Non-verbal cues to osteoarthritic knee and/or hip pain in elders.

Behavioral cues are believed to be useful to identify pain among elders who may be experiencing pain but unable to express it. To examine this assumption, we recruited 192 elders who could verbally express pain to determine whether regression models combining behavioral cues (motor and gait patterns) predicted verbal pain reports. In the best model, age (p < .01) and subscales that measured guarding (p < .001) and joint flexion (p < .01) motor patterns were significant predictors of verbal pain reports. The receiver operating characteristic curve indicated that the best cutoff for predictive probability was 40-44%, with a fair to good C statistic of .78 (SD = .04). With a 40% cutoff, sensitivity and specificity were 71.6% and 71.0%, respectively. The investigators concluded that the final model could serve as a building block for the development of a tool using behavioral cues to identify elders' pain.

Osteoarthritic knee or hip pain: possible indicators in elderly adults with cognitive impairment.

Many elderly individuals with cognitive impairment (CI) suffer from chronic pain resulting from osteoarthritis (OA). They have diminished ability to communicate their pain to health care providers, and when pain is undetected, it may be untreated. A method of detecting chronic OA pain in elderly individuals with Cl and measuring treatment outcomes is thus urgently needed. This article examines indicators of chronic OA pain in cognitively intact elderly individuals that could be used to identify pain in elderly individuals with Cl. The review suggests that patients with severe knee or hip OA pain tend to show specific motor patterns, disturbances of gait patterns, and reduction of activity level. Therefore, these behaviors could serve as alternatives to verbal report of chronic pain in elderly individuals with Cl and knee or hip OA.

Psychosocial effects of an exercise program in older persons who fall.

Falling is associated with psychosocial sequelae that may influence functional performance and fall risk. Exercise can improve psychosocial factors. To address the research questions (1) Do psychosocial variables differ among persons with and without falls? and (2) Among persons who fall, can exercise improve psychosocial variables? we evaluated psychosocial and functional performance variables in older persons with and without recent falls. A pretest and posttest design with a nonequivalent control group was used. Community-residing elderly individuals participated, 66 had falls in the past year (fallers) and 77 had no falls (nonfallers). Participants completed measures of self-esteem, depression, psychological impact, and functional performance at baseline and 6 weeks. Baseline descriptive characteristics for fallers and nonfallers were similar. Fallers then completed a 6-week exercise program. Exercise benefited fallers' self-esteem, depression, mobility, social role, social activity, and anxiety. Nearly 40% of fallers were clinically depressed before exercise and 24% were depressed after (p = 0.04). Psychosocial variables correlated significantly with quality of functional performance (p < 0.019). Among fallers, moderate exercise produced a significant improvement in psychosocial variables and functional performance (p < 0.045).

Balance, mobility, and falls among community-dwelling elderly persons: effects of a rehabilitation exercise program.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the short-term effect of an exercise-based rehabilitation intervention on balance, mobility, falls and injuries. DESIGN: This randomized, controlled trial with repeated measures was performed at an outpatient rehabilitation center. Elderly, ambulatory, community-dwelling volunteers underwent 6 wks of supervised stretching, balance, endurance, coordination, and strengthening exercises. Controls attended seminars. Data were recorded for time and quality performance on a functional obstacle course and for self-reported falls and injuries. RESULTS: From baseline through 6-mo follow-up, participants in the exercise group (n = 122) significantly outperformed those in the control group (n = 83). The exercise group's functional obstacle course quality improved 2.3% postintervention and 1.57% at follow-up compared with 0.3% for the control group for each time period (P = 0.001). Functional obstacle course completion time improved 7.69% at postintervention and 8.35% at follow-up for the exercise group compared with 4.0% and 3.4% for the control group. Of baseline fallers in the intervention group, 87% (compared with 34.5% for the controls) reported no falls in the subsequent 6 mos. Of those reporting injuries in the 6 mos preintervention, 89.7% in the intervention group (compared with 55.6% for controls) reported no injury at 6 mos postintervention. CONCLUSIONS: Our intervention can improve functional performance and protect against falls and fall-related injuries.