Elderly Needs Mechanical Assistants

Elderly Needs Mechanical Assistants.
Two-thirds of population over the age of 65 constraint help completing the tasks of daily living, either from special devices such as canes, scooters and bathroom clutch bars or from another person, new research shows. "If people are finding ways to successfully deal with their helplessness with help from devices or people, or they're reducing their activity because of a disability, I reckon these groups are probably missed when we look at public health needs," said memorize author Vicki Freedman, a research professor at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. "How populace adapt to their disabilities is important, and it helps us identify who needs public haleness attention".

The study identified five levels on the disability spectrum: people who are fully able; kinsmen who use special devices to work around their disability; people who have reduced the frequency of their activity but divulge no difficulty; people who report difficulty doing activities by themselves, even when using special devices; and people who get staff from another person. One expert said the findings shed light on how many seniors are struggling with particular levels of disability.

"The fact that about 25 percent of people are unable to perform some activities of every day living without assistance wasn't surprising," said Dr Stanley Wainapel, clinical kingpin of the department of rehabilitation medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. "What was riveting to me was that this study gave me more information on the other 75 percent. Just because 25 percent cannot do at least one job of daily living doesn't mean the other 75 percent can get along just fine.

It's not as black and white as we might have thought. There's a Twilight Zone parade-ground between those who are perfectly fine and those who aren't, and these are the people who can probably be helped most with rehabilitation group therapy or assistive devices. Results of the study were released online Dec 12, 2013 in the American Journal of Public Health. Data for the widespread research came from the 2011 National Health and Aging Trends Study.