Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Phenomenology Of Masters Alpine Ski Racers: Experiencing Ski Racing In Old Age, Carly Litchfield

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis is a study of the lived experience of ten older adult alpine ski racers in their continued participation in ski racing. The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of the experiences of these older adults as they continued to compete in ski racing. Masters skiers between the ages of 69 and 82 participated in individual interviews lasting between 30 and 60 minutes. Data analysis was completed using van Manen’s phenomenological methods and the visual technique of mind mapping. The major theme that emerged was the importance of being a ski racer to participants’ identities. The …

Hip Fracture Types In Canadian Men And Women Change Differently With Age: A Population-Level Analysis, Richard G. Crilly, Marita Kloseck, Selam Mequanint

Bone and Joint Institute

© the authors, publisher and licensee Libertas Academica Limited. Background: We have previously reported a gender difference in the occurrence of hip fracture type with age in our local population. In the current report, we have explored this phenomenon in a Canadian population using five years of data from a national administrative database. We have com-pared community-dwelling and institutionalized individuals to determine if frailty is important and has a differential effect on the type of hip fracture experienced.Methods: Hospitalization records from 2005 to 2009, in which the most responsible diagnosis, that is the diagnosis causing the admission to hospital, was …

Category Learning In Older Adulthood: A Study Of The Shepard, Hovland, And Jenkins (1961) Tasks., Rahel Rabi, John Paul Minda

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Shepard, Hovland, and Jenkins (1961) examined the categorization abilities of younger adults using tasks involving single-dimensional rule learning, disjunctive rule learning, and family resemblance learning. The current study examined category learning in older adults using this well-known category set. Older adults, like younger adults, found category tasks with a single relevant dimension the easiest to learn. In contrast to younger adults, older adults found complex disjunctive rule-based categories harder to learn than family resemblance based categories. Disjunctive rule-based category learning appeared to be the most difficult for older adults to learn because this category set placed the heaviest demands on …

“Why Would I Want To Go Out?”: Age-Related Vision Loss And Social Participation, Debbie Rudman, Deborah Gold, Colleen Mcgrath, Biljana Zuvela, Marlee Spafford, Rebecca Renwick

Occupational Therapy Publications

Social participation, a key determinant of healthy aging, is often negatively impacted by age-related vision loss (ARVL). This grounded theory study aimed to understand social participation as a process negotiated in everyday life by older adults with ARVL. Interviews, audio diaries, and life-space maps were used to collect data with 21 older adults in two Ontario cities. Inductive data analysis resulted in a transactional model of the process of negotiating social participation in context. This model depicts how environmental features and resources, skills and abilities, and risks and vulnerabilities transacted with values and priorities to affect if and how social …

Eating And Swallowing, Oral Health, And Saliva Production, Rebecca H. Affoo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Eating and maintaining optimal nutrition are essential to health and quality of life. In both health and disease, eating is influenced by multiple factors including swallowing, oral health, and saliva production. Perturbations to any, or all, of these inter-related factors may result in consequences that negatively affect the health and wellness of an individual. Eating and swallowing impairment are common symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia, and these symptoms are associated with a host of negative sequelae such as malnutrition, dehydration, aspiration pneumonia, and reduced quality of life. The studies reported in this dissertation explored elements of eating and …

Fusion Analysis Of Functional Mri Data For Classification Of Individuals Based On Patterns Of Activation., Mahdi Ramezani, Purang Abolmaesumi, Kris Marble, Heather Trang, Ingrid Johnsrude

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Classification of individuals based on patterns of brain activity observed in functional MRI contrasts may be helpful for diagnosis of neurological disorders. Prior work for classification based on these patterns have primarily focused on using a single contrast, which does not take advantage of complementary information that may be available in multiple contrasts. Where multiple contrasts are used, the objective has been only to identify the joint, distinct brain activity patterns that differ between groups of subjects; not to use the information to classify individuals. Here, we use joint Independent Component Analysis (jICA) within a Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification …

Deficits In Audiovisual Speech Perception In Normal Aging Emerge At The Level Of Whole-Word Recognition., Ryan A Stevenson, Caitlin E Nelms, Sarah H Baum, Lilia Zurkovsky, Morgan D Barense, Paul A Newhouse, Mark T Wallace

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Over the next 2 decades, a dramatic shift in the demographics of society will take place, with a rapid growth in the population of older adults. One of the most common complaints with healthy aging is a decreased ability to successfully perceive speech, particularly in noisy environments. In such noisy environments, the presence of visual speech cues (i.e., lip movements) provide striking benefits for speech perception and comprehension, but previous research suggests that older adults gain less from such audiovisual integration than their younger peers. To determine at what processing level these behavioral differences arise in healthy-aging populations, we administered …

Stability Of Self-Referent Encoding Task Performance And Associations With Change In Depressive Symptoms From Early To Middle Childhood., Brandon L Goldstein, Elizabeth P Hayden, Daniel N Klein

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Depressed individuals exhibit memory biases on the self-referent encoding task (SRET), such that those with depression exhibit poorer recall of positive, and enhanced recall of negative, trait adjectives (referred to as positive and negative processing biases). However, it is unclear when SRET biases emerge, whether they are stable, and if biases predict, or are predicted by, depressive symptoms. To address this, a community sample of 434 children completed the SRET and a depressive symptoms measure at ages 6 and 9. Negative and positive processing exhibited low, but significant, stability. At ages 6 and 9, depressive symptoms correlated with higher negative, …

Quantifying The Effect Of A Novel Topical Hyaluronic-Acid Phosphatidylethanolamine Cream On The Epidermis, Caitlin J. Symonette

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

With aging, keratinocytes have diminished proliferative capacity resulting in atrophic skin with reduced barrier function. This investigation evaluates the effect of daily topical applications of a novel high-molecular weight hyaluronan cream (HA-PE) on keratinocyte renewal and epidermal thickness. Unmodified hyaluronan and HA-PE were mixed separately into a vehicle cream. Each topical formulation was applied daily onto the shaved backs of aged female C57BL6 mice. Full-thickness biopsies of treated skin were obtained for analysis of keratinocyte proliferation, keratinocyte differentiation, and local inflammation at days 1, 5, and 10 of cream application. In addition, a cardiac puncture was performed for serum C-reactive …

Role Of Sirt1 In Vascular Complications Of Diabetes, Rokhsana Mortuza

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Chronic diabetic complications are significant causes of morbidity. In diabetes, as the cellular changes are similar to aging, we investigated the role of sirtuins (SIRTs) in chronic diabetic complications.

We examined glucose and aging-induced changes in the endothelial cells (ECs), the primary targets of chronic diabetic complications. ECs in high glucose showed evidences of early senescence, being more pronounced in microvascular ECs in association with decreased SIRT1 and FOXO1-dependent reduction in antioxidant gene expressions. A regulatory relationship of deacetylator SIRT1 and histone acetylator p300 was identified. Renal and retinal tissues of diabetic animals showed similar results.

Having established such changes, …

Older Woman Workers: Met And Unmet Needs For Health And Wellbeing In The Workplace, Gillian Gorfine

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Older women workers report experiencing occupational injustices however the literature focuses on barriers faced rather than understanding the needs-based strategies empowering women as they age at work. This study engaged women aged 55 and older in a participatory action research project defining and examining strategies for older women workers’ health and wellbeing. In Phase 1, a key informant advisory group (N = 4) defined the problem and guided the design of an open answer survey conducted with 72 older women in work. Three categories emerged informing the fundamental, instrumental, and contextual needs of older women workers. Meeting fundamental needs may …

Specific Cognitive Domains Associated With Gait Performance In Mild Cognitive Impairment, Elyse M. Gordon

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The study aim was to identify associations between deficits in specific cognitive domains and gait performance in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Sixty-eight participants with MCI underwent cognitive function testing in executive function (EF), attention, working memory, episodic memory and language domains. Gait was assessed using an electronic walkway (GaitRite®). The means and co-efficient of variation of five gait parameters were evaluated: velocity, stride time, stride length, step width and double support time during single (SG) and dual-task (DT) test conditions Multivariable linear regression analysis demonstrated deficits in EF, working memory and episodic memory were significantly associated with increased gait variability …

Quantifying The Effect Of Age And Contraction Mode On The Force-Velocity-Power Relationship In The Knee Extensors, Justin R. Paturel

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

PURPOSE: To assess and compare the force-velocity-power relationship (F-V-P) using isotonic and isokinetic knee extensions in 11 younger (19-30y) and 11 older (69-81y) men. METHODS: The construction of the F-V-P curves were attained with each participant performing maximal, explosive knee extensions at 8 different loads (isotonic) and 8 different velocities (isokinetic) on a Cybex HUMAC NORM dynamometer. Maximal voluntary contraction (MVC or P_o), maximal shortening velocity (V_max), maximum power, optimal torque (P_opt) and velocity (V_opt) were assessed and compared. RESULTS: The older men were 43% weaker, 18% slower and ~54% less powerful …

Word-Finding Difficulties: Exploring Tip-Of-The-Tongue States In Young And Old Adults, Allison J. Partridge

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A Tip-of-the-Tongue (TOT) occurs when you are trying to think of a specific word but lack the ability to bring it to mind. The present study examined implicit learning processes operating under errorful (20-second delay) or errorless (0-second delay) learning conditions in TOT states. Participants included 15 young (20-30 years) and 15 old (65-88 years) adults who were tested twice a week for four weeks on a definition-word pair task. For young participants, results indicated that a TOT was more likely and older participants were more likely to indicate they did not know the word on a consecutive session after …

Trpm2 In The Central Nervous System: Physiological Role And Critical Regulatory Pathways, Jillian C. Belrose

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

TRPM2 is a non-selective cation channel which is permeable to calcium. Although expression is highest in the brain, the physiological role for TRPM2 in neurons was unknown. Furthermore, our understanding of the pathways regulating TRPM2 channel function required further investigation. In this thesis, we identified that TRPM2 is required for NMDAR-dependent long-term depression (LTD). No change in NMDAR expression or function was observed following genetic deletion of TRPM2. Instead, the loss of NMDAR-LTD in TRPM2 knockout mice results from diminished GSK-3β activation. We next examined whether age in vitro could facilitate TRPM2 currents. We demonstrate that diminished glutathione with age …

Reductions In Muscle Quantity And Quality In Old And Very Old Men: New Insights Into The Progression Of Sarcopenia, William J. Booth

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Healthy adult aging is associated with sarcopenia; a loss of skeletal muscle mass known as. Major contributors to this process include functional and morphological changes in the contractile tissue and within the neuromuscular system. Currently, the relationship between muscle mass, normalized strength, structural integrity, and neuromuscular properties [such as motor unit number estimates (MUNE)], in the tibialis anterior (TA) with aging is largely unknown. Therefore, to examine this relationship we recruited twelve young (25 ± 3 years old), six old (68 ± 5 years old) and six very old (79 ± 3 years old) men. Magnetic resonance (MR) images were …

Physical Function During Performance-Based Tasks And Throughout Daily Life. Is It Different Across Levels Of Frailty?, Olga Theou

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The overall aim of this thesis was to provide a more focused understanding about the physical function of older women across levels of frailty. The specific aims were: 1) Examine the physical function of older women across levels of frailty during performance-based tasks and throughout their normal daily life; and 2) Review the effectiveness of current exercise interventions for the management of frailty. To answer these aims an observational study of community-dwelling older women (63-100 years) from rural Greece and a comprehensive systematic review on the impact of exercise on frail older adults were conducted. The performance-based measures that had …

Hip Fracture Types In Men And Women Change Differently With Age, David A. Tanner, Marita Kloseck, Richard G. Crilly, Bert Chesworth, Jason Gilliland

Health Studies Publications

BACKGROUND: Hip fractures are expensive and a frequent cause of morbidity and mortality in the elderly. In most studies hip fractures have been viewed as a unitary fracture but recently the two main types of fracture (intertrochanteric and subcapital) have been viewed as two fractures with a different etiology and requiring a different approach to prevention. The relative proportion of intertrochanteric fractures increases with age in women. In previous studies no particular pattern in men has been noted. In this study, we explored changes in the relative proportion of the two fracture types with age in the two genders. METHODS: …

Aging, Physical Activity And Arthritis Part 1, Albert W. Taylor

Canadian Centre for Activity and Aging Presentations

No abstract provided.

Aging, Physical Activity And Arthritis Part 2, Albert W. Taylor

Canadian Centre for Activity and Aging Presentations

No abstract provided.

The Expression Of Ovine Placental Lactogen, Star And Progesterone-Associated Steroidogenic Enzymes In Placentae Of Overnourished Growing Adolescent Ewes., Richard G Lea, Peter Wooding, Ian Stewart, Lisa T Hannah, Stephen Morton, Karen Wallace, Raymond P Aitken, John S Milne, Timothy Regnault, Russell V Anthony, Jacqueline M Wallace

Paediatrics Publications

Overnourishing pregnant adolescent sheep promotes maternal growth but reduces placental mass, lamb birth weight and circulating progesterone. This study aimed to determine whether altered progesterone reflected transcript abundance for StAR (cholesterol transporter) and the steroidogenic enzymes (Cyp11A1, Hsd3b and Cyp17). Circulating and placental expression of ovine placental lactogen (oPL) was also investigated. Adolescent ewes with singleton pregnancies were fed high (H) or moderate (M) nutrient intake diets to restrict or support placental growth. Experiment 1: peripheral progesterone and oPL concentrations were measured in H (n=7) and M (n=6) animals across gestation (days 7-140). Experiment 2: progesterone was measured to mid- …

Anosognosia In Mild Cognitive Impairment: Relationship To Activation Of Cortical Midline Structures Involved In Self-Appraisal, Michele L. Ries, Britta M. Jabbar, Taylor W. Schmitz, Mehul A. Trivedi, Carey E. Gleason, Cynthia M. Carlsson, Howard A. Rowley, Sanjay Asthana, Sterling C. Johnson

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Awareness of cognitive dysfunction shown by individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), a condition conferring risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD), is variable. Anosognosia, or unawareness of loss of function, is beginning to be recognized as an important clinical symptom of MCI. However, little is known about the brain substrates underlying this symptom. We hypothesized that MCI participants' activation of cortical midline structures (CMS) during self-appraisal would covary with level of insight into cognitive difficulties (indexed by a discrepancy score between patient and informant ratings of cognitive decline in each MCI participant). To address this hypothesis, we first compared 16 MCI …

Perspectives Of Women With Dementia Receiving Care From Their Adult Daughters, Catherine Ward-Griffin, Nancy Bol, Abram Oudshoorn

Nursing Publications

(Article in English)

Le vécu inhérent à la prestation des soins aux personnes atteintes d’Alzheimer est relativement bien documenté.Toutefois,peu de recherches ont été réalisées du point de vue de la personne souffrant de démence.L’objectif de cette étude, qui s’inscrit dans une recherche qualitative sur les relations mères-filles en contexte de démence,notamment sur le processus de soins,est de recueillir les perceptions et les expériences des mères soignées par leur fille adulte.Guidés par des perspectives féministes et axées sur les étapes de vie,les chercheurs ont mené des entrevues en profondeur et semi-structurées auprès d’un échantillonnage diversifié de 10 femmes non-institutionnalisées et atteintes …

Uwomj Volume 62, Number 2, Spring 1993, Western University

University of Western Ontario Medical Journal

Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry