Table of contents

Editorial
Meet the team
Dr Alan Walker
Original Contribution/Clinical Investigation
The discriminative value of two functional assessment scales compared for predicting falls in institutionalized elderly people in Iran
The relationship between depression and educational levels, the retirement years and chronic diseases of elderly men in area 6 of Tehran's municipality 2005
Evaluating Infectious Etiologies of Hospitalization in Elderly Population of Iran
Models and Systems of Elderly Care
The Economic Impact of Treating Geriatric Hip Fracture - A Study at Rustaq Referral Hospital , South Batinah Region, Oman
Clinical Research and Methods
Acceptable Satisfaction after Carpal Tunnel Decompression in Elderly Patients

 
Editorial
Editor: Abdulrazak Abyad

This is the second issue of the journal this year. This issue has a number of research papers from the region. All the papers in this issue are research papers we would like to encourage the readers to submit review papers and clinical cases.

A paper from Sultanate of Oman explore the economic impact of treating geriatric hip fracture. The author pointed that hip Fractures in Geriatric Population is on rise in Oman with need for increased number of hip fracture beds and this has heavy impact on the health service resources. The authors studied 150 patients who were admitted with a hip fracture to Rustaq Hospital. The mean total hospital expenditure per patient was found to be RO 1010.6 of which ward costs contributed 60 percent, operative costs 21 percent and investigations 19 percent. The conclusion was that these results have shown growing Economic Impact arising from the inpatient treatment of Acute hip fractures.

A paper from Iran evaluated the infectious etiologies of hospitalization in elderly
The medical Records of 667 hospitalized elderly patients (>65 year old) were reviewed retrospectively . Review revealed that respiratory tract infections (RTIs) were the most common cause of admission in infectious wards. In addition the study revealed that infectious wards are mostly crowded in summer and fall. These results mandate special care for prevention of respiratory tract infections. Dr Nooritajer M et al studied the relationship between depression with educational level, retirement and chronic diseases. This study was a cross- sectional study in which geriatric depression scale (GDS) was used. It was shown that nearly half of the elderly men have depression at the middle and sever status, so recognizing their problems and diseases is important for making the proper plans and interventions.

Dr Namazi H studied the factors that influence the outcome of carpal tunnel. He administered a questionnaire to 57 patients (83 hands ) over 60 years of age who had carpal tunnel decompression. In all patients preoperative nerve conduction studies scored by the grading system from 1 to 6. Seventy percent had marked to severe neurophysiologic changes (grade 4-6). The mean postsurgical symptom severity score was 1.47. There was a significant relationship between presurgical nerve conduction grade and postsurgical symptom severity score. Conclusion: Elderly patients have low postsurgical symptom scores and have good satisfaction level after decompression.

Dr Kamrani et al, A investigate the discriminative value of two functional assessment scales (Berg Balance Test and Tinetti Balance Scale) for predicting falls in institutionalized elderly people. The sample size of the study was small including fifty four subjects, 17 fallers and 37 non-fallers. The results of the study indicated much more discriminative value for Berg balance test scores than Tinetti.

We look forward to receive your contribution for the coming issue on Dec 2006.

 

Sincerely,

A. Abyad, MD, MPH, MBA, AGSF , AFCHSE