in care homes in Ireland.
• Four articles discuss the complexities of using measures such as the Clinical Frailty Score (CFS) for COVID-19 treatment decisions and rationing:
  
  • COVID 19: prioritise autonomy, beneficence and conversations before score-based triage.
  • Rationing care by frailty during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Rationing care in COVID-19: if we must do it, can we do better?
  • A fuller picture of COVID-19 prognosis: the added value of vulnerability measures to predict mortality in hospitalised older adults.
• Mild Cognitive Impairment: the Manchester Consensus. This best practice guideline gives a state-of-the-art review of MCI, its definition, investigation, diagnosis and management.
• Medical assistance in dying and older persons in Belgium: trends, emerging issues and challenges gives both sides of the argument in a commentary on practical problems and dilemmas when confronted with a euthanasia request in an older person.
• Understanding and identifying ways to improve hospital-based cancer care and treatment for people with dementia makes a series of positive suggestions for improving cancer care for older people living with dementia.
• Earlier life leisure-time physical activity in relation to age-related frailty syndrome reinforces the importance of physical activity, finding that active people have less than half the chance of becoming pre-frail or frail in older age.
• Anaemia and physical and mental health in the very old found worse functional ability, cognitive function, depressive symptoms, and self-rated health in very old people with anaemia.
• Prevalence of frailty in 62 countries across the world This systematic review and meta-analysis found that prevalence appeared highest in Africa and lowest in Europe.
• Utilisation of general practice health assessments around an aged care assessment is associated with lower mortality risk describes use of routinely-collected ‘big data’ to evaluate the use and impact of health assessments and presents an opportunity to better manage frailty in older people.
   

  Click here for the full Table of Contents