TUESDAY, July 15 (HealthDay News) -- More than one-third of elderly patients on Medicare take a companion with them for routine medical visits.

And patients who are accompanied on such visits tend to be more satisfied with the visit, according to a study published in the July 14 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"I think it's a fabulous idea [to have companions on medical visits]," said senior study author Debra L. Roter, a professor of health behavior and society at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. "And we have a very good notion of interventions now, ideas that can help companions and patients prepare for their visit in a more proactive and effective way. The consequences seem to be especially valuable for those elderly people that we generally think of as most vulnerable, those who are the sickest, the oldest and the least well-educated. Those are the people who seem to benefit the most by having somebody with them."

A previous study led by Roter had also indicated that it was common for older adults to take someone with them on medical visits, usually a spouse or adult child.

"We found that companions actually do lots of very helpful things for the patient, but our study was only one, and it was relatively small," Roter said.

She and a colleague decided to do analyze a larger population of 12,000 community-dwelling Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 and older who had participated in a 2004 survey. Roter had actually written several of the questions for that earlier survey.

Many of the findings dovetailed with the earlier, smaller study.

Here, 38.6 percent of participants said they were usually accompanied on routine medical visits. Those accompanied were usually older, less educated, and in poorer health.

Companions could be spouses (53.3 percent), adult children (31.9 percent), other relatives (6.8 percent), roommates, friends or neighbors (5.2 percent), non-relatives (2.8 percent) or nurses, nurses aids, legal or financial officers (under 1 percent).

More than 60 percent of companions helped with doctor-patient communications by writing down instructions (44.1 percent), giving information on the patients' medical conditions or needs (41.6 percent), asking questions (41.1 percent) or explaining doctors' instructions (29.7 percent).

Patients who were accompanied on visits were 15 percent more satisfied with their doctor's technical skills, 19 percent more satisfied with the doctors' information-giving, and 18 percent more satisfied with their personal skills compared with unaccompanied patients.

"This tells us that this is a national phenomenon," Roter said. "These patient companions are commonly very active, so they don't just stay in the waiting room. They come into the exam room with the patients, and they're active in the communication process in a helpful way."

Study author Jennifer L. Wolff, an assistant professor of health policy and management at Bloomberg, hopes the findings will lead to more research on better ways to use companion visits to advantage.

"This study is important in terms of thinking about the role of the visit companion, both within the encounter and also outside the encounter," she said. "We don't have a very good understanding of roles that family caregivers play in medical processes. It would be very exciting to relate this to safety issues, for example, adverse drug reactions or issues around adherence to medications. Theoretically, it makes sense that when an older adult has a family caregiver who is actively engaged in the health-care process, there could be some beneficial outcomes."

Another expert agreed but offered a note of caution.

"This has pushed the science to the next level by quantifying the findings, and by doing this for more people," said Marcia G. Ory, a professor of social and behavioral health with the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health in College Station. "It's also looking at the functions of the companions."

"There are implications for clinicians, for companion visitors as well as for the older patient him or herself," Ory added. "Physicians need to know how to appropriately interact with the [companion visitor]. The companion visitor needs to understand what their role is. It's also important for the message to go to the patient that the patient is ultimately responsible for their own health care, but they don't do it in a vacuum. They live in families."

"In the past, we've ignored the third party, but we don't want the pendulum to swing and ignore older patients," Ory said. "It's that delicate balance that will get us the best quality of care."

More information

Visit the National Family Caregivers Association   for more on this topic.

MONDAY, July 14 (HealthDay News) -- Cutting just 300 to 500 calories a day from your diet could be the key to slowing the signs of aging and living longer, according to a new study.

Studies have long shown that reducing calorie intake slows the aging process in rats and mice. A popular theory is that fewer daily calories decreases production of the thyroid hormone triiodothyronine (T3), which then slows metabolism and tissue aging.

A new study, by Saint Louis University researchers, found this hormone decrease occurs when humans regularly skip rich desserts or substitute a turkey sandwich for a Big Mac and fries every day.

"Our research provides evidence that calorie restriction does work in humans like it has been shown to work in animals," study lead author Edward Weiss, associate professor of nutrition and dietetics at Saint Louis University's Doisy College of Health Sciences, said in a prepared statement. "The next step is to determine if this in fact slows age-related tissue deterioration. The only way to be certain, though, is to do a long-term study."

The findings, published in the June 2008 issue of Rejuvenation Research, are based on a study of healthy but sedentary, non-smoking, 50- to 60-year-old men and post-menopausal women. For a year, the volunteers participated in either: a calorie-restriction group that cut their daily calorie intake by 300 to 500 calories per day; a group that stayed on their regular diet and exercised regularly; or a group that maintained its normal routine.

While those in the calorie-restriction and exercise groups both lost body fat mass, only those in the calorie restriction group also had lower levels of the thyroid hormone.

Although a long-term study is still needed to determine if reducing T3 levels through calorie restriction does indeed slow the aging process, Weiss said cutting back on calories is a good idea.

"There is plenty of evidence the calorie restriction can reduce your risks for many common diseases including cancer, diabetes and heart disease," Weiss said. "And you may live to be substantially older."

Weiss warned that while cutting calories, people need to maintain a healthy diet by eating nutrient-rich foods. He noted that long-term slowing of the metabolism could also make people more prone to weight gain over time.

The key to maintaining a healthy weight, Weiss said, is keeping a consistent diet and exercising regularly.

More information

The Calorie Restriction Society has more about calorie restriction  .

WEDNESDAY, July 9 (HealthDay News) -- When it comes to sex, grandma and grandpa are having more of it these days, new Swedish research suggests.

According to the study, the last quarter century has seen a dramatic rise in the frequency of sex among the 70-year-old set, whether married or unmarried. And as an added bonus, seniors today (particularly women) say they're much more satisfied with their liaisons than the previous generation -- facing less sexual dysfunction and feeling more positive about the experience.

"Our study shows that a large majority of elderly consider sexual activity and sexual feelings a natural part of late life," said study author Nils Beckman, a doctoral candidate with the neuropsychiatric epidemiology unit at the Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology at Gothenburg University. "It is thus important that health professionals and others take sexuality into consideration, irrespective of age."

The findings are reported online in the British Medical Journal.

Beckman and his team reviewed surveys concerning sexual behavior and attitudes that had been completed by more than 1,500 healthy 70-year-old Gothenburg residents over a 30-year period.

The polls had been conducted in 1971-1972, 1976-1977, 1992-1993, and 2000-2001.

Between the first survey and the last, the frequency of sexual intercourse was found to have increased among all groups. Among married men, 68 percent said they were engaging in the practice in the latest poll, compared with 52 percent in 1971, while among married women the number had risen from 38 percent to 56 percent.

Among unmarried men, the jump went from 30 percent to 54 percent in the same 30-year span, while among unmarried women the observed bump was from just under 1 percent to 12 percent.

Women seemed to make the most headway in terms of increasing their sexual satisfaction. While men expressed more positive attitudes about sex in 1971, by 2001 the gender difference had evaporated.

As well, more 21st-century women said they were highly satisfied with their sex; fewer said they had low satisfaction; more said they experienced an orgasm during sex; and fewer said they had never had an orgasm.

Regarding the degree to which the respondents said they felt "very happy" about their relationship, the three-decade trend also moved in a similarly positive direction for both genders: rising from 40 percent to 57 percent among men, and from 35 percent to 52 percent among women.

Beckman and his colleagues speculated that, in part, the findings might simply reflect the degree to which Western societies have become more comfortable in dealing with sexual matters frankly and openly -- perhaps leading to a greater willingness to honestly report sexual encounters.

"(And) maybe it has become more permissible to leave an unhappy marriage today," suggested Beckman. "And even for widows [and] widowers to establish new relations."

Whatever the explanation, S. Jay Olshansky, a professor of public health and senior research scientist at the Center on Aging at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), said the findings closely mirror the results of similar research conducted at UIC and elsewhere.

"Probably the addressing of physiological problems with the development of medications like Viagra explain some -- but not all -- of the upward sexual activity trend," he said. "But the most important point being made here is that when it comes to sex, clearly it doesn't matter what age you are. At least most men and many women still have a desire to have it as they age."

More information

For more on seniors and sex, visit the U.S. National Institute on Aging  .