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This is the first issue this year and we are glad with
the progress the journal has made but the field of research
on aging in the region is still deficient as is clear
from the number of papers received and the number of
papers on ageing coming from the region and published
in international journals as well.
In this issue we have a cross
sectional study from Egypt that studied the prevalence
of polypharmacy and inappropriate medication use among
elderly persons in an Egyptian rural area. The authors
stressed that Polypharmacy contributes to medication
errors, non-compliance and increased risk of hospitalization
leading to poor quality of life. The authors noted that
the percentage of polypharmacy was 56%. In addition
inappropriate medication use was reported in 41% of
the participating elderly. The authors concluded that
polypharmacy is an important problem in the elderly
population. There is a high significant association
between the number of physicians' consultations and
polypharmacy. There is significant relation between
polypharmacy and inappropriate medication use.
Using an internationally developed
instrument for the elderly in the Arabic culture is
not possible without proper validation. A paper from
Mansoura University looked at Validation of the Arabic
version of the Berg Balance Scale. The authors translated
Berg Balance scale (BBS) to the Arabic language (A-BBS)
and evaluated its reliability and validity. The authors
found that the Arabic version of BBS shows high internal
consistency with a Cronbach's ? of the total scale of
0.91. The correlation coefficient values for intra-rater
and inter-rater reliability of the total score are 0.97
and 0.95, respectively. The authors concluded that despite
the sample size of our study population (n=60), the
Arabic version of BBS appears to be a reliable and valid
instrument with high internal consistency to be used
in the elderly living in a community setting.
A paper from Bangladesh looked
at the Problems and Needs of Elderly People. The authors
estimated that 7.3 million people are currently 60 years
on older, and it is projected that these number will
increase by 173 percent by 2025. Around 34 percent of
the Bangladeshi population lives below the national
poverty line (UNDP 2003), and 36 percent of the population
earns less then $1 a day. It is one of the poorest countries
in the world. The author focuses on various problems
and needs of elderly people in Bangladesh, like health
problems, mental problems and problems of health care
services, housing, security and so on. At the end he
gives some recommendations on how to eradicate major
problems and needs of the elderly people in Bangladesh.
A randomized double blind study from Jordan looked at
the effect of Transversus abdominis block on decreasing
pain following laparoscopic cholecystectomy in elderly
patients. The authors found that the amount of morphine
consumption postoperatively was significantly less in
transversus abdominis block. They concluded that preoperative
transversus abdominis block improves postoperative pain
outcome after laparoscopic surgeries .
A second prospective,
controlled double blind study from Jordan looked at
the use of Tramadol to compare the analgesic effect
of morphine and tramadol for postoperative pain after
thoracic surgeries. The authors found that Morphine
and Tramadol has the same equipotency to reduce post
operative pain following thoracic surgical procedures
over the first three hours.
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