ElderWeb

About 400,000 new cases of stroke occur each year in the United States, and stroke is the third most common cause of death and is a leading cause of long-term disability among the elderly. But a study published March 22 issue of Psychosomatic Medicine, the Journal of the American Psychosomatic Society, reports that people who are happy are less likely to become victims of strokes, and people who often feel blue tend to have more strokes than older adults who are not depressed.

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston reached their conclusions about the apparently protective effect of happiness after analyzing data on 2,478 white and black men and women 65 years of age or older from five North Carolina counties. None of the people in the group whose data was re-examined by the Texas researchers reported having had a stroke at the beginning of the study, but they were tracked with annual interviews, during which time 340 strokes occurred, 75 of them fatal.

Texas' chapter of the Silver Hair Legislature has set up a Web site to support their membership. This Silver Hair Legislature was formed in 1979 to help older Americans make their voices heard in the halls of American government. The new Texas site includes recent articles about issues important to the members, calendars of events and email newsletters.

Men and women who stayed active after a first heart attack were significantly less likely to die early or to have a second heart attack, according to research in the journal Circulation. Patients who kept physically active after a first heart attack had a 60% lower risk of fatal heart attack or a second nonfatal heart attack than those who did not.

Lyn Steffen-Batey, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Texas led the study. Steffen-Batey said that unlike other studies that have focused on a specific group, her results applied no matter how severe someone's heart attack was and held for men, women, Hispanics and whites, smokers and people with high or low cholesterol.

Researchers studied 406 Mexican-American and non-Hispanic white survivors of a first heart attack admitted to hospitals in the Corpus Christi, Texas, area. Only four of the people in the study were classified as vigorous exercisers, which was not surprising since regular, vigorous exercise significantly reduces the risk of ever having a heart attack in the first place.

Researchers noted that smoking and eating habits had less effect on outcomes -- physical activity was the most noticeable similarity among those who avoided a second attack.

Texas Attorney General John Cornyn today announced a record $300,000 settlement in a nursing home civil penalty case. The settlement against Dublin Nursing Center in Dublin, Texas, near Stephenville, resulted from a Texas Department of Human Services (TDHS) investigation that revealed numerous violations of the Health and Safety Code.

TDHS surveyors visited Dublin Nursing Center from May 16 through May 20, 1994 to conduct a standard licensing survey. The TDHS investigation revealed numerous violations, which led the facility owner, Linda Finch, to allow a Trustee to take over the operation of the facility. TDHS found that there had not been a weekday registered nurse or Director of Nursing in the facility for a period of nearly four months and that the facility had insufficient nursing staff to provide basic nursing services to residents. One group of residents was found to have severe pressure sores, yet there was no record of them being assessed, or of their doctors ever being notified of the problem, so the residents could receive proper care. Some residents with pressure sores were observed laying on urine soaked, torn incontinent pads. TDHS observations also noted that several residents were emaciated with severe malnutrition and doctors had never been notified of their conditions. One male resident was found to weigh as little as 82 pounds. Another resident was being fed food he could not eat because he had no teeth.

The Attorney General's office has been involved in this case with TDHS for over five years, after initially filing suit against Dublin Nursing Center in March of 1995. This is the fourth major nursing home settlement Attorney General Cornyn has announced. Similar agreements were announced with the Arbors Living Centers in Beaumont, the Kenwood Nursing Home in Duncanville, and the Melrose Nursing Center in Tyler. Since Attorney General Cornyn has been in office, over $2 million in civil penalties has been collected in nursing home cases.