Public Health and Aging

Public Health and Aging: An Introduction to Maximizing Function and Well-Being
By Steven M. Albert PhD MSc

• Publisher: Springer Publishing Company


• Number Of Pages: 304


• Publication Date: 2003-11-17


• ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0826121349


• ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780826121349

Synopsis
Though public health and aging is a rapidly developing field, Albert (clinical sociomedical science, Columbia U.) finds that it so far lacks a unified treatment or single framework. He synthesizes what he considers the most productive measures, samples, studies, and clinical trials that address the question of age, health, and healthy old age as the foundation for a general framework. Annotation 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Doody Review Services
Reviewer:David O. Staats, MD (University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center)
Description:This book, written by a single author, delineates a new field in gerontology and geriatrics. It is a marriage of clinical geriatrics and epidemiology that looks at how we age, how we become disabled, demented, etc., and where we should focus efforts to maximize the quality of life in older persons.
Purpose:The purpose is to show how we should look at both populations of older persons and individuals as they age. These are most worthy objectives and the author accomplishes them brilliantly.
Audience:The audience is gerontologists, geriatricians, biologists studying aging and social planners and trainees in these areas. It is indeed a broad audience.
Features:This book breaks new ground in showing a synthesis between our notions of aging, function, frailty, dementing illnesses, and care of older persons. It explains some of how what happens in the first 50 years of life affects the second 50. This book is both fresh thinking and a brilliant synthesis of known facts.
Assessment:This is one of the most cutting-edge books in gerontology today. Anyone interested in reforming Medicare should read this book in preparation for doing so. It is elegantly written, develops its thoughts in a logical and complete sequence and points towards the future like a beacon. Those interested in developing new paradigms of thinking about aging and caring for older persons will find much of use here. Every medical library should possess this brilliant and enticing book.

Biography
Steven M. Albert, PhD, MSc, is Associate Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Science in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences (Mailman School of Public Health) and the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center and Department of Neurology (College of Physicians and Surgeons), Columbia University. He is trained as an anthropologist and epidemiologist. His research centers on the assessment of health outcomes in aging and chronic disease (patient function, health service use, medical care costs, quality of life, clinical decision making).

Dr. Albert has recently received funding from the National Institutes of Health to investigate mental health and decision making in people living with ALS, and to investigate the cognitive and physical basis of independence in older people with disabilities. He has also been awarded funding from the Centers for Disease Control to examine attitudes toward health promotion in culturally insular New York City communities. He is the author (with Rebecca Logsdon) of the volume, Assessing Quality of Life in Alzheimer's Disease (New York: Springer Publishing Co., 2000).

Dr. Albert teaches courses on public health and aging, the epidemiology of aging, and measurement of quality of life in health care. He has consulted with hospitals, nursing homes, unions, foundations, and community organizations in efforts to improve the lives of staff and family caregivers to people with chronic disease.



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