Compulsive hoarding disorder consists of three components: acquiring a large number of possessions, storing of items and not discarding unused objects, and keeping or storing them in such a way that it interferes with daily living, with possible severe neglect of living space. This behavior was first described in 1975 in a sample of 30 individuals, all of whom were elderly and demonstrated extreme neglect of their home, appearance, and health, and was termed Diogenes syndrome. (more…)

Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) is the core daily personal care activities that are necessary in order for people to be able to live independently. Loss of mental functioning is measured by other standardized tests and referred to as cognitive impairment. Activities of Daily Livings are particularly important because along with cognitive impairment, and in some cases “medical necessity,” they are the mechanism used by the insurance industry to determine qualification for long-term care benefits and may also be used to determine qualification for admission to a nursing or assisted living home facility. (more…)

There are numerous basic Activities of Daily Living instruments that seek to quantify basic physical functions and obtain a numerical value. These systems are useful for prioritizing care needs, estimating resource demands, and tracking progress of individuals. Most basic Activities of Daily Living Elderly instruments can be traced back to the Katz Activities of Daily Living Index or the Barthel Index. (more…)

There are differences on what exactly contribute to quality of life on a personal level from person to person. Although many older people in good health condition have the increase of physical problems that affect them and their businesses. Although these disorders are more common with age, including Alzheimer, dementia, arthritis, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, depression, kidneys problem; lung disease, cancer and men’s prostate disease. (more…)

An international consensus statement on physical activity, fitness and health (Bouchard et al 1994) identifies six areas affected by physical exercise: body shape, bone strength, muscle strength, flexibility skeleton, physical fitness and motor fitness of metabolism. Other areas benefit from physical activity is cognitive function, mental health and adaptation to society. Exercise was defined as a regular activity that follows a specific pattern, and whose purpose is to achieve desirable results in terms of fitness, as a better general health or physical functioning. (more…)

The Costs of Senior Care Options

When planning for our retirement, most of us allocate money into a 401K or another savings program to take advantage of tax write-offs and to make sure we will be able to enjoy a nice lifestyle when we are no longer working from 9 to 5. We imagine using the money to supplement our monthly social security checks to enjoy vacations and other leisure activities while taking advantage of all those senior discounts. (more…)

Aerobic exercise is one form of exercise with low to moderate intensity which is done for a longer or a moderate duration. With aerobic exercise, our blood flow increases to the muscles, thus strengthening cardiovascular and lungs. Muscles need oxygen, and the increases muscle activity associated with aerobic exercise makes body to allow for more oxygen to the muscles being used. This does the heart and lungs working better and harder. At the end it will also strengthens the lungs and the entire cardiovascular system. There are also another term that you may have heard before: Anaerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise is in contrast to anaerobic exercise which usually involves intense activity that is abruptly or short in duration, such as weight lifting. (more…)

Elderly people aged 55 and more are gain a significant increase in our aging population effects. It is estimated that this group is lived up to 42% of American population. This group need living facilities infrastructure that were designed for their specific requirement and needs. Adult foster care homes are licensed facilities that cater living arrangements for elderly in family setting environment. The licenses for adult foster care homes are issued through the respective counties states (more…)

Visual impairment among elderly is now a major health care problem. We are living in aging population with 80% of blind people or people who have visual impairment are older than 50 years. The most common causes of blindness for this groups are age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, cataract and diabetic retinopathy. These are four most common causes of blindness which doctors and researches are keen to cure. (more…)