Search

Successful aging (SA) has been conceptualized in a number of ways. Despite increasing research into how laypersons define SA, few studies capturing lay perspectives of SA in younger cohorts and in non-English speaking countries have been undertaken. The current study examines cross-cultural perspectives of SA in young (aged 18–35), lay adults from a variety of continental European countries and Turkey. Participants were recruited via snowball sampling from social network sites and invited to participate in an online survey. Persons between 18–35 years from Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Netherlands, Romania, Switzerland, or Turkey were included. Respondents (total: 390; Belgian: 32; Estonian: 96; German: 76; Romanian: 47; Swiss: 39; Dutch: 30; Turkish: 70), were primarily women (56.4%) and students (66.2%), with an average age of 24.1 years (SD3.7). Personal resources, social and active engagement all emerged as dominant themes across countries, but were articulated in subtly different ways in the participant countries. Positive perspectives, desirable attributes and satisfaction themes were intertwined within themes of acceptance and engagement. The current study provides a first step in the inclusion of geographic and cultural diversity into the SA literature. These results suggest that layperson conceptualizations of SA have broad-sweeping similarities, but further research is required to articulate the nuance of cultural influences on SA. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses a study of cross-cultural conceptualizations of successful aging (SA) in younger Europeans aged 18 to 35 from countries including Romania, Belgium, and Germany. A table ranking the items that were considered by participants as being important to SA, including longevity, remaining free of chronic disease, and being able to care for oneself until close to time of death, is presented.

Background: Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistant to antituberculosis drugs is an increasingly common clinical problem. This study aimed to evaluate drug resistance profiles of TBM isolates in adult patients in nine European countries involving 32 centers to provide insight into the empiric treatment of TBM., Methods: Mycobacterium tuberculosis was cultured from the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 142 patients and was tested for susceptibility to first-line antituberculosis drugs, streptomycin (SM), isoniazid (INH), rifampicin (RIF) and ethambutol (EMB)., Results: Twenty of 142 isolates (14.1 %) were resistant to at least one antituberculosis drug, and five (3.5 %) were resistant to at least INH and RIF, [multidrug resistant (MDR)]. The resistance rate was 12, 4.9, 4.2 and 3.5 % for INH, SM, EMB and RIF, respectively. The monoresistance rate was 6.3, 1.4 and 0.7 % for INH, SM and EMB respectively. There was no monoresistance to RIF. The mortality rate was 23.8 % in fully susceptible cases while it was 33.3 % for those exhibiting monoresistance to INH, and 40 % in cases with MDR-TBM. In compared to patients without resistance to any first-line drug, the relative risk of death for INH-monoresistance and MDR-TBM was 1.60 (95 % CI, 0.38-6.82) and 2.14 (95 % CI, 0:34-13:42), respectively., Conclusion: INH-resistance and MDR rates seemed not to be worrisome in our study. However, considering their adverse effects on treatment, rapid detection of resistance to at least INH and RIF would be most beneficial for designing anti-TB therapy. Still, empiric TBM treatment should be started immediately without waiting the drug susceptibility testing.