This is the last issue this year. The year has witnessed great improvement in the number and quality of papers and the frequency of the journal was increased to six issues per year in addition to the issuing of hard copies.

Our success is due to the contribution of the various authors from the region and the world, and the hard work of the production team.

In this issue a paper from Turkey looked through a cross sectional study at the relationship of falls, quality of life and depressive symptoms among community dwelling elderly. The study group which consisted of 250 seniors. In addition to demographic data, Health Related Quality Of Life Questionnaire Short Form 36 (SF 36), Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) were also performed for all subjects. Rate of falls was 26,6%. There were some parameters of quality of life questionnaire associated with falls. MMSE scores were also correlated with falls history. GDS were higher among those with insufficient social relationships. The authors concluded that the elderly with a history of falls were somewhat more exposed to socio-psychological inconveniences. They stressed that comprehensive geriatric assessment must be utilized widely in order to achieve early detection of the geriatric syndromes and to offer an individualized preventive approach for the senior citizens.

Two papers from Bangladesh dealt with population aging. The first papers carried estimates of some mortality measures such as age specific death rates (ASDRs), crude death rate (CDR), infant mortality rate (IMR), infant death rate (IDR) and child mortality rate (CMR) of Bangladesh in 2007. The secondary data on life expectancy at birth of Bangladesh is taken from UN (2006). These estimates are compared to the corresponding values of Bangladesh in 2005 and it is observed that these are showing a decreasing trend during 2005-2007. The second paper analyzed the dynamics and some aspects of ageing prevailing in Bangladesh. The author stressed that fertility and mortality decline with increasing the older population in Bangladesh.

Tareque I, Haque M, Mostofa G et al looked at Age, Age at Marriage, Age Difference between Spouses and Women's Empowerment. The authors stressed that women's empowerment has, during the last decade, become a panacea for Third World development. The authors constructed a women's empowerment index and then studied the plausible relationship among women's empowerment and age related variables like age, age at marriage, age difference between spouses etc. This study revealed that the empowerment of women increases with age and age at marriage of women.

Helvaci MR, Kaya H, Borazan A, Ozer C looked at breaking points of life for major health problems. The authors studied a total of 1068 cases . and they found that prevalences of hyperbetalipoproteinemia, hypertriglyceridemia, dyslipidemia, and excess weight showed their most significant progressions in the fourth decade of life (p<0.001 for all). Diabetes mellitus (DM) showed its most significant progression in the fifth (p<0.001), and hypertension (HT) and coronary heart disease (CHD) in the sixth decades of life (p<0.001). The authors concluded that aging may be one of the major disorders of human being, particularly in the presence of excess weight, and probably there are some breaking points of life for dyslipidemia, excess weight, DM, HT, and CHD with this order, and dyslipidemia may be a pioneer sign of excess weight.