[Demographic and socioeconomic factors associated with needs for home assistance among community-dwelling elderly: a study from the French Home Survey Handicaps-Disabilities-Dependence]. / Facteurs démographiques et socio-économiques associés aux besoins d'aide des personnes âgées vivant à domicile: une étude à partir de l'enquête Handicaps-Incapacités-Dépendance.

BACKGROUND: Gains in life expectancy in western countries have mainly come hand in hand with growing chronic diseases and disabilities related to the activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). Although these disabilities have been identified as predictors of institutionalization, the elderly in France continue to live at home, in the community, alone or with others. This work aims at identifying and assessing their needs for assistance and looks especially at the demographic and socioeconomic associated features. METHODS: Reported needs for assistance with ADL and IADL are studied through a representative sample of 8,745 people aged 60 years and older and living at home in 1999, taken from the French cross-sectional "Handicaps-Disabilities-Dependence" survey. Statistical associations (non-adjusted and adjusted Odds-Ratio-OR) have been computed in a conceptual framework derived from Andersen and Newman's behavioural model. RESULTS: More than 1 million people aged 60 years and older need assistance from another person to perform at least one ADL (bathing, dressing, going to toilet, eating, transferring, getting outside) and about 2.5 millions persons for at least one IADL (shopping, food preparation, housekeeping). Need for assistance for at least one ADL is associated with age (OR=1.4 for 70-79, 3.6 for 80+); male aged 80 and older (OR=0.5); low educational status (OR=1.5); being married (OR=1.7) or living with an other person (OR=2); a disposable income less than 540 euro per capita and per month or between 540 and 1,080 euro (OR=1.3); impairments: motor (OR=3), language (OR=2.1), visual (OR=1.7), mental (OR=1.5) and other (OR=1.2); availability of home equipment devices (OR=3.5), technical devices for moving inside (OR=3) and others (OR=2.1). Need for assistance is especially high among those who required assistance (OR=4) or proxies (OR=5.5) to answer. Declared need for assistance for at least one IADL is roughly associated with the same factors. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the declared needs for human assistance are based not exclusively on functional limitations but are also related to the social and environmental setting.

Isospin diffusion and the nuclear symmetry energy in heavy ion reactions.

Using symmetric 112Sn+112Sn, 124Sn+124Sn collisions as references, we probe isospin diffusion in peripheral asymmetric 112Sn+124Sn, 124Sn+112Sn systems at an incident energy of E/A=50 MeV. Isoscaling analyses imply that the quasiprojectile and quasitarget in these collisions do not achieve isospin equilibrium, permitting an assessment of isospin transport rates. We find that comparisons between isospin sensitive experimental and theoretical observables, using suitably chosen scaled ratios, permit investigation of the density dependence of the asymmetry term of the nuclear equation of state.

Isospin fractionation in nuclear multifragmentation

Isotopic distributions for light particles and intermediate mass fragments have been measured for 112Sn+112Sn, 112Sn+124Sn, 124Sn+112Sn, and 124Sn+124Sn collisions at E/A = 50 MeV. Isotope, isotone, and isobar yield ratios are utilized to estimate the isotopic composition of the gas phase at freeze-out. Analyses within the equilibrium limit imply that the gas phase is enriched in neutrons relative to the liquid phase represented by bound nuclei. These observations suggest that neutron diffusion is commensurate with or more rapid than fragment production.