The Ohio State University School of Physical Activity and Educational Services and the Department of Human Nutrition are seeking up to 100 male and female volunteers age 60-85, to participate in a 10-week study on a nutrition supplement and its effects on lean body mass changes. Steven Devor, Ph.D. from PAES and Robert DiSilvestro, Ph.D, from Human Nutrition are investigators conducting this study.

With age, body mass declines.  This loss, called sarcopenia, can be evidenced in appearance but can also produce declines in various body functions and greatly influence quality of life.  This study will determine the effects of exercise on lean body mass while receiving food ingredients in supplemental form.

Participants need to be free of major health problems, currently doing weight training, have lean body mass measured, provide two small blood samples, and take a supplement powder for 10 weeks.  Participants will be randomly assigned a nutritional supplement (including a placebo) and a specific exercise program.

Eligible participants will receive compensation of up to $250 for full participation.

For questions about the study, please call 614-348-9375 or e-mail researchmail@ehe.osu.edu.

Please feel free to pass this announcement along to others you feel might be interested in this opportunity.

Shawn King, doctoral student in the College of Social Work and recipient of the National Association of Social Workers Jane B. Aaron Dissertation Fellowship, with the support of his chair Dr. Virginia Richardson, has just completed his dissertation study of midlife and older gay men and their utilization of health care and mental health services.  Older gay men and lesbians, out of fear of discrimination, are five times less likely to access health care and social services.  Researchers have found that 51% to 82% of lesbians and gay men do not disclose their sexual orientation to health and social service providers.

A sample of 260 participants was obtained from gay choruses and an older gay men’s social group called the Prime Timers. The goals of this study were to understand whether enabling factors, including income, education, and support from friends, family, and community influenced service use.  The psychosocial stress factors including stigma, discrimination, and internalized homophobia, and individual health coping factors including internal health locus of control and resiliency were included in the analysis.

The results found that community support and resiliency were significant influencing factors for mental health service use.  For physical health visits, support from friends was found to significantly influence health care service use as well as the increase in internalized homophobia.  Discrimination was found to influence physical health visits inversely; as discrimination increased physical health visits decreased.  Overwhelmingly the sample had disclosed their sexual orientation to both their health care and mental health providers.  However, it was only found to be statistically significant in mental health service use.

Mental health distress was found to influence both physical and mental health service use, which highlights the importance of health care practitioners and social workers understanding this connection, along with the effects of discrimination which has negative implications for physical health visits.

The outcomes of this study provide a starting point to better understand those midlife and older gay men who face marginalization and it highlights the importance of support from friends.  The promotion of more effective interventions and policy changes that increase community support within health care service settings for midlife and older gay men will increase the health and well-being of this population.

Read more about Shawn’s research….

Lindsay Skomrock, a doctoral student in the College of Pharmacy, recently had her thesis accepted for publication in The Consultant Pharmacist. The title of her thesis was “Simulating Age-Related Changes in Color Vision to Assess the Ability of Older Adults to Take Medication.”  Her advisor was Dr. Virginia Richardson in the College of Social Work.  Congratulations to Lindsay for getting her work published in a reputable peer-reviewed journal, and also for her completion of the Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Aging!

Lindsay’s objective was to determine if simulated age-related changes in color vision can adversely affect one’s ability to properly take medication.  It was a randomized control study involving university students aged 18-26 without eye disorders that would affect color vision.  Yellow-lens glasses were used to represent age-related color vision changes.

The main outcome measures were the number of correct beads (simulated pills) selected and rating of task difficulty.  The secondary outcomes were participants’ responses based on what colors and color pairs were most difficult to discern and strategies they might have used to select beads.

The control group had no difficulties in selecting the appropriate beads while the experimental group had significantly more mistakes, particularly with colors in the blue-violet spectrum.  Average scores for the total number correct for the control and experimental groups were 36 (100%) and 27 (74.4%), respectively, out of a possible 36 correct.

Conclusion:  Declines in color vision with age can adversely affect people’s abilities to appropriately select medications.  For patients taking several medications, declines in color vision should be considered when counseling older persons on strategies for compliance.  Although more studies are still needed to further generalize these findings to the geriatric population, this study has shown color vision can adversely affect medication compliance.

For more information please contact Lindsay K. Skomrock, BS, Pharm.D. Candidate Class of 2010, College of Pharmacy, The Ohio State University, at skomrock.2@osu.edu.