Consider Loneliness in Senior Health Assessments

Researchers evaluated six years of data on 1,604 people 60 and older and found that 43% were classified as lonely. Compared with other study participants, those individuals were more prone to have their mobility decline, lose upper body strength, have trouble climbing stairs and decrease their daily activities. Loneliness also was associated with an increased risk of death, the study said.

A separate study of 8,594 adults 45 and older found that those between age 45 and 65 who live alone have significantly increased risk of mortality — and particularly cardiovascular-related death — than those who don’t live alone. That study also was published online June 18 in Archives of Internal Medicine.

via Doctors asked to consider loneliness in senior health assessment – amednews.com.

Vitamin D Plus Calcium May Cut Mortality Risk

Patients receiving both calcium and vitamin D had a 9% lower mortality rate through 3 years of treatment than those not receiving vitamin D (HR 0.91, 95% CI 0.84 to 0.98), according to Lars Rejnmark, MD, PhD, of Aarhus University in Aarhus, Denmark, and colleagues.

via Medical News: Vitamin D Plus Calcium May Cut Mortality Risk – in Primary Care, Diet & Nutrition from MedPage Today.

How about a non-prescription supplement and vitamin questionnaire?

No Age Limit on Benefits of Eating Well

Older people who eat properly are likely to live longer.

That’s the implication of a study looking at mortality and eating habits among a cohort of nearly 4,000 people 65 and older, according to Luis Afonso, MD, of Wayne State University in Detroit, and colleagues.

After an average follow-up of 13 years, participants with a good diet had lower rates of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, compared with those who had a poor diet, Afonso and colleagues reported in the Feb. 13 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

via Medical News:No Age Limit on Benefits of Eating Well – in Primary Care, Diet & Nutrition from MedPage Today.

I’ll take fries with that.

Patient Access to Core Attributes of Primary Care Linked to Lower Mortality

Specifically, authors of “Primary Care Attributes and Mortality: A National Person-Level Study” found that patients who reported three attributes in their usual source of care — comprehensiveness, patient-centeredness and enhanced access — had lower mortality during up to six years follow-up than patients reporting less access to those three attributes.

via Patient Access to Core Attributes of Primary Care Linked to Lower Mortality — AAFP News Now — American Academy of Family Physicians.