Home  About us  Contact
 

Health Trajectories (health + trajectory)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Medical Sciences100%

Selected Abstracts

Holocaust Survivors in Old Age: The Jerusalem Longitudinal Study

JOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 3 2008
Jochanan Stesssman MD
OBJECTIVES: To examine the hypothesis that Holocaust exposure during young adulthood negatively affects physical aging, causing greater morbidity, faster deterioration in health parameters, and shorter survival. DESIGN: A longitudinal cohort study of the natural history of an age-homogenous representative sample born in 1920/21 and living in Jerusalem. SETTING: Community-based home assessments. PARTICIPANTS: Four hundred fifty-eight subjects of European origin aged 70 at baseline and 77 at follow-up. MEASUREMENTS: Comprehensive assessment of physical, functional, and psychosocial domains; biographical history of concentration camp internment (Camp), exposure to Nazi occupation during World War II (Exposure), or lack thereof (Controls); and 7-year mortality data from the National Death Registry. RESULTS: Holocaust survivors of the Camp (n=93) and Exposure (n=129) groups were more likely than Controls (n=236) to be male and less educated and have less social support (P=.01), less physical activity (P=.03), greater difficulty in basic activities of daily living (P=.009), poorer self-rated health (P=.04), and greater usage of psychiatric medication (P=.008). No other differences in health parameters or physical illnesses were found. Holocaust survivors had similar rates of deterioration in health and illness parameters over the follow-up period, and 7-year mortality rates were identical. Proportional hazard models showed that being an elderly Holocaust survivor was not predictive of greter 7-year mortality. CONCLUSION: Fifty years after their Holocaust trauma, survivors still displayed significant psychosocial and functional impairment, although no evidence was found to support the hypothesis that the delayed effects of the trauma of the Holocaust negatively influence physical health, health trajectories, or mortality. [source]

Life Course Health Development: An Integrated Framework for Developing Health, Policy, and Research

THE MILBANK QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2002
Neal Halfon
This article describes the Life Course Health Development (LCHD) framework, which was created to explain how health trajectories develop over an individual's lifetime and how this knowledge can guide new approaches to policy and research. Using recent research from the fields of public health, medicine, human development, and social sciences, the LCHD framework shows that ,Health is a consequence of multiple determinants operating in nested genetic, biological, behavioral, social, and economic contexts that change as a person develops. ,Health development is an adaptive process composed of multiple transactions between these contexts and the biobehavioral regulatory systems that define human functions. ,Different health trajectories are the product of cumulative risk and protective factors and other influences that are programmed into biobehavioral regulatory systems during critical and sensitive periods. ,The timing and sequence of biological, psychological, cultural, and historical events and experiences influence the health and development of both individuals and populations. The life course health development (LCHD) framework organizes research from several fields into a conceptual approach explaining how individual and population health develops and how developmental trajectories are determined by interactions between biological and environmental factors during the lifetime. This approach thus provides a construct for interpreting how people's experiences in the early years of life influence later health conditions and functional status. By focusing on the relationship between experiences and the biology of development, the LCHD framework offers a better understanding of how diseases occur. By suggesting new strategies for health measurement, service delivery, and research, as well as for improving health outcomes, this framework also supports health care-purchasing strategies to develop health throughout life and to build human health capital. [source]

The health of Australian baby boomers

AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL ON AGEING, Issue 1 2010
Nancy Humpel
The large baby boomer cohort is beginning to reach retirement age. This paper reviews recent Australian literature on baby boomers' health and health behaviours. Databases were searched for peer-reviewed literature and the Internet for online studies and reports. The boomers can expect an increased life span compared to those in later life now. Boomers' health behavioural risks include physical inactivity, low vegetable consumption, obesity and rising medical risk due to increasing prevalence of diabetes. Their health will impact on workforce participation and retirement timing. There is substantial scope for health improvement and consequent quality of life as boomers age. However, little is known about health decision-making, inequalities between social groups and health information sources. Future research can yield a better understanding of the health trajectories of baby boomers in order to plan for health and service needs for an ageing Australia. [source]