Objectives: This review aims to: (1) explore the social support measures in studies examining the association between social support and depression among community-dwelling older adults in Asia and (2) the evidence of association.Design: A systematic review was conducted using electronic databases of CINAHL, PubMed, PsychINFO, Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection, SocINDEX and Web of Science for articles published until the 11th of January 2018.Eligibility criteria: All observational studies investigating the association between social support and depression among community-dwelling older adults in Asia were included.Participants: Older adults aged 60 years and more who are living in the community.Exposure measures: Social support.Outcome measures: Depression.Results: We retrieved16 356 records and screened 66 full-text articles. Twenty-four observational studies were included in the review. They consisted of five cohort studies and 19 cross-sectional studies. Social support was found to be measured by multiple components, most commonly through a combination of structural and functional constructs. Perceived social support is more commonly measured compared with received social support. Good overall social support, having a spouse or partner, living with family, having a large social network, having more contact with family and friends, having emotional and instrumental support, good support from family and satisfaction with social support are associated with less depressive symptoms among community-dwelling older adults in Asia.Conclusions: There were 20 different social support measures and we applied a framework to allow for better comparability. Our findings emphasised the association between good social support and decrease depression among older adults. Compared with western populations, family support has a greater influence on depression among community-dwelling older adults in Asia. This indicates that the family institution needs to be incorporated into designed programmes and interventions when addressing depression in the Asian context.Trialregistration number: CRD42017074897.

Mobile and tablet apps, ubiquitous and pervasive computing, wearable computing and domotics for health.

Social support (SS) has been widely recognized to have a protective effect influencing older adults’ emotional and psychological well-being. This study aimed to determine the relationships of structural SS and functional SS on depression and quality of life among the community-dwelling older adults in the rural and Asian context. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 2324 community older adults aged 60 years and above in Kuala Pilah, Malaysia. Participants were recruited via multistage sampling and interviewed face-to-face. The relationships were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Structural SS was associated with functional SS (β = 0.05). Only functional SS (having a role, knowing what is going on, and having a confidant) was found to be significantly associated with depression (β = −0.07) and quality of life (physical component [β = 0.08], mental component [β = 0.31]). In summary, functional SS and familial SS should be addressed to reduce depression and improve quality of life among older adults. Community initiatives to increase awareness in optimizing social support should be conducted for quality of life among community older adults.

Background: Around the world, individuals are living longer, but an increased average lifespan does not always equate to an increased healthspan. With advancing age, the increased prevalence of ageing-related diseases can have a significant impact on health status, functional capacity, and quality of life. It is therefore vital to develop comprehensive classification and staging systems for ageing-related pathologies, diseases and syndromes. This will allow societies to better identify, quantify, understand, and meet the healthcare, workforce, wellbeing, and socioeconomic needs of ageing populations, while supporting the development and utilisation of interventions to prevent or to slow, halt or reverse the progression of ageing-related pathologies. Methods: The foundation for developing such classification and staging systems is to define the scope of what constitutes an ageing-related pathology, disease or syndrome. To this end, a consensus meeting was hosted by the International Consortium to Classify Ageing-Related Pathologies (ICCARP), on February 19 ^th , 2024, in Cardiff, UK, and was attended by 150 recognised experts. Discussions and voting were centred on provisional criteria that had been distributed prior to the meeting. The participants debated and voted on these. Each criterion required a consensus agreement of ≥70% for approval. Results: The accepted criteria for an ageing-related pathology, disease or syndrome were: Develops and/or progresses with increasing chronological age. Should be associated with, or contribute to, functional decline, or an increased susceptibility to functional decline. Evidenced by studies in humans. Conclusions: Criteria for an ageing-related pathology, disease or syndrome have been agreed by an international consortium of subject experts. These criteria will now be used by the ICCARP for the classification and ultimately staging of ageing-related pathologies, diseases and syndromes.

Introduction: Heterogeneity of the clinical manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) may lead to diagnostic delays. This study is aimed at determining the health-seeking behaviour patterns and factors associated with diagnostic delays in a multi-ethnic SLE cohort in Malaysia. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study involving SLE patients who visited our institute between January 2020 and June 2021. A review of the medical records and face-to-face interviews were conducted to obtain sociodemographics, SLE disease characteristics and the intervals from the first symptoms to the diagnosis. Health-seeking behaviours were assessed by asking about the patients’ first action during the initial symptoms and were divided into: (i) seeking professional health personnel; (ii) self-treatment; and (iii) the use of the internet as a primary source of information. Diagnostic delays were defined as the interval between initial symptoms and SLE diagnosis of more than 6 months. Low-level disease activity state (LLDAS) at 12 months was assessed from the medical records. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was subsequently conducted to determine factors associated with diagnostic delays. Results: Among the 154 patients included in the study, 24% ( n = 37) had delayed diagnosis. The delay was significantly higher among the Indian versus Malay versus Chinese (42.9% vs 28% vs 10.8%, p = 0.037). Patients with rash tend to have delayed diagnosis (37.8% vs 22.2%, p = 0.08) while fewer patients with frothy urine had delayed diagnosis (8.1% vs 21.4%, p = 0.09). No significant association was found between health-seeking behaviours and diagnostic delays. The rate of LLDAS at 12 months was significantly lower among patients with delayed diagnosis (43.2% vs 70.0%, p = 0.006). Chinese ethnicity remained the only significant factor associated with lesser diagnostic delays in the multivariate analysis, with OR 0.30 (CI 0.09–0.93), p = 0.037. Conclusion: There were ethnic disparities in the early diagnosis of SLE in Malaysia, with Indian patients having a longer interval between the first symptom and diagnosis while the Chinese were associated with lower diagnostic delays. Early diagnosis predicted early attainment of LLDAS, suggesting that prompt recognition of the initial SLE symptoms is important.

Introduction: The CD34+ hematopoietic cell count was used to define cell harvest goals. Successful peripheral blood stem cell transplantation depends on infusion of an appropriate number of HPCs to achieve rapid and durable hematologic recovery. Purpose: In this study, we evaluated the use of the Hematopoietic Progenitor Cell count program on the Sysmex XN-3000 hematology analyzer as an effective parameter for enumerating CD34+ cells. Patients and Methods: Whole blood samples from 144 subjects who are either healthy donors or patients scheduled to undergo peripheral blood stem cell collection were collected and hemopoietic stem cells were quantified using CD34 cell enumeration by flow cytometry and XN-HPC by hematology analyzer. Results: The correlation between the two methods was high (r = 0.766; 95% CI: 0.702– 0.818). Passing–Bablok showed an intercept at 3.45 (2.54 to 4.74) with a slope of 0.78 (95% CI 0.69 to 0.89). Residual analysis of this model indicated no significant deviation from linearity (p = 0.360). The receiver operating characteristic curve demonstrated an area under curve to be 0.88 (0.82 to 0.92), with a positive predictive value of 80.3%. The correlation between CD34+ and XN-HPC showed a strong relationship and good agreement with minimal bias. Conclusion: The XN-HPC showed good analytical performance. With the increasing requirements for stem cell transplantation, a technically simple and rapid alternative for stem cell enumeration that is sustainable is highly useful.