Psychiatric patients were religiously committed and used more positive religious coping methods. Practices of negative religious coping, severe psychiatric symptoms and anxiety/depression were associated with higher distress.

Background: Malnutrition among elderly is a multi-dimensional problem which predisposes them to increased risks of disability, hospitalisation and mortality. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of and associated factors for malnutrition in communitydwelling elderly.

This randomized cross-over pilot study aimed to evaluate the effect of hearing augmentation on cognitive assessment scores and duration to complete cognitive assessment among the elderly in-patients in a teaching hospital. A hearing amplifier was used for hearing augmentation and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test was used to assess cognition. Seventy one patients were allocated into Group A (n=33) or Group B (n=38) using block randomization. There was no significant difference in total MoCA scores with and without hearing augmentation (p = 0.622). There was a significant improvement in the total scores on the second test that suggests a learning effect (p < 0.05). There was also no significant difference in time taken to complete cognitive assessment with and without hearing augmentation (p = 0.879). Similar statistical tests performed on a subgroup of patients with hearing impairment did not reveal significant results. The results of this study will now inform a larger randomized controlled study evaluating the use of hearing amplifiers as cost-effective solutions to hearing impairment in our older population. © International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering 2016.