Shorter sleep and depression: what role do our genes play?

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Nick Donnelly discusses how one’s genetic predisposition to shorter sleep is associated with the onset of depression in older adults.

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Sex differences in dementia risk and risk factors

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In a joint blog, Dr Esha Abrol and Dr Clara Belessiotis-Richards critique this individual participant meta-analysis on sex differences in dementia risk and risk factors.

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Can hearing interventions slow down cognitive decline?

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In this blog, Daisy Long and the elf apprentices that took part in the woodland workshop undertook a group critical analysis on Lin, F.R., Pike, J.R., Albert. M.S., Arnold, M., Burgard, S., Chisolm, T. & others (2023) paper on Hearing intervention versus health education control to reduce cognitive decline in older adults with hearing loss in the USA (ACHIEVE): a multi-centre, randomized controlled trial.

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Be kind to your mind and exercise: can exercise buffer the effects of stressful life events?

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In his debut blog, Justin Chapman reviews a longitudinal study which finds that exercising can buffer against depression after stressful life events.

Justin is live blogging for The Mental Elf at #EquallyWellAu23 this week, alongside Elf Coordinator Laura Hemming who is on live tweeting duties.

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Children vs dependent older people – facilitators and barriers to providing oral hygiene

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In this their latest blog Gemma Gaw, Suzy Harkness, Emma O’Donnell Scottish Specialty Registrars in Special Care Dentistry look at a review comparing barriers and facilitators to providing oral health measures for both children and dependent older adults.

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Tools for measuring oral health and orofacial pain in dependent adults

This study is the first of its kind from an RCT perspective which clearly shows that treating major depression in older adults using interventions in primary care settings can extend life

A group of Scottish Specialty Registrars in Special Care Dentistry look at a recent review of available measurement tools for assessing oral health and orofacial pain in dependent adults, which can be used by the non-dental caregivers. Nine tools were identified and despite a lack of comprehensive testing a number demonstrate reliability and validity.

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Do different groups of people with schizophrenia respond differently to different antipsychotics?

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Murtada Alsaif considers a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Lancet Psychiatry exploring the response of different subgroups of patients with schizophrenia to different antipsychotic drugs.

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Global prevalence of edentulism in the over 45s

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This review summarising global data on the prevalence of edentulism and dental caries of people aged ≥45 years living in the community included 86 studies. The estimated global prevalence of edentulism in those ≥45 years was 22% (95%CI; 19 to 24%).

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Mastication and chronic disease in older adults

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In this blog Carly Ross assess a review of the associations between objectively assessed masticatory performance, chronic systemic diseases and physical function in older adults.

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