1.Multidomain Geriatric Screen and Physical Fitness Assessment Identify Prefrailty/Frailty and Potentially Modifiable Risk Factors in Community-Dwelling Older Adults.
Laura Bg TAY ; Melvin Pw CHUA ; Ee Ling TAY ; Hiu Nam CHAN ; Shi Min MAH ; Aisyah LATIB ; Cheryl Qy WONG ; Yee Sien NG
Annals of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore 2019;48(6):171-180
INTRODUCTION:
Frailty begins in middle life and manifests as a decline in functional fitness. We described a model for community frailty screening and factors associated with prefrailty and frailty and fitness measures to distinguish prefrail/frail from robust older adults. We also compared the Fatigue, Resistance, Ambulation, Illnesses and Loss of weight (FRAIL) scale against Fried frailty phenotype and Frailty Index (FI).
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
Community-dwelling adults ≥55 years old were designated robust, prefrail or frail using FRAIL. The multidomain geriatric screen included social profiling and cognitive, psychological and nutritional assessments. Physical fitness assessments included flexibility, grip strength, upper limb dexterity, lower body strength and power, tandem and dynamic balance and cardiorespiratory endurance.
RESULTS:
In 135 subjects, 99 (73.3%) were robust, 34 (25.2%) were prefrail and 2 (1.5%) were frail. After adjusting for age and sex, depression (odds ratio [OR], 2.90; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.05-7.90; = 0.040) and malnutrition (OR, 6.07; 95% CI, 2.52-14.64; <0.001) were independently associated with prefrailty/frailty. Prefrail/frail participants had significantly poorer performance in upper limb dexterity ( = 0.030), lower limb power ( = 0.003), tandem and dynamic balance ( = 0.031) and endurance ( = 0.006). Except for balance and flexibility, all fitness measures differentiated prefrail/frail from robust women. In men, only lower body strength was significantly associated with frailty. Area under receiver operating characteristic curves for FRAIL against FI and Fried were 0.808 (0.688-0.927, <0.001) and 0.645 (0.546-0.744, = 0.005), respectively.
CONCLUSION
Mood and nutrition are targets in frailty prevention. Physical fitness declines early in frailty and manifests differentially in both genders.
2.Evaluation of a training programme to induct medical students in delivering public health talks.
Ngiap Chuan TAN ; Shah MITESH ; Yi Ling Eileen KOH ; Seng Bin ANG ; Hian Hui Vincent CHAN ; Choon How HOW ; Ee Guan TAY ; Siew Wai HWANG
Singapore medical journal 2017;58(1):35-40
INTRODUCTIONIt is uncommon for medical students to deliver public health talks as part of their medical education curriculum. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a novel training programme that required medical students to deliver public health talks during their family medicine (FM) clerkship in a Singapore primary care institution.
METHODSThe FM faculty staff guided teams of third-year medical students to select appropriate topics for health talks that were to be conducted at designated polyclinics. The talks were video-recorded and appraised for clarity, content and delivery. The appraisal was done by the student's peers and assigned faculty staff. The audience was surveyed to determine their satisfaction level and understanding of the talks. The students also self-rated the effectiveness of this new teaching activity.
RESULTSA total of 120 medical students completed a questionnaire to rate the effectiveness of the new teaching activity. 85.8% of the students felt confident about the delivery of their talks, 95.8% reported having learnt how to deliver talks and 92.5% perceived this new training modality as useful in their medical education. Based on the results of the audience survey, the speakers were perceived as knowledgeable (53.1%), confident (51.3%) and professional (39.0%). Assessment of 15 video-recorded talks showed satisfactory delivery of the talks by the students.
CONCLUSIONThe majority of the students reported a favourable overall learning experience under this new training programme. This finding is supported by the positive feedback garnered from the audience, peers of the medical students and the faculty staff.
Adult ; Curriculum ; Education, Medical, Undergraduate ; Family Practice ; education ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Program Evaluation ; Public Health ; education ; Singapore ; Students, Medical ; Teaching ; education ; Video Recording