Impact of Social Isolation Due to COVID-19 on Health in Older People: Mental and Physical Effects and Recommendations.

OBJECTIVES: To review the impact of social isolation during COVID-19 pandemic on mental and physical health of older people and the recommendations for patients, caregivers and health professionals. DESIGN: Narrative review. SETTING: Non-institutionalized community-living people. PARTICIPANTS: 20.069 individuals from ten descriptive cross-sectional papers. MEASUREMENTS: Articles since 2019 to 2020 published on Pubmed, Scielo and Google Scholar databases with the following MeSh terms ('COVID-19', 'coronavirus', 'aging', 'older people', 'elderly', 'social isolation' and 'quarantine') in English, Spanish or Portuguese were included. The studies not including people over 60 were excluded. Guidelines, recommendations, and update documents from different international organizations related to mental and physical activity were also analysed. RESULTS: 41 documents have been included in this narrative review, involving a total of 20.069 individuals (58% women), from Asia, Europe and America. 31 articles included recommendations and 10 addressed the impact of social distancing on mental or physical health. The main outcomes reported were anxiety, depression, poor sleep quality and physical inactivity during the isolation period. Cognitive strategies and increasing physical activity levels using apps, online videos, telehealth, are the main international recommendations. CONCLUSION: Mental and physical health in older people are negatively affected during the social distancing for COVID-19. Therefore, a multicomponent program with exercise and psychological strategies are highly recommended for this population during the confinement. Future investigations are necessary in this field.

Generation of AsH(3) from As(V) in the absence of KI as prereducing agent: Speciation of inorganic arsenic.

It is shown that the potassium iodide to the samples to reduce As(V) to AS(III) is not essential when total inorganic arsenic is determined by molecular spectrophotometry (trapping AsH(3) in Ag-DDTC) or by atomic-absorption spectrometry (if Ar flow-rate and NaBH(4) addition rate are controlled in 6M hydrochloric acid medium). Furthermore, in the presence of low concentration of organic arsenic, a method is reported for the selective determination of inorganic As(III) and As(V), based on the use of citrate/citric acid medium to determine As(III) and hydrochloric acid to determine total inorganic As. As(V) is determined by the difference between total inorganic As and As(III). The interference level of organic arsenic species (monomethylarsenic acid and dimethylarsenic acid) in the determination of total inorganic arsenic and AS(III) in 6M hydrochloric acid and citrate/citric acid medium respectively, is reported in the text. The developed method is applied to determine As(III) and As(V) in spiked, tap and waste waters and in lake sediments.

Effect of prospidine administered at different times of the day on the development and growth of N-nitrosomethylurea-induced mammary tumors in Wistar rats.

The chemotherapeutic effectiveness of intraperitoneal administration of prospidine (50 mg/kg per day during the initial 14 days of study) was evaluated, on a circadian basis, on the N-nitrosomethylurea (NMU)-induced mammary tumors in female rats. Untreated rats showed a progressive increase in the mean tumor area and total tumor area/rat. At the end of treatment the average tumor area and total tumor area/rat in the animals treated at 0800, 1400 and 2000 h were significantly lower than the values in the control group by week 2. By weeks 3 and 4 the mean tumor area and total tumor area in all groups of treated rats were significantly lower than those in the untreated animals. The mean tumor area by weeks 5 and 6 in the animals treated at 0800 h were significantly lower than in the group treated at 0200 h, and the mean value by week 6 in the group treated at 1400 h was significantly lower than those from the groups treated either at 2000 h or 0200 h. The mean total tumor area/rat in rats treated at 1400 h was, by week 6, significantly lower than in animals treated either at 2000 h or 0200 h. A transient reduction in body weight was registered at the end of prospidine treatment.

[Chronotherapy of breast cancer induced by N-nitrosomethylurea in the rat. I. Effect of a high dose of cyclophosphamide administered at 8:00 and 14:00 hours]. / Cronoterapia del cáncer de mama inducido con N-nitrosometilurea en la rata. I. Efecto de una dosis elevada de ciclofosfamida administrada a las 8.00 y 14.00 horas.

The administration of cyclophosphamide (200 mg/kg) intraperitoneally produces a high mortality in Wistar rats bearing mammary tumors induced by N-methylnitrosourea. The effect is more marked when the drug is administered at 8:00 A.M. than when given at 2:00 P.M. The injection of cyclophosphamide at 2:00 P.M. slowers the tumor growth, the effect being significative after two weeks compared with the control animals, and after four weeks when compared with the animals receiving the drug at 8:00 A.M.