ObjectivesThere is limited knowledge regarding epidemiology and risk of falls among the elderly living in low-income and middle-income countries. In this situation, the current study aims to report the incidence of falls and associated risk factors among free living elderly population from Kerala, India.DesignProspective cohort study with stratified random cluster sampling.SettingThe study location was Ernakulam, Kerala, India, and we collected information via house visits using a questionnaire. During the research, the subjects were followed up prospectively for 1 year by phone at intervals of 3 months and missing subjects were contacted by house visits.ParticipantsCommunity-dwelling elderly above 65 years of age.ResultsWe recruited a total of 1000 participants out of which a total of 201 (20.1%) subjects reported a fall during the follow-up. The incidence rate of falls was 31 (95% CI 27.7 to 34.6) per 100 person-years. Female sex (OR 1.48, 95% CI 1.05 to 2.10, p=0.027), movement disorders including Parkinsonism (OR 2.26, 95% CI 1.00 to 5.05, p=0.048), arthritis (OR 1.48, 95% CI 1.05 to 2.09, p=0.026), dependence in basic activities of daily living (OR, 3.49, 95% CI 2.00 to 6.09, p<0.001), not using antihypertensive medications (OR, 1.53, 95% CI 1.10 to 2.13, p=0.012), living alone during daytime (OR 3.27, 95% CI 1.59 to 6.71, p=0.001) and a history of falls in the previous year (OR, 2.25, 95% CI 1.60 to 3.15, p<0.001) predicted a fall in the following year.ConclusionsOne in five community-dwelling senior citizen fall annually and one in four who fall are prone to fall again in the following year. Interventions targeting falls among the elderly need to focus on modifiable risk factors such as living alone during daytime, movement disorders, arthritis and dependence on basic activities of daily living.

Background:Dengue is the most rapidly spreading mosquito-borne viral disease in the world with a 30-fold increase in incidence in the last 50 years. Approximately, 50 million dengue infections occur annually.Aim:To study the various clinical and laboratory manifestations of dengue in the elderly and observe for any variations in IgM titer elevation with progression of age.Design:Retrospective observational study.Subjects and Methods:Medical charts of all patients admitted to the Division of Geriatrics of the institute during study period were reviewed for collection of demographic, clinical, and laboratory information. The diagnosis of dengue was made based on positive dengue IgM ELISA. An elderly patient referred to one whose age was ≥60 years.Results:Fever and myalgia were noted to be the most common clinical manifestation with only four patients presenting with overt bleeding manifestations. Only one patient presented in delirium and there was no case fatality. Thrombocytopenia was the single most common hematological abnormality noted. Hyponatremia was found to be prevalent in a majority of the patients and were symptomatic in more than half of them. There have been very few studies done worldwide on the varied clinical manifestations of dengue in the elderly.

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Background: Dementia is the global deterioration of the individual’s intellectual, emotional and cognitive faculties in a state of normal consciousness. Dementia impacts personal, family and societal life. It reduces life span, induces caregiver’s strain at family level and over utilizes health care facility. This study was aimed at describing the risk factors attributing to dementing disorders for developing preventive measures to slow down the incidence of dementia. Methods: The study was conducted in geriatrics OPD of a tertiary hospital in South India. A total of 50 dementia patients and 50 controls aged more than 65 years were selected for the study in a period of 6 months. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Results: 40% in the age group of 65-74 years, 61% in the age group of 75-84 years and 63.6% in the age >85 years had dementia. 43.5% of males and 55.5% of females had dementia. Multivariate analysis was done to find out the independent predictors of dementia. Among the morbidities dyslipidemia 3.93 (1.12-13.87) and COPD/bronchial asthma 4.57 (1.02-20.55), less than 5 days of fruit consumption 14.98 (38-59), hearing loss 4.67 (1.15-18.91) were found to be independent risk factors for dementia. Living alone was found to be a protective factor 0.029 (0.003-0.29). Conclusions: Our study reported various risk factors of dementia that were in agreement with findings from other studies conducted in India. Avoidable risk factors such as living alone, fruit intake and control of comorbidities such as hypertension, dyslipidemia and COPD/bronchial asthma needs more attention in old age group.

We report on the growth of Y2Ti2O7 single crystals by optical floating zone technique. Xray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy studies confirm the structural quality of the crystal. The UV-Vis optical studies reveal that the grown crystals have a high optical transparency with an optical band gap of 3.44 eV. The hardness of Y2Ti2O7 single crystal is measured for the first time using nanoindentation. The measured hardness, indentation and bulk modulus are found to be 16.40.4, 321.1±6.9 and 243.3±5.2 GPa respectively, which are higher than its polycrystalline counterpart and its constituent metal oxides, Y2O3 and TiO2.

:Geriatric depression is a major health hazard which may affect upto 15-20% of the geriatric population in the world. This study is being undertaken to estimate the prevalence of depression in the elderly population and to identify the predisposing factors associated with depression. A cross sectional study on patients above 65 years of age attending an outpatient clinic was done. They were screened using the Geriatric Depression Scale (30-point questionnaire). The association between depression and possible predisposing factors was tested using chi-square test. Out of 250 outpatients at the Geriatrics Outpatient Department, 133 patients were diagnosed to have depression, giving a prevalence of 53.2%. Out of these patients, 102 patients (76.69%) were diagnosed to have mild depression and 31 patients (23.31%) were diagnosed to have severe depression. The commonest symptoms associated with depression were anxiety (57.9% patients), sleep disturbances (55.6% patients), irritability (42.9% patients) and somatic symptoms (37.6% patients). The predisposing factors that were significantly associated with depression were female gender, poor level of education, unemployed or retired life, multiple comorbid illnesses, polypharmacy, adverse life events, fincancial crisis in the family and functional impairment.The prevalence of depression was 53.2% in Geriatric patients, and majority of cases were mild depression. Gender, socioeconomic variables, lifestyle and comorbid medical conditions are important predisposing factors to the development of depression in the geriatric population.

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