Age and Ageing journal

The March 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:

• SEeking AnsweRs for Care Homes during the COVID-19 pandemic (COVID SEARCH). An innovative WhatsApp group provided a platform for information sharing and support amongst a network of care home staff during the pandemic.

• Effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on disease recognition and utilisation of healthcare services in the older population in Germany. A cross-sectional study found that organisational changes were adopted quickly by practice management but also raised concerns about the maintenance of routine care.

• Can health behaviours prolong survival and compress the period of survival with the disability? A population-based cohort study found that health behaviours could prolong the lifespan, and leisure activities may reduce years lived with disability.

• Moving more, ageing happy: findings from six low- and middle-income countries. Findings strengthen the potential for physical activity promotion as a supportive strategy to improve older adults’ positive psychological states in LMICs.

• A dose response relationship between accelerometer assessed daily steps and depressive symptoms in older adults. Accumulating ≥7,000 steps a day could provide the greatest protection against depressive symptoms.

• Follow-up of a Wuqinxi exercise at home programme to reduce pain and improve function for knee osteoarthritis in older people. This randomised controlled trial found Wuqinxi was an effective home-exercise achieving high adherence in older adults with knee osteoarthritis.

• Cost-effectiveness of a preventive self-care health management program for community-dwelling older adults. The intervention was probably cost-effective in improving quality of life, despite this being a difficult outcome in which to demonstrate changes.

• Frailty among middle-aged and older Canadians: population norms for the frailty index using the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. Useful information for clinicians, researchers, stakeholders and the general public to understand frailty, especially its relationship with age and sex.

• The geriatrician’s role in end-of-life care. This commentary on the BGS guidelines emphasises the similarities between geriatric and palliative medicine, in terms of both philosophy and clinical practice, and suggests that all medical care of frail older people should be informed by palliative care principles.

• Rapid review of decision-making for place of care and death in older people: lessons for COVID-19. Preparedness and a sense of control were found to be important for both patients and their families in making decisions.

• Deprescribing in older people approaching end-of-life: development and validation of STOPPFrail version 2. Updated to assist physicians in efforts to optimize quality of life and minimize treatment burden for their frailest older patients.