Recent advances - Geriatric medicine

Exercise has protective effects: it is associated with decreased disability score and decreased rate of myocardial infarction; it is also effective in very old people Multifactorial interventions decrease the likelihood of falls Low body mass considerably increases the risk of hip fracture in older women; other risk factors include alcohol consumption, prior stroke, low activity levels, use of long acting benzodiazepines, large caffeine consumption, and visual impairment Alendronate decreases vertebral fractures in older women and increases bone mass Influenza vaccine is efficacious and cost effective Though the apolipoprotein E4 allele is associated with Alzheimer's disease, a preventive strategy for Alzheimer's disease remains a distant goal. © 1996, BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. All rights reserved.