This study assessed fear of the novel coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19), preventive COVID-19 infection behaviors, and the association between fear of COVID-19 and preventive COVID-19 infection behaviors among older people in Iran and Taiwan. Older people aged over 60 years (n = 144 for Iranians and 139 for Taiwanese) completed the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) and two items on preventive COVID-19 infection behaviors (i.e., hand washing and mouth covering when sneezing). Iranian older people had a significantly higher level of fear of COVID-19 than did Taiwanese older people. Moreover, Iranian older people had significantly lower frequencies of preventive COVID-19 infection behaviors than did Taiwanese older people. Different timings in implementing COVID-19 infection control policies in Iran and Taiwan may explain why Iranian older people had greater fear of COVID-19 and lower preventive COVID-19 infection behaviors than did Taiwanese older people.
This study explores the gender differences in the relationship between social activity and quality of life (QOL). A cross-sectional survey of 220 community-dwelling elderly people was conducted in southern Taiwan. Social activity was classified into six categories. The brief version of the World Health Organization QOL (WHOQOL-BREF) was used to measure QOL. Findings revealed that the associations of six types of social activities with QOL were weaker among women than men. The regression analyses further showed that for women, only religious activity was positively related to total QOL, while for men only involvement in formal group activity was positively related to total QOL.
Background: Antidepressants are frequently used to treat depression in patients with dementia. In addition, late-life depression is associated with the incidence of subsequent cognitive impairment or dementia. However, the association between exposure to antidepressants in late-life depression and the development of incident dementia remains understudied. Methods: Through a population-based retrospective cohort design, data were extracted from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Dataset of medical claims registered from 1998–2013. We collected data of individuals who had received a new diagnosis of depression between 2000 and 2007. We excluded those who received a diagnosis of depression and were given antidepressants before 2000 and those younger than 60 years. The primary outcome was the occurrence of incident dementia. The time from the prescription of antidepressants or the diagnosis of depression until the outcome or the end of 2013 was calculated as the time to event. A total of 563,918 cases were included and were divided into either antidepressant users or antidepressant nonusers. Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate the hazard ratio and 95% confidence interval. Results: Exposure to antidepressants did not increase the risk of dementia in patients with late-life depression at either a low exposure dosage (hazard ratio: 1.06, 95% confidence interval: 0.91–1.23) or a high exposure dosage (hazard ratio: 1.07, 95% confidence interval: 0.95–1.20). To confirm the validity of our results, we performed a sensitivity analysis and subgroup analysis, and the post-hoc results were consistent with the main results. Conclusion: Antidepressants did not increase the risk of incident dementia in patients with late-life depression.
To compare the psychometric properties of different short versions of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) among community-dwelling widowed older people. Methods: A cross-sectional design was conducted between February 2018 and August 2019 in southern Taiwan (n = 330). The GDS short versions included Hoyl et al's 5-item version, Molloy et al's 5-item version and van Marwijk et al's 4-item version. Results: All GDS short versions had satisfactory internal consistency (α = 0.83-0.90), with strong item loading embedded in the same construct of depression (0.43-0.72). The activity of daily living (ADL) scores had strong associations with van Marwijk et al's 4-item version (absolute standardised coefficient [|β|] = 0.15-0.59), Hoyl et al's 5-item version (|β| = 0.16-0.45) and Molloy et al's 4-item version (|β| = 0.09-0.40). Conclusions: Hoyl et al's 5-item version was found to be more suitable than the other two versions of the GDS to assess the precise construct of depression. Meanwhile, van Marwijk et al's 4-item version can be used when the focus is on ADL performance. However, the conclusion should be interpreted with caution since the results were derived only from a widowed population in Taiwan. More research on this topic among other populations is thus needed to corroborate our conclusion.
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