The study’s aims were (i) to identify the prevalence of health anxiety (HA) among the elderly in urban community healthcare centers and (ii) to determine whether HA is related to social, physical, or psychological factors.

It is a population-based observational study.

Data were collected from urban community healthcare centers in Chengdu, China, from October 2016 to March 2017.

A total of 893 participants aged ≥ 60 years.

The Short HA Inventory was used for HA assessment. Mental health status was assessed using the Geriatric Depression Inventory and Mini-Mental State Examination. Other information was collected through face-to-face interviews. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 19.0.

The point prevalence rate of HA was 9.53% (95%CI = 6.99%–12.07%). The number of chronic diseases was a positive factor associated with HA in a regression analysis. As compared with participants without chronic diseases, people with one (OR = 1.796; 95%CI = 0.546–5.909), two (OR = 2.922; 95%CI = 0.897–9.511), and three chronic diseases (OR = 6.448; 95%CI = 2.147–19.363) had higher odds of suffering from HA.

The prevalence of HA was high in the elderly population. Certain physical conditions, such as having chronic diseases, were significant impact factors. More attention should be paid to the situation of HA in this population.

Suicide is a global health problem. The elderly is the range with the highest suicide rate and suicidal behaviors are more lethal, with greater planning and less possibility of rescue. In the elderly, Major Depressive Disorder is the diagnosis most frequently associated with suicidal behavior. 15% of the elderly with a depressive picture commit suicide. Loneliness, the main cause of suicides in the elderly population.

The objective of the clinical case presented is to address the risk factors for suicide in the elderly.

80-year-old patient, widower who makes a suicide attempt by ingesting glyphosate. Personal history: Acute myocardial infarction 1 month ago. Not mental illness. Family stressors: illness of his granddaughter, loss of his son’s job. Personal stressors: Loss of autonomy due to ischemic heart disease. The patient was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit with acute pulmonary edema secondary to the suicide attempt. Psychopathological exploration: Conscious, oriented and collaborative. Depressive mood in relation to the stressors presented. Makes partial criticism of the suicide attempt, recognizes its seriousness and planning.

Diagnosis: Moderate depressive episode. SAD PERSONS scale: 9 High risk.

The risk factors for suicide in older people can be medical, psychiatric, psychological, family environment and social - environmental factors. There are hardly any specific action protocols that allow early intervention and suicide prevention in the elderly. As social health professionals, we must work on the elaboration and application of these, since consummated suicide represents a major public health problem throughout the world.

To explore the relationship between dietary patterns and physical fitness among older Chinese (≥60 years) individuals.

Cross-sectional survey. Dietary data were collected by a simplified semi-quantitative FFQ. The 30-s Chair Stand test (30sCST), 30-s Arm Curl test (30sACT), 8-foot Time Up-and-Go test (8fTUAGT) and 6-min Walking test (6mWT) were used to assess physical fitness. Dietary patterns were obtained by factor analysis. The association between dietary patterns and physical fitness was explored by multiple logistic regression.

Six communities (villages) of three districts in Liaocheng City (Shandong Province, China).

A total of 596 residents were recruited from April to May 2017.

Among 556 residents who were finally enrolled, 196 were men (35 %) and 360 were women (65 %). Three dietary patterns were identified: ‘Western’, ‘Vegetarian’ and ‘Modern’. The 30sACT revealed that men in the fourth quartile of the Western pattern were less likely to be classified in the ‘high-level’ group, but men in the fourth quartile of the Vegetarian pattern were classified in the high-level group. The 6mWT revealed that men in the fourth quartile of the Modern pattern were classified in the high-level group. These associations were independent of confounding factors.

Adherence to the Vegetarian pattern and Modern pattern may be protective factors for maintaining good physical fitness in older Chinese individuals. The Western pattern may lead to poor physical fitness in this population.

In December 2019, a new type of coronavirus, called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), appeared in Wuhan, China. Serious outbreaks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, have occurred throughout China and the world. Therefore, we intend to shed light on its potential clinical and epidemiological characteristics.

In this retrospective study, we included 50 confirmed fatal cases of SARS-CoV-2 reported on Chinese official media networks from January 16, 2020, to February 5, 2020. All the cases were confirmed by local qualified medical and health institutions. Specific information has been released through official channels. According to the contents of the reports, we recorded in detail the gender, age, first symptom date, death date, primary symptoms, chronic fundamental diseases, and other data of the patients, and carried out analyses and discussion.

In total, 50 fatal cases were reported: median age was 70 y old, and males were 2.33 times more likely to die than females. The median number of days from the first symptom to death was 13, and that length of time tended to be shorter among people aged 65 and older compared with those younger than 65 (12 days vs 17 days; P = 0.046). Therefore, the older patients had fewer number of days from the first symptom to death (r = -0.40; P = 0.012).

In our study, we found that most of the deaths were elderly men with chronic fundamental diseases, and their COVID-19 progression to death time was shorter. At the same time, we demonstrated that older men are more likely to become infected with COVID-19, and the risk of death is positively correlated with age.

Cognition is multidimensional, and each domain plays a unique and crucial part in successful daily life engagement. However, less attention has been paid to multi-domain cognitive health for the elderly, and the role of lifestyle factors in each domain remains unclear.

We conducted a cross-sectional study of 3,230 older adults aged 60+ years in Xiamen, China, in 2016. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) was used to measure general cognition and six specific sub-domains. To account for educational effects, we adjusted the MoCA score and divided respondents into three education-specific groups (low, moderate, and high education groups with ≤5, 6~8, and ≥9 years of education, respectively). A series of proportional odds models were used to detect the associations between two categories of lifestyle factors – substance abuse (cigarette and alcohol) and leisure activity (TV watching, reading, smartphone use, social activity, and exercise) – and general cognition and the six sub-domains in those three groups.

Among the 3,230 respondents, 2,617 eligible participants were included with a mean age of 69.05 ± 7.07 years. Previous or current smoking/drinking was not associated with MoCA scores in the whole population, but unexpectedly, the ex-smokers in the low education group performed better in general cognition (OR = 2.22) and attention (OR = 2.05) than their never-smoking counterparts. Modest TV watching, reading, and smartphone use also contributed to better cognition among elderly participants in the low education group. For the highly educated elderly, comparatively longer reading (>3.5 hours/week) was inversely associated with general cognition (OR = 0.53), memory (OR = 0.59), and language (OR = 0.54), while adequate exercise (5~7 days/week) was positively related to these factors with OR = 1.48, OR = 1.49, and OR = 1.53, respectively. For the moderately educated elderly, only modest reading was significantly beneficial.

Lifestyle factors play different roles in multidimensional cognitive health in different educational groups, indicating that individual intervention strategies should be designed according to specific educational groups and different cognitive sub-domains.