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Material gerontology poses the question of how aging processes are co-constituted in relation to different forms of (human and non-human) materiality. This paper makes a novel contribution by asking when aging processes are co-constituted and how these temporalities of aging are entangled with different forms of materiality. In this paper, we explore the entanglements of temporality and materiality in shaping later life by framing them as spacetimematters (Barad, 2013). By drawing on empirical examples from data from a qualitative case study in a long-term care (LTC) facility, we ask how the entanglement of materiality and temporality of a fall-detection sensor co-constitutes aging. We focus on two types of material temporality that came to matter in age-boundary-making practices at this site: the material temporality of a technology-in-training and the material temporality of (false) alarms. Both are interwoven, produced and reproduced through spacetimematterings that established age-boundaries. Against the backdrop of these findings, we propose to understand age(ing) as a situated, distributed, more-than-human process of practices: It emerges in an assemblage of technological innovation discourses, problematizations of demographic change, digitized and analog practices of care and caring, bodily functioning, daily routines, institutionalized spaces and much more. Finally, we discuss the role power plays in those spacetimematterings of aging and conclude with a research outlook for material gerontology.
Background: This study evaluated the effects of a combined innovative training regime consisting of stochastic resonance whole-body vibration (SR-WBV) and a dance video game (DVG) on physical performance and muscle strength in long-term-care dwelling elderly.
Methods: Thirthy long-term-care elderly were randomly allocated to an intervention group (IG; n = 16) receiving combined SR-WBV training and DVG, or a sham group (SG; n = 14). IG performed five sets one minute of SR-WBV, with one minute rest between sets (base frequency 3 Hz up to 6 Hz, Noise 4) during the first five weeks on three days per week. From week five to eight a DVG was added to SR-WBV for IG on three days per week. SG performed a five-set SR-WBV program (1 Hz, Noise 1) lasting five times one minute, with one minute rest in between, three days a week. From week five to eight stepping exercises on a trampoline were added on three days per week. Primary outcome: Short physical performance battery (SPPB). Secondary outcome: isometric maximal voluntary contraction (IMVC), and sub phases of IMVC (Fsub), isometric rate of force development (IRFD) and sub time phases of IRFD (IRFDsub) were measured at baseline, after four and eight weeks. ANOVA with repeated measures was used for analyses of time and interaction effects and MANOVA determined between group intervention effects.
Results: Between group effects revealed significant effects on the SPPB primary outcome after four weeks F(1, 27) = 6.17; p = 0.02) and after eight weeks F(1,27) = 11.8; p = 0.002). Secondary muscle function related outcome showed significant between group effects in IG on IRFD, Fsub 30 ms, 100 ms, 200 ms and IRFDsub 0-30 ms, 0-50 ms, 0-100 ms and 100-200 ms compared to SG (all p < 0.05).
Conclusions: Eight weeks SR-WBV and DVG intervention improved lower extremity physical function and muscle strength compared to a sham intervention in long-term-care elderly. SR-WBV and DVG seems to be effective as a training regime for skilling up in long-term-care elderly.
Background: Guidelines for the control of hospital-acquired MRSA include decolonization measures to end MRSA carrier status in colonized and infected patients. Successful decolonization typically requires up to 22 days of treatment, which is longer than the average hospital length of stay (LOS). Incomplete decolonization is therefore common, with long-term MRSA carriage as a consequence. To overcome this, we developed an integrated MRSA Management (IMM) by extending MRSA decolonization to the outpatient and domestic setting. The protocol makes use of polyhexanide-based products, in view of reported qac-mediated resistance to chlorhexidine in S. aureus and MRSA.
Methods: This is a prospective, single centre, controlled, non-randomized, open-label study to evaluate the efficiency of the IMM concept. The outcome of guideline-approved decolonization during hospital stay only (control group; n = 201) was compared to the outcome following IMM treatment whereby decolonization was continued after discharge in the domestic setting or in a long-term care facility (study group; n = 99). As a secondary outcome, the effect of MRSA-status of skin alterations was assessed.
Results: The overall decolonization rate was 47 % in the IMM patient group compared to 12 % in the control group (p < 0.01). The continued treatment after hospital discharge was as effective as treatment completed during hospitalization, with microbiologically-confirmed decolonization (patients with completed regimes only) obtained with 55 % for the IMM group and 43 % for the control group (p > 0.05). For patients with skin alterations (e.g. wounds and entry sites), decolonization success was 50 % if the skin alterations were MRSA-negative at baseline, compared to 22 % success for patients entering the study with MRSA-positive skin alterations (p < 0.01).
Conclusions: The IMM strategy offers an MRSA decolonization protocol that is feasible in the domestic setting and is equally effective compared with inpatient decolonization treatment when hospital LOS is long enough to complete the treatment. Moreover, for patients with average LOS, decolonization rates obtained with IMM are significantly higher than for in-hospital treatment. IMM is a promising concept to improve decolonization rates of MRSA-carriers for patients who leave the hospital before decolonization is completed.