title: Comprehensive geriatric assessment of elderly highlanders in Qinghai, China I: activities of daily living, quality of life and metabolic syndrome.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To reveal the comparison of comprehensive geriatric functions of elderly highlanders in Qinghai Plateau in China among three different ethnic groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  Activities of daily living (ADL), screening-based depression, quality of life (QOL) and checking-up of metabolic syndrome including community-based oral glucose tolerance test were assessed in 393 community-dwelling elderly subjects aged 60 years or more (247 Han elderly subjects, 49 Mongolian ones and 97 Tibetan ones).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Tibetan elderly highlanders were more disabled in ADL, but had higher QOL than Han elderly ones in Qinghai Plateau. Blood pressure measurements, rate of hypertension and hemoglobin concentrations in Tibetan elderly highlanders were lower than Han ones. Rates of diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance in elderly highlanders were relatively lower than other Asian elderly lowlanders.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Prevalence of metabolic syndrome in elderly highlanders in Qinghai was still not high, however, we should pay attention to its tendency related with socialglobalism in the near future. Further investigation on physiological adaptability to hypoxic environment and human ageing phenomena in a global context may open a new research frontier for ageing science.
authors.affiliation: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan. kmatsu@cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Kozo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Matsubayashi
authors.forename: Yumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kimura
authors.forename: Ryota
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sakamoto
authors.forename: Taizo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wada
authors.forename: Yasuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ishimoto
authors.forename: Mayumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hirosaki
authors.forename: Akiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Konno
authors.forename: Wingling
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ishine
authors.forename: Yasuyuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kosaka
authors.forename: Chizu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wada
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakatsuka
authors.forename: Kuniaki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Otsuka
authors.forename: Michiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fujisawa
authors.forename: Hongxing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Qingxiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: Airong
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Jidong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Zhanquan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Haisheng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.forename: Yongshou
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ri Li
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.forename: Kiyohito
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okumiya
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000208:ethnology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D011788:Quality of Life; D018609:Tibet / Q000453:epidemiology