Biomedical subjects

Gail E Bond

Publications and source records attributed to Gail E Bond.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Alcohol and cognitive performance: a longitudinal study of older Japanese Americans. The Kame Project.

BACKGROUND: Recent data demonstrate that moderate consumption of alcohol (13-52 grams of ethanol per day) may be beneficial to cognitive functioning among older adults. METHODS: Longitudinal growth curve analyses controlling for baseline age, body mass index (BMI), education/income, migrant status, smoking, history of diagnosed stroke, hypertension, coronary heart disease (CHD), depression, diabetes and stroke (time-varying) were used to examine the relationship between alcohol consumption, gender and cognitive performance over an 8-year follow-up period. The sample included 1624 Japanese American community-dwelling adults aged 65 and older who were cognitively intact at baseline and participated in at least one follow-up examination. Cognitive performance was measured using the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (CASI; 0-100 point scale), a global test of cognitive function. RESULTS: Current consumers (n = 480) scored significantly (p < 0.05) higher on CASI (mean rate of change-1.22 CASI units) over the 8-year follow-up period than past consumers or abstainers (n = 1144; mean rate of change-3.77 CASI units). There was no significant main effect for gender, or an alcohol and gender interaction. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides further support regarding the beneficial effects of moderate alcohol consumption on cognitive performance over time. Observed benefits were not modified by gender. Future studies need to determine whether alcohol preserves cognition directly or whether other factors such as physiology or cultural drinking practices are driving the observed association.

Aged↗

PubMed2004

Alcohol, gender, and cognitive performance: a longitudinal study comparing older Japanese and non-Hispanic white Americans.

BACKGROUND: Recent data demonstrate that moderate consumption of alcohol may be beneficial to cognition. DESIGN: Longitudinal growth curve analyses controlling for variables related to cognition were used to examine the relationship between alcohol consumption, ethnic differences, gender, and cognition over a 4-year-follow-up period. SAMPLE: The sample included 1,836 Japanese American and 2,581 Non-Hispanic White American community-dwelling adults age 65 and older who were cognitively intact at baseline and participated in at least one follow-up examination. MEASUREMENT: Cognitive performance was measured using the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (CASI) and reaction time. RESULTS: Current drinkers scored significantly higher on CASI over time than past drinkers or abstainers. The same association between alcohol and CASI was observed in both genders and both ethnic groups. CONCLUSION: This study provides support regarding the potential beneficial outcomes associated with alcohol consumption and cognition and that these benefits were not modified by gender or ethnicity.

Acculturation↗

PubMed2003

Alcohol, aging, and cognitive performance: a cross-cultural comparison.

This study investigated the relationship between alcohol consumption and cognitive performance in two culturally diverse community-based populations. METHODS. A cross-sectional analysis was used including Japanese Americans (n = 1,836) and Caucasians (n = 2,581) aged 65 and older. Cognitive performance was measured using the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument (CASI) (0 to 100 point scale) and reaction time. RESULTS. Multivariate analysis revealed significant cultural and gender differences with cognitive performance. Compared to abstainers, Caucasian drinkers scored higher than Japanese American drinkers on the CASI (adjusted means = 93.4 versus 91.6). In contrast, Japanese American drinkers scored faster than Caucasian drinkers on choice reaction time (adjusted means = 505 versus 579 milliseconds). DISCUSSION. Results showed that current drinking was associated with better cognition in both the Caucasian and Japanese American groups. Longitudinal studies are needed to support the possible protective effects of alcohol on cognition and explore whether culture may modify this apparent benefit.

Age Factors↗

PubMed2002

Older adults and functional decline: a cross-cultural comparison.

BACKGROUND: The study was conducted to examine the relationships between functional decline, health risk factors, lifestyle practices, and demographic variables in two culturally diverse, community-based samples of White and Japanese American older adults. DESIGN: The study was an analysis of data from two ongoing studies of aging and dementia in King County, Washington. Functional status at baseline was evaluated, and factors associated with functional decline over a 4-year follow-up period were identified. The sample included 1,083 Japanese American and 1,011 White cognitively intact, community-dwelling adults aged 65 and older, who had no functional limitations at baseline and participated in at least one follow-up examination. RESULTS: In 4 years of follow-up, 70% of the subjects reported no increase in functional limitation, and fewer than 5% of subjects declined in five or more activities. Risk factors associated with functional decline included increased age, female gender, medical comorbidity (particularly cerebrovascular disease, arthritis, and hypertension), elevated body mass index, poorer self-perceived health, and smoking. Depression and diabetes were also significant for persons with the greatest functional decline over the 4-year follow-up. Japanese speakers were significantly less likely to decline over the follow-up period than White or English-speaking Japanese American subjects. However, Japanese speakers were more likely to discontinue participation during the follow-up period, and may also have been more likely to underreport symptoms of functional decline. CONCLUSIONS: The present study provides further support that healthy lifestyle practices and prevention of chronic disease are important for maintaining functional independence in older adults. Japanese-speaking subjects were less likely to decline over time, although this could be due in part to differential dropout and reporting bias. These findings have important implications for the design and interpretation of longitudinal studies of older adults. Researchers interested in the effects of ethnicity on health and aging should be cognizant of differences in recruitment and enrollment strategies among studies, and the ways in which these affect study findings. This study also demonstrates the importance of devoting adequate resources to minimize dropouts, and of including measures of health and functioning that are culturally equivalent and less reliant on self-report data.

Aged↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Lessons learned from the implementation of a Web-based nursing intervention.

The emergence of the World Wide Web in the last decade has introduced the belief that the Internet has the potential to revolutionize healthcare delivery and empower consumers. Given the power of technology to change the way we live, the healthcare community has begun to explore the feasibility of delivering interventions via the Web, including personalized care with chronic disease management. The purpose of this article is to describe this researcher's experience with the development and implementation of a Web-based intervention to enhance diabetes self-management for older adults. Challenges faced by the project involved inadequate funding to cover technology issues (programming, graphics design, etc),decisions regarding the appropriate environment/framework, and questions on how to merge the practice and theory of a given discipline with the limitations of Internet technology. This article will examine and discuss these issues and make recommendations on possible methods of improving the process.

Adaptation, Psychological↗