Public health and clinical approach to proactive management of frailty in multidimensional arena.

Background: Demographic changes have forced communities and people themselves to reshape ageing concepts and approaches and try to develop actions towards active and healthy ageing. In this context, the European Commission launched different private-public partnerships to develop new solutions and answers on questions related to this topic. The European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing, including topic related action groups as well reference sites committed towards a common action to facilitate active and healthy ageing, has contributed key elements for interventions, scaled up best practices and evaluated impact of their action to drive innovation across many regions in Europe over the past years. Methods: This paper describes action taken by A3 action group in the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing. This paper gives an overview of how the partnership combined the view on frailty coming from public health as well as the clinical management. Results: Within different European regions, to tackle frailty, EIPonAHA partners have conceptualized functional decline and frailty, making use of good practice models working well on community programs. The A3 Group of EIPonAHA has worked alongside a process of innovation, targeting all ageing citizens with the clear goal of involving communities in the preventive approach. Conclusion: Engagement needs of older people with a focus on functionally rather than disease management as primary objective is considered as an overarching concept, also embracing adherence, compliance, empowerment, health literacy, shared decision-making, and activation. Furthermore, training of staff working with ageing people across all sectors needs to be implemented and evaluated in future studies.

Treatment of allergic rhinitis during and outside the pollen season using mobile technology. A MASK study.

BACKGROUND: The analysis of mobile health (mHealth) data has generated innovative insights into improving allergic rhinitis control, but additive information is needed. A cross-sectional real-world observational study was undertaken in 17 European countries during and outside the estimated pollen season. The aim was to collect novel information including the phenotypic characteristics of the users. METHODS: The Allergy Diary-MASK-air-mobile phone app, freely available via Google Play and App, was used to collect the data of daily visual analogue scales (VASs) for overall allergic symptoms and medication use. Fluticasone Furoate (FF), Mometasone Furoate (MF), Azelastine Fluticasone Proprionate combination (MPAzeFlu) and eight oral H1-antihistamines were studied. Phenotypic characteristics were recorded at entry. The ARIA severity score was derived from entry data. This was an a priori planned analysis. RESULTS: 9037 users filled in 70,286 days of VAS in 2016, 2017 and 2018. The ARIA severity score was lower outside than during the pollen season. Severity was similar for all treatment groups during the pollen season, and lower in the MPAzeFlu group outside the pollen season. Days with MPAzeFlu had lower VAS levels and a higher frequency of monotherapy than the other treatments during the season. Outside the season, days with MPAzeFlu also had a higher frequency of monotherapy. The number of reported days was significantly higher with MPAzeFlu during and outside the season than with MF, FF or oral H1-antihistamines. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that the overall efficacy of treatments is similar during and outside the pollen season and indicates that medications are similarly effective during the year.

From the bench to practice - Field integration of community-based services for older citizens with different levels of functional limitation across European Regions.

The meeting of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIPonAHA) action group A3 together with members of the Reference site collaborative network (RSCN) in December 2019 in Rome focused on integration of evidence-based approaches on health and care delivery for older citizens at different levels of needs with expertise coming from stakeholder across Europe. It was the final aim of the group to co-create culturally sensitive pathways and facilitate co-ownership for further implementation of the pathways in different care systems across Europe. The study design is a mixed method approach. Based on data analysis from a cohort of community-dwelling over-65 citizens in the framework of a longitudinal observational study in Rome, which included health, social and functional capacity data, three personas profiles were developed: the pre-frail, the frail and the very frail personas. Based on these data, experts were asked to co-create care pathways due to evidence and eminence during a workshop and included into a final report. All working groups agreed on a common understanding that integration of care means person-centered integration of health and social care, longitudinally provided across primary and secondary health care including citizens' individual social, economic and human resources. Elements for consideration during care for pre-frail people are loneliness and social isolation, which, lead to limitation of physical autonomy in the light of reduced access to social support. Frail people need adaption of environmental structures and, again, social resource allocation to maintain at home. Very frail are generally vulnerable patients with complex needs. Most of them remain at home because of a strong individual social support and integrated health care delivery. The approach described in this publication may represent a first approach to scaling-up care delivery in a person-centered approach.

Key Messages for a Frailty Prevention and Management Policy in Europe from the ADVANTAGE JOINT ACTION Consortium.

In the 2015 Ageing Report, the European Commission (EC) and the Economic Policy Committee stated that coping with the challenge posed by an ageing population will require determined policy action in Europe, particularly in reforming pension, health care and long-term care systems. The concern for this situation motivated the EC, the Parliament and many of the Member States (MS) to co-fund, in the 2015 call of the Third European Health Programme of the European Union 2014-2020, the first Joint Action (JA) on the prevention of frailty. ADVANTAGE JA brings together 33 partners from 22 MSs for 3 years. It aims to build a common understanding on frailty to be used in the MSs by policy makers and other stakeholders involved in the management, both at individual and population level, of older people who are frail or at risk for developing frailty throughout the European Union (EU). It is a formidable challenge but also a great opportunity for concerted action resulting in fostering effective and successful policies in frailty prevention and management in the participating MS. The Consortium has 2 years of hard work ahead to contribute to the needed change for frailty related disability free Europe. The first practical step towards this aim was the preparation of a document: the State of the Art on Frailty Report to support an overview of evidence of what works and what does not work on frailty prevention and management. Subsequently, this will be reflected in the advice that the JA will give to policy makers at MS level. Overall, these messages intend to be an instrument of added value to advocate for policy driven decisions on frailty prevention and management in the JA participating MSs and subsequently towards a frailty related disability free older population in Europe. The aim of this paper is to describe ADVANTAGE JA general structure, approach and recommendations towards a European health and social policy which will support frailty prevention in the participating MS.

Geolocation with respect to personal privacy for the Allergy Diary app - a MASK study.

BACKGROUND: Collecting data on the localization of users is a key issue for the MASK (Mobile Airways Sentinel networK: the Allergy Diary) App. Data anonymization is a method of sanitization for privacy. The European Commission's Article 29 Working Party stated that geolocation information is personal data.To assess geolocation using the MASK method and to compare two anonymization methods in the MASK database to find an optimal privacy method. METHODS: Geolocation was studied for all people who used the Allergy Diary App from December 2015 to November 2017 and who reported medical outcomes. Two different anonymization methods have been evaluated: Noise addition (randomization) and k-anonymity (generalization). RESULTS: Ninety-three thousand one hundred and sixteen days of VAS were collected from 8535 users and 54,500 (58.5%) were geolocalized, corresponding to 5428 users. Noise addition was found to be less accurate than k-anonymity using MASK data to protect the users' life privacy. DISCUSSION: k-anonymity is an acceptable method for the anonymization of MASK data and results can be used for other databases.

Building Bridges for Innovation in Ageing: Synergies between Action Groups of the EIP on AHA.

The Strategic Implementation Plan of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA) proposed six Action Groups. After almost three years of activity, many achievements have been obtained through commitments or collaborative work of the Action Groups. However, they have often worked in silos and, consequently, synergies between Action Groups have been proposed to strengthen the triple win of the EIP on AHA. The paper presents the methodology and current status of the Task Force on EIP on AHA synergies. Synergies are in line with the Action Groups' new Renovated Action Plan (2016-2018) to ensure that their future objectives are coherent and fully connected. The outcomes and impact of synergies are using the Monitoring and Assessment Framework for the EIP on AHA (MAFEIP). Eight proposals for synergies have been approved by the Task Force: Five cross-cutting synergies which can be used for all current and future synergies as they consider overarching domains (appropriate polypharmacy, citizen empowerment, teaching and coaching on AHA, deployment of synergies to EU regions, Responsible Research and Innovation), and three cross-cutting synergies focussing on current Action Group activities (falls, frailty, integrated care and chronic respiratory diseases).

Bilateral leg edema in an older woman.

Bilateral leg edema is a frequent symptom in older people and an important concern in geriatric medicine. Further evaluation is frequently not performed and simple therapy with diuretics is prescribed. Particularly in older patients, long-term use of diuretics can lead to severe electrolyte imbalances, volume depletion, and falls. In this case report we want to focus the physicians' attention on the necessity to determine the cause and show a correspondingly effective treatment for bilateral leg edema in older people. A thorough approach is required to recognize diseases and to avoid adverse drug events as geriatric patients often show an atypical presentation or minor symptoms. The cause of swollen legs is often multifactorial; therefore, the patient's individual history and an appropriate physical examination are important. Depending on the clinical symptoms, evaluation including basic laboratory tests, urinalysis, chest radiography, and echocardiogram may be indicated. The most probable cause of bilateral edema in older patients is chronic venous insufficiency. Heart failure is also a common cause. Other systemic causes such as renal disease or liver disease are much rarer. Antihypertensive and anti-inflammatory drugs can frequently cause leg edema, but the incidence of drug-induced leg swelling is unknown. With the help of this special case we tried to develop an approach to the diagnosis of symmetric leg edema in older patients, a problem frequently neglected in geriatric medicine.

[Diabetes and osteoporosis: pathophysiological interactions and clinical importance for geriatric patients]. / Diabetes und Osteoporose: Pathophysiologische Interaktionen und klinische Bedeutung für geriatrische Patienten.

Osteoporosis is an age-associated disease, resulting in impaired bone quality and increased risk for bone fractures. Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus have--despite a normal or even increased bone mineral density--an increased risk for fractures, which is related to an imbalance between osteoblastic bone formation and osteoclastic resorption. Complex pathophysiological mechanisms associated with insulin resistance and hyperglycemia are involved in the deleterious effects on osteoblast function and bone formation. The quality and regimen of antidiabetic therapy are discussed as modulators of bone metabolism. Of great clinical importance is an assessment of the fall risk especially for diabetic patients, because late complications, such as neuropathy, but also side effects of medication can result in a significantly increased risk for falls. Lifestyle intervention is of advantage with respect to diabetes and osteoporosis prevention and therapy. Vitamin D supplementation results in favorable effects with a reduced risk for falls and also improvements of insulin sensitivity. According to published data, the safety and efficacy of specific medication for the treatment of osteoporosis (bisphosphonates, denosumab, selective estrogen receptor modulators) reveal no difference between patients with and without diabetes mellitus.