Frailty is one of the geriatric syndromes and has an important relationship with mortality and morbidity. The aim of this study is to present the characteristics, prevalence, and related factors of frailty in older adults in our country. The study included 1126 individuals over 65 years of age from 13 centers. Frailty was evaluated using the Fried Frailty criteria, and patients were grouped as Bfrail,^Bpre-frail,^and Bnon-frail.N utritional status was assessed with BMini Nutritional Test,^psychological status with the BCenter for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale-CES-D,^and additional diseases with the "Charlson Comorbidity index." Approximately 66.5 % of the participants were between 65 and 74 years of age and 65.7 % were AGE (2015) women. Some 39.2 and 43.3 % of the participants were rated as frail and pre-frail, respectively. The multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to determine the factors associated with frailty. It was observed that age, female gender, low education level, being a housewife, living with the family, being sedentary, presence of an additional disease, using 4 or more drugs/day, avoiding to go outside, at least one visit to any emergency department within the past year, hospitalization within the past year, non-functional ambulation, and malnutrition increased the risk of frailty (p<0.05). Establishing the factors associated with frailty is highly important for both clinical practice and national economy. This is the first study on this subject in our country and will provide guidance in determining treatment strategies.

This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of the most frequently occurring hand and shoulder complications in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. The presence of cheiroarthropathy, frozen shoulder, Dupuytren's contracture and trigger finger was assessed in 102 type 2 diabetes mellitus patients and 101 age- and sex-matched non-diabetic controls. The relationship between these complications and patients' age, sex, duration of diabetes and glycaemic control was also analysed. Cheiroarthropathy, frozen shoulder and Dupuytren's contracture were significantly more prevalent in the diabetic group than in the control group. Females were slightly more affected with frozen shoulder than males and advanced cases (stage 2) of cheiroarthropathy occurred more frequently in females. Duration of diabetes was related to an increased risk of cheiroarthropathy. In conclusion, some musculoskeletal disorders are more prevalent in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients and this may be associated with glycaemic control, sex and duration of diabetes.

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Patellar malalignment is the most important reason for anterior knee pain. Patellar alignment is commonly determined by the measurement of the quadriceps (Q) angle. In this study, our primary aim was to investigate the Q angle difference between healthy individuals with and without joint hypermobility. The other objectives were to compare the Q angle values, which were measured in supine and upright positions, to determine hypermobility frequency among healthy males in a certain population, and to investigate the correlation between the existent skeletal deformities and Beighton score levels. Two hundred fifty-three healthy male college students were examined for hypermobility and skeletal deformities. According to the Beighton scoring system, three groups (n=20) were formed, and Q angle measurements were performed on the 60 individuals in both supine and upright positions. In the comparison of the groups, the mean Q angle values in healthy hypermobile individuals were found to be significantly higher than that of the nonhypermobile ones (p<0.05). No statistical difference was found between Q angle values in supine and upright positions (p>0.05). The frequency of joint hypermobility (Beighton score 4 or more) was found to be 29.25% in this population. No correlation was determined between existent skeletal deformities and Beighton score values (p>0.05). In conclusion, the Q angle evaluation among healthy hypermobile individuals may have a prognostic value for probable knee pathologies that may appear in the future.

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