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Aim: Sarcopenia as a geriatric syndrome decreases quality of life and increases functional dependency, hospitalization and mortality. The aim of this study is to investigate the prevalence of sarcopenia among community-dwelling people aged 65 years and older in Muş province and to examine its effects on quality of life. Materials and Methods: In this study we have interviewed 371 community-dwelling older adults. A total of 186 older adults from the rural area and 185 older adults from Muş city center were enrolled in the study. Data was collected through face-to-face interviews conducted in the participants' homes by trained researchers. The presence of sarcopenia, socio-demographic characteristics (place of residence, gender, age), presence of chronic diseases, polypharmacy, body mass index, and quality of life with Short Form-36 were determined. Muscle mass, handgrip strength and gait speed were determined for defining sarcopenia. Results: The mean age of participants was 72.3 ± 6.8 years (65-100) and 46.1% of them were females. The prevalence of sarcopenia was 11.8% among older people residing in the rural area whereas the prevalence was 21.6% among older individuals living in the city center (p = 0.012). Sarcopenic patients were older, more underweight, hypertensive, and had lower calf circumference, gait speed, and grip strength in males than non-sarcopenic patients (p <0.0001, p <0.0001, p = 0.005, p <0.0001, p = 0.001, p <0.0001, respectively). There were important distinction between sarcopenic individuals and non-sarcopenic individuals in terms of physical function, physical role weakness and emotional role weakness (p = 0.021, p = 0.006 and p = 0.009, respectively). Conclusion: Sarcopenia is very common among older adults, especially in the city center, and the presence of sarcopenia has detrimental effects on the quality of life.

COVID-19 has caused a major crisis all over the world. To manage this crisis, a fixed shift system was applied to nursing home staff in Turkey to protect nursing home residents from the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff were not allowed to leave the institution during fixed shifts. It is thought that this practice for the COVID-19 outbreak, while protecting nursing home residents on the one hand, increased the workload and related stress of nursing home staff on the other hand. To the best of our knowledge, there is no study examining the workload and stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic for nursing home staff in Turkey. The aim of this study was to examine the level of workload and work stress experienced by staff working in nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey. Methods: A cross-sectional research design was used in the study. The sample of the study consisted of nursing home personnel working in nursing homes in the provinces of Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Antalya between October 2021 and January 2022. A personal information form and a workload and stress scale were used for collecting the data. Cluster analysis was performed with SPSS software. Results: In total, 154 nursing home personnel participated in the study. A statistically significant difference was found between the mean age of the two clusters. The first cluster was described as “old” and the second as “young”. Statistically significant and high values were found in the quantitative workload, qualitative workload, job organization, social work area and fatigue factors in the nursing home staff in the older participant cluster. Conclusion: The results of this study provide new information about the concepts of workload and work stress experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey, which will serve as a guide for the management of future pandemics. Therefore, this study will contribute to the strategies to be followed in future pandemics in Turkey.

COVID-19 pandemic required compulsory social isolation; thus, people have been forced to stay at home for months in the most part of world. The curfew has been specially imposed to people aged 65 and above, who are supposedly most affected by devastating effects of COVID-19 disease in Turkey. However, the curfew could cause negative mental difficulties like depression tendency. We aimed to determine the depression tendency by using depression indicators such as insomnia, poor appetite, despair, weariness, anxiety/fear, dereliction, lack of concentration, anger and trashiness on curfew-imposed older people aged 65 and above during outbreak. The participants ( n = 119) were the students of Tazelenme University, the university of third age (U3A), of Antalya Campus. The inter-cluster linkage method and the squared Euclidean distance measurement level were used to construct clusters. Frequency, percentage, t -test, Pearson correlation tests were used for further analysis of the clusters. Two clusters were recovered. Statistically significant differences were found between the two clusters by mean comparison values in relation to age, years of education and household factors. Participants of Cluster 2 (average age 64.40) appeared to be more affected and more tend to be depressive than participants of Cluster 1 (average age 68.61). The results indicated a relationship between curfew and depression tendency.

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