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Three hundred thirty-six community-dwelling, previously ambulatory, geriatric patients with hip fracture were observed prospectively to determine ambulatory ability at a minimum followup of 1 year. One hundred thirty-seven (41%) patients maintained their prefracture ambulatory ability at a minimum followup of 1 year; 134 (40%) patients remained ambulatory but became more dependent on assistive devices; 39 (12%) previous community ambulators became household ambulators, and 26 (8%) patients became nonfunctional ambulators. Analysis was performed to determine which pre- and postinjury factors were predictive of failure to recover ambulatory capacity 1 year after fracture. Potential predictor variables analyzed included age, gender, number of comorbid conditions, prefracture ambulatory ability, prefracture living situation, fracture type, American Society of Anesthesiologists rating of operative risk, type of surgery, and number of postoperative complications. Multiple logistic regression analysis identified significant contributions of age, prefracture ambulatory ability, American Society of Anesthesiologists rating of operative risk, and fracture type to ambulatory recovery.

Uberlegungen zum evangelisch-missionarischen Aspekt der Frage, wie die Kirchen den einzelnen erreichen, beschaftigen sich mit einem sehr vielschichtigen Problem. Die Kirchen sehen es als ihren selbstverstandlichen Auftrag an, dem Menschen von heute die Botschaft Christi zu verkunden. Sie sehen sich als Verkaufer einer religiosen Heilsbotschaft. In der Kommunikation dieser Heilsbotschaft aber ergeben sich ernsthafte Schwierigkeiten. Realitat und Erfahrungen zeigen, das diese Kommunikation der Kirchen heute mit wenigen oft nur schwer und mit vielen fast gar nicht gelingt. Deswegen ist es verstandlich, das man immer wieder danach fragen mus, wie die Kirchen den einzelnen erreichen konnen. (...) English Communications sciences can help the Churches to show how to reach man. The context of society and the living situation of any person conditions and influences the communication of the Churches with the People. For the Christian message to have access and to be delivered to people, the Churches should recognise the specific needs and desires of these people. From this aspect one can develop and refine a typology of the public. Finally the Churches should not only try to be understandable with their messages but should also be open as a sender to the desires of the receiver and be aware of the appeal of their messages. These dimensions, to a great extent, determine the impact of the Christian message.

The contemporary college scene is surveyed from two perspectives. The first author, taking a wide-angle view, observes that students have become open about psychological problems in the last generation, the student population has become diverse, family and parental pressures seem to be on the rise, and conservative and counterculture values currently coexist. Students today seem open-minded tolerant, but the heterogeneity of standards is confusing for some. The second author focuses on gender issues: identity, role and sexuality. For today;s students, gender roles have softened, facilitating access between men and women in the coed living situation. Students living together in quasi-familial relationships and frequently observe an "incest" barrier. Diverse sexual expression and committed couple relationships are common. Sexual identity and role conflict in college women are explored.

Quality of life issues must be addressed more vigorously in the care of chronic mental patients. In a survey of 30 large board-and-care homes in Los Angeles, 278 mentally disabled residents described their life conditions and satisfaction in eight areas: living situation, family relations, social relations, leisure activities, work, finances, safety, and health. Residents were less satisfied than the general population in most life areas, especially finances, unemployment, safety, and family and social relations (p less than .001). Of particular concern was the finding that 34% had been recent victims of crime. The results underscore the need for better social programs for these patients.

A prospective, controlled, crossover study on drug compliance was initiated in 22 elderly patients from a geriatric clinic. Half of the patients received their pills from a commercially prepared calendar mealtime blister-pak; the remaining patients received their medication from standard pill bottles. At the end of three months the two groups were crossed over. Pill count and issuance of a new drug supply were done monthly to assess compliance. It was found that the average noncompliance index was significantly decreased (9.17 to 2.04) with the blister-pak packaging system. The relationship of age, Folstein mini-mental status, over compliance, frequency of dosing interval, and living situation were also explored.

A new generation of persistently dysfunctional young adults (aged 18 to 35) has emerged in the community, requiring new programs in community care. This population, which includes a wide range of diagnostic groups, is under study at a suburban New York community mental health center. The center and county are serving 294 such young patients through a variety of programs which include a crisis service, a sheltered workshop, a residential program called the Community Link-Up Experience, an acute day treatment program, an alcohol day treatment program, a case management program, and a Growth Advancement Program that gives patients an opportunity to socialize and share problems with others their age. Residential programs that provide a supportive living situation to young adult chronic patients on both a temporary and a long-term basis are sorely needed and will require an increased outlay of funds. A case study of one young patient who visited the center sporadically over a 12-year period illustrates the treatment problems such patients pose.

Two studies were conducted evaluating the effectiveness of friendly visitor programs in increasing clients' life satisfaction. Study 1 found no difference between face-to-face visiting, phone visiting, and a no treatment control on client life satisfaction. Study 2 found a marginally significant difference in favor of a personal history approach over a companionship approach to visiting in increasing client life satisfaction. Clients' living situation (alone or with others) had no effect on changes in life satisfaction in Study 1. However, in Study 2 clients who lived with someone increased their life satisfaction more than clients who lived alone.

Previous evaluations of residential and day programs for emotionally disturbed children have neglected the effects of pre‐admission client variables on treatment outcome. The present study examined the influence of nine such client factors on behavioral ratings improvement and academic improvement of 50 children discharged from Brewer‐Porch Children's Center, University of Alabama. Structural analyses revealed that the child's I.Q., age, parental involvement, and living situation were predictors of behavioral ratings improvement, while parental involvement, race, and I.Q. were predictors of academic gains. Results were related to existing knowledge of individual client variables’ effects on treatment outcome. In addition, the research model employed was discussed in terms of its utility for internal program analysis and its contribution to knowledge of intervention effects.

When parents care about their children but are unable to rear them due to their own emotional or intellectual limitations, special ethical issues are evoked for those who plan help or make decisions about these children and their families. The seemingly impossible dilemmas are clear, as well as the need for better approaches to these children and their families. It is essential that professionals deal with these dilemmas rather than avoid them. Better models for services and careful evaluation research are important to that will help us determine the most effective way to intervene. One model that might be better would be a kibbutz‐like alternate living situation for these families. Such a model would protect the meaning of the ties between children and their parents and also provide responsible care of the children.

The use of activity which is carefully planned so as to facilitate change in the patient is a unique characteristic of occupational therapy. Occupational therapy closely resembles the actual living situation more so than any other treatment setting and therefore provides a realistic environment in which the patient can test her developing skills in living.

This study identifies factors that may influence satisfaction with housing relocation to an extended care facility as expressed by elderly persons. Previous research shows that housing relocation can have both positive and negative effects on elderly individuals, but that a number of factors influence satisfaction with relocation. Results indicate both negative and positive expressed levels of satisfaction with relocation. Study results also indicate factors associated with a higher level of expressed satisfaction with relocation, such as good physical health at the time of the move, voluntarily deciding to enter the new living situation, predictability of the new living environment, similarity of the facility to the previous living environment and current marital status.

A comparison of Black and White women entering methadone maintenance programs and therapeutic communities found similarities with respect to living situation, financial dependency on others, and unemployment. White women, however, experienced more disturbances within the family of origin, early drug use, overdoses, use of different kinds of drugs, suicide attempts, criminal involvement, and linkages with drug-abusing partners. Black women were more likely to have child care responsibilities.

Data on 776 survivors of the Massachusetts Health Care Panel Study are used to examine the relationship between impairment and disability among noninstitutionalized aged. Using multiple regression we examined the relationship of sight, hearing, and musculoskeletal impairments with physical and social disability, controlling for age, gender, income, and living situation. Findings suggest that impairments do not inevitably lead to disability. Musculoskeletal and visual impairments are strongly related to physical disability. None of the impairments studied in this sample are related to increasing social disability. These results suggest that physical and social disabilities may be distinct concepts with quite different determinants.

Many older people live in situations not in keeping with their needs. Daily living can be eased or worsened by the environment, Bratman (1974), and living arrangements which support older peoples’ decreasing physiological, psychological, and sociological capacities are essential, Beattie (1973). Studies suggest that for older people inappropriate living arrangements can result in hospital readmissions, serious impairment in functioning, and sometimes even death, Kelman and Muller (1967); Lieberman (1969). Knowledge is needed regarding what living situations are available to the aged, what is expected from those living situations, and what is desirable in the living situation, if living arrangements conducive to maintaining well-being during the aging process are to be chosen. Two descriptive studies concerning the choosing of living arrangements were conducted to gain understanding of how both nurses and elderly people select living situations for the elderly. The process of decision making was studied since this process focuses on variables pertinent’ to choosing living arrangements, and also provides a means for selecting living arrangements.

A child's most important resource to achieving permanency in his living situation 1s the family system. The family must have the opportunity to make the necessary changes if the child is to return home. This paper addresses the methods used to involve parents in the treatment process that brings them into a partnership with the treatment team to work towards reunion with their child.

Results from field work in Sri Lanka are presented. The main issues covered are aspects of people's living situation, economic and social interaction, and degree of integration on a number of indicators. Living situation implies material well-being, access to resources, education and health, and attitudes towards development. By interaction is meant economic circulation in the study area and between this area and the outside world, geographical mobility of people, and lastly, channels of information. To obtain an easily intelligible measure for comparison over time, the concept integration is used.

The number of children living in institutions is staggering. Existing knowledge of individual and group dynamics in insti tutional treatment is not being applied. Children must not be pushed from one foster home to another before being placed in an institution. Institutional placement must cease to be con sidered "a last resort"; it must be recognized as an appropriate treatment situation for certain children. Institutions must em phasize the living situation as much as clinical services and must provide for treatment and healthy growth development.

The study investigates the relationship of 153 students' housing arrangements to the frequency of dropping out from college. Results indicate that dropping out was related to the living situation, the highest rates occurring for Ss living in rooms, in boarding houses, and at home, the lowest for those in sororities, men's dormitories, and co-ops.

For proper treatment of diabetic patients, it is necessary for us to let the patients understand the importance of diet therapy. For this, we have to graspe the living situation of each patient correctly and guide him in the best way we can taking his individual situation into our consideration. One of the easy approaches is a food exchange program. Cooking courses also offer good opportunities for the patients to memorize approximate weights of various diabetic foods. Mental guidance is also important to prevent the patients from injesting unsuited food because of mental stress derived from strict food restriction

Eight species of Reptiles and 10 species of Amphibian were found in unfinished rice fields. Two species of Reptiles and four species of Amphibian were found in finished rice fields. The individual numbers of snakes increased to from March to April, but decreased at the rainy season, and increased again after the rainy season. The individual numbers of frogs increased from the end of March, and its number amounted to the peak after their landing. The infant individual immediately after the metamorphosis of Hyla japonica was gone to from the rice field next month, but the infant of Rana nigromaculata and Fejervarya limnocharis grew up in the rice field. The appearance of frog and snake was rich at the temperature from 16℃ to 30℃ but at the rain and the wind it was limited. Elaphe quadrivirgata was often found on the levee of the rice field, on the other hand Rhabdophis tigrinus tigrinus was often found in the waterside where was in the rice field, the waterway and the marsh, etc. The re-trapping percentage of the Elaphe quadrivirgata was higher than that of Rhabdophis tigrinus tigrinus for the marked two species of the snake. Four species of Amphibian were able to be confirmed the result of the hibernation investigation.

To examine the reliability of drug histories of elderly outpatients, records of 122 frail elderly patients in a geriatric outpatient evaluation clinic were reviewed. Drug histories were taken by an internist during an initial clinical evaluation and by a nurse practitioner during a home visit. Home and office drug lists disagreed in 39 cases (32%). Roughly equal numbers of “extra” drugs were listed in the two settings. Number of medications (especially two or more), number of active medical problems (especially four or more), and depression were significant, independent predictors of an unreliable drug history. Neither dementia nor living situation was a significant predictor of an unreliable drug history. The only drugs associated with an unreliable history were megavitamins, beta-blockers, and centrally-acting antihypertensive agents. Using the home list as the reference, there were equal numbers of omission errors and commission errors in the office drug histories. Strategies to optimize the reliability of office drug histories need further investigation.

Because he was considered at risk for combined immune deficiency disease an otherwise healthy boy was delivered by Caesarean section and placed at once in a germ-free environment. He has been maintained in reverse isolation since. The present report reviews aspects of his developmental progress during his first 52 months. Despite the highly atypical character of his living situation, he shows, at this time, no evidence of deviant emotional or intellectual development.

The transition from adolescence to young adulthood is fraught with many important life decisions, including the choice of career direction and living arrangements. This study uses longitudinal data from 640 subjects to examine the impact of adolescent drug use on choice of life pursuit and living arrangements four years later as young adults. Use of nonprescription medication had no predictive power to understand young adult living situation or life pursuit, whereas adolescent cigarette use, alcohol use, cannabis use, and hard drug use all significantly influenced these young adult life situations. Results indicate that low levels of drug use are associated with parent and dormitory living arrangements and military and university career pursuits. On the other hand, high levels of adolescent drug use are predictive of marital or cohabitation living arrangements and none or full-time employment. These findings are interpreted to suggest that adolescent drug use is associated with precocious acquisition of adult roles (marriage, full-time jobs), perhaps to the ultimate detriment of the individual, since adequate adult maturity may not have occurred by this point in life.

The family physician has a unique role in the care of the pregnant patient. With knowledge of the patient’s family dynamics, living Situation, and social support system, the family physician provides prenatal care focused toward a healthy birth and the development of a nurturing family unit.

For 5 years following nailing of their cervical hip fractures 40 patients were repeatedly subjected to 85Sr-scintimetry, radiography, and clinical examinations. The mean age of the patients was 73 years (range: 38–93); 13 fractures healed without complications, 22 developed necrosis of the femoral head, and five showed non-union. Increasing pain during weight-bearing was an early sign of necrosis or non-union, and it was the main indication for secondary arthroplasty. However, pain upon weight-bearing was not always incapacitating, and five patients with necrosis had no complaints at all. The living situation of patients with development of necrosis proved important for the decision as to whether or not a secondary arthroplasty was needed; those who had partners seemed to avoid a secondary procedure. It is concluded that primary arthroplasty in fracture of the femoral neck should be avoided.

The authors' model for the hospital treatment of severely disordered adolescents and young adults calls for a categorization of the patient's major characteristics that are relevant to treatment along six axes: symptoms and signs, previous course of the disorder, social functioning, work or school functioning, family or other living situation, and sense of identity. They present a case study of a 19-year-old male patient to demonstrate how the model works.

This study of 114 couples seeking help for their marital problems examines the hypothesis that nontraditional sex-role attitudes function as a coping resource to ameliorate the distress of marital disruption. Stress was measured by whether or not the individual's marital goal was congruent with the current situation of living together or apart and with the spouse's marital goal of maintaining the marriage or the separation. Incongruence was found to be related to reported distress for both men and women; incongruence in the living situation had a greater effect on distress than incongruence with the spouse's goal. Nontraditional sex-role attitudes were associated with reduced distress for both men and women, but such sex-role attitudes interacted with the stress measures to reduce reported distress only for women. The finding that nontraditional sex-role attitudes perform a coping function for women but not for men is discussed in terms of its implications for sex-specific and situation-specific coping mechanisms.

The relationship between psychiatric chronicity and schizophrenia in the postacute phase was examined by comparing posthospitalized chronic schizophrenics and chronic nonschizophrenics on symptoms, social functioning, and recidivism. No differences were found between the groups on any of these variables, indicating a general similarity of clinical picture for chronic schizophrenics and chronic nonschizophrenics in the postacute phase. These results were contrasted with two other comparisons made irrespective of diagnosis: (1) Patients with better social functioning were compared to patients performing less well socially; (2) patients living with others were compared with patients living in isolated settings. In both these comparisons, significant differences in the clinical picture were found between the two groups. Thus, living situation and degree of social functioning both appear to have more relevance for the postacute phase than does diagnosis. These results were related to the genetic and outcome literature on chronic psychiatric disorder to advance the view that the diagnosis of chronicity is more crucial for the understanding of severe emotional disorders than the traditional symptom-based DSM-III classification system.

Summary The use of activity which is carefully planned so as to facilitate change in the patient is a unique characteristic of occupational therapy. Occupational therapy closely resembles the actual living situation more so than any other treatment setting and therefore provides a realistic environment in which the patient can test her developing skills in living.

Although historical developments are covered in some detail in another chapter, it may be useful to re-emphasize that state mental hospitals were, at their inception, highly successful. That success was not due either to an “illness” conception of psychological disorder nor to a “moral therapy” conception of its remediation, but to the great compassion of those physicians of the time who agreed to care for the mentally disordered. They provided the psychologically crippled with a kindly, consistent, and somewhat sheltered, but essentially ordinary living situation. Today, most of us would call this “providing an environment in which growth can occur” rather than “moral therapy.”1

A residence for adults which primarily houses psychiatric patients who had been hospitalized for many years can be made into a therapeutic living situation. The use of a therapeutic community approach in which patients and staff are encouraged to be open, communicative, and mutually supportive and where problem solving is done in both a relaxed and structured setting can approach an extended-family situation. This type of program offers a method of changing this type of residence from a custodial-like institution to a therapeutic family-like setting.

This chapter is devoted to the special problems of geriatric patients in crisis. Although traditional assessment and management techniques are generally applicable to elderly patients, the clinical problems unique to this population warrant separate treatment. This chapter presents general guidelines for working effectively with the elderly and their families in an emergency setting.

Outcomes for 62 hospitalized mental patients were predicted, utilizing various background information, diagnoses, and staff ratings of behavior, as independent variables. Diagnoses and previous admissions correlated weakly with the outcomes, viz., length of stay, subsequent readmissions, and post-hospital adjustment. Staff ratings were more reliable, and of these, the open ward aides' estimates generally were more effective than those of admission ward personnel or professionals. Staff predictions and judgments of patients' behaviors yielded multiple correlations explaining over 60 per cent of the variation in each outcome measure. In addition, the patient's judged competence and posthospital living situation were associated with his or her use of outpatient facilities.

All beings and their functions are more or less obvious, they have their persistent natures, and they are well set on the ways on which they proceed in a predetermined manner. Man is the only being which is mysterious, problem-burdened, puzzling, and never cxhaustibly comprehensible in his essencc as well as in his way of being. Such a being is a cultural being.

A FEW YEARS AGO when we began developing programs for the severely retarded residents of our 3347-bed institution, we based our planning on the belief that each resident should be considered as an individual. Such an approach was necessary at tile beginning, and it proved useful because it focused so emphatically on the needs of individual residents. However, as time passed we became more and more aware of the great commonalities of the residents’ needs. We also realized that no matter how successful we were at training individual residents in certain skills, we were not effectively modifying the behavior of the group as a whole. In addition, we knew that individual gains could be maintained only if they were reinforced by the total living situation. We concluded that the residents’ needs could best be met in an environmental program that supported their abilities, however limited, and compensated somewhat for their handicaps. Thus we decided to shift our major efforts away from individual training and concentrate instead on improving the environment. In October 1969 we introduced our compensatory environment program on two residential units that separately housed the men and women who were the most severely retarded and most behaviorally disturbed in our institution. The program, whicil has succeeded beyond our greatest expectations, has shown that when humane and comfortable living conditions are made available for such people, more often than not their bizarre, disturbed behaviors automatically disappear. They begin to acquire new skills almost on their own initiative or with only minimal formal training. A full-time director is in charge of the program; he is aided by two assistants and a program development and training coordinator. The program has focused on two particular areas that have been

Many of the problems we have discussed at this conference have related to experiments done in vitro. Often they have concerned small pieces of the joint, such as the synovial fluid or areas of cartilage. It is important to consider the joint as a whole and to have information in the living situation, if the data we accumulate is to be interpreted physiologically and pathologically. In the Bio-engineering Group for the Study of Joints at the University of Leeds we have been concerned to look at the stiffness of joints in normal subjects and patients with various forms of arthritis.

This study measured the receptive communication skills of 14 adults with significant intellectual disability living in community group homes in Connecticut. Group home staff members rated the 14 participants using a 14‐item rating scale sensitive to the adult living situation. These individuals appeared to have relatively stronger skills for comprehension of single‐step in‐context directions and the ability to recognise that particular tangible objects represented certain daily routines. These individuals were relatively weak in identifying familiar people in photographs and common objects in magazines. Among these participants, persons with profound intellectual disability were rated to have lower receptive communication skills than persons with severe intellectual disability. Clinical implications are discussed for human service providers and education professionals.

The aims of this study were to: (1) investigate the relationships between measured hearing impairment and self-reported hearing and communication difficulties (i.e., activity limitations, participation restrictions), health-related quality of life and wellbeing in community-based older Australians; and (2) investigate the influence of age, gender, living situation and hearing aid use on these relationships. Data were collected from 178 older people with hearing impairment. Pure-tone audiometry was used to assess hearing impairment and self-report questionnaires were used to assess activity limitations, participation restrictions, health-related quality of life and wellbeing. Results showed a relationship between hearing impairment and activity limitations, participation restrictions and wellbeing. No relationship was found between measured hearing impairment and healthrelated quality of life. However, significant relationships were evident between hearing difficulties in everyday life (activity limitations and participation restrictions) and health-related quality of life. Gender, living situation and hearing aid use influenced these relationships. The results highlight the far-reaching effects of hearing impairment on the lives of older people and the importance of using self-report measures to understand this.

Nutritional care and nutritional status may differ in older persons receiving informal (IC) or professional (PC) home care and further depend on the living situation, but little is known in this regard. In this analysis of a cross-sectional multicenter study, type of care, living situation, and nutritional care were enquired in 353 older adults (≥65) receiving IC or PC, living either with partner (LP), with others (LO) or alone (LA), and the nutritional status was determined by BMI and MNA®. For IC receivers, food shopping (IC-LP 94%, IC-LO 96%, IC-LA 92%) and warm meals (IC-LP 89%, IC-LO 90%, IC-LA 71%) were mainly provided by relatives, whereas 47% of PC-LA prepared warm meals by themselves and 22% received meals on wheels. Thirteen percent were underweight, 13% malnourished, and 57% at risk of malnutrition without differences between the groups. Adjusted odds ratios (OR) of being malnourished were also not different (IC-LP 2.2 [95% CI 0.5–9.7], IC-LO 1.4 [0.3–6.6], IC-LA 1.4 [0.3–6.6]) compared to PC-LA. In conclusion, provision of nutritional care obviously differed according to the type of care and living situation, whereas nutritional status does not seem to be affected by these aspects. More research is clearly needed in this field.

Introduction This chapter reports on findings from the Living Together project, focusing especially on the experiences of individuals who lived in multigenerational households in the two Australian cities of Sydney and Brisbane. As noted in the introductory chapter, this is an often neglected area of research into multigenerational living arrangements, which has tended to focus instead on why these households live together. Understanding the experiences of multigenerational household members, however, is important because these experiences reflect the interpersonal relationships among the household members, which affect their overall wellbeing and satisfaction with their living situation.

In the last years, a considerable increase in syphilis incidence was observed in Poland. This is a condition with serious health and psychosocial consequences. The research demonstrates that one of the events which significantly modify the course of human life is the somatic disease experience; hence, it was decided to examine selected aspects of the living situation of persons suffering from syphilis, which refer to the social position held by these persons. Materials for the research were collected based on the anonymous authors' survey composed of 16 questions. The research lasted for two years and covered a group of 42 syphilitic patients (35 males and 7 females). The mean age of male patients was 35.7 and of female patients 37.0 years. Among the participants, 8 persons had been subjected to treatment for a few years, 11 for about a year, and 22 persons had recently become ill. Patients assessed the attitude toward themselves mostly as invariable, followed by unstable; 45.2% of subjects considered their position in the family as average and 42.9% as high; 28.6% of patients assessed their occupational position as average and the same number admitted to be currently out of work. Most frequently, unemployed were patients who had been affected by the disease for several years (62.5%), whereas their social position was assessed either as high (47.6%) or average (45.2%). Irrespective of the duration of the disease, patients (during hospitalization) usually met a lot of people. It has been proven that most of the syphilitic patients do not have negative attitude toward themselves and do not assess their social position as inferior, regardless of the duration of the disease. Such a picture of the living situation may be a manifestation of the compensation for the negative mental state, activation of other defense mechanisms or proper strategy of coping with the stressor. The generally optimistic image of the studied group of syphilitic patients may constitute a warning against an increased risk from the infected persons.

Background Depression is a common disorder in old age and increases with hospitalisation. The aim was to investigate whether improvement in depressive symptoms after hospitalisation is associated with education level, age, gender, living situation, self-efficacy, activities in daily living and quality of life by (1) examining the prevalence of depressive symptoms at baseline and at 1st and 2nd follow-up (2) examining different factors' association with depressive symptoms at baseline and (3) examining different factors' association with improvement in depressive symptoms at baseline and at 1st and 2nd follow-up. Methods The study consisted of 145 patients, 65 years and older. Data were collected between February 2015 and September 2016 through interviews conducted using structured protocols. The instrument used was Katz index of ADL, Geriatric Depression Scale-20, Life Satisfaction Questionnaire and the General Self-Efficacy Scale. The participants were interviewed before discharge from hospital, after 1.5 month and after 3 months. Results The prevalence of depressive symptoms in older persons was high after hospitalisation. Factors associated with improvement of depressive symptoms after hospitalisation were higher educational level, improvement in activities in daily living and quality of life. Non-significant results were found for improvement of depressive symptoms and gender, age, living situation or self-efficacy. Conclusions Depression is a common health problem in older persons, especially after hospitalisation. It is therefore important that healthcare staff screen older persons for depression during hospitalisation, as this allows identification of those in need and a possibility to help them in an appropriate manner. Persons with lower educational level and depressive symptoms need special attention.

Behavioural group treatment for families with obese children ist presented: after analysing their actual living situation (eating-drinking, habits, physical activities, schoolsituation etc.) parents and children work out changements and train these together. Included in this one-year programm is a 3-week vacationcamp for the children.