Judith Godin

Judith Godin
Nova Scotia Health Authority | CDHA

Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology

About

58
Publications
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Introduction
I received my PhD in psychology from Carleton University in 2011. While in school, I developed a strong interest in quantitative methods and statistics, which served as a bridge to areas outside psychology and a move towards interdisciplinary research. I worked at the Nova Scotia Centre on Aging at Mount Saint Vincent University as a data analyst and subsequently as a postdoctoral fellow, where I became interested in geriatrics and gerontology. Currently, I’m part of the Geriatric Medicine Research team at Dalhousie University and the Nova Scotia Health Authority. My work examines how social and behavioural factors influence frailty and cognition, including how employment and retirement relate to frailty and cognitive impairment.

Publications

Publications (58)
Article
Introduction The efficacy of exercise referral schemes (ERS) involving primary care providers to an exercise specialist on patients’ physical activity is uncertain and primarily based on self-report outcomes. Cardiorespiratory endurance carries clinically relevant information and is an objective outcome measure that has been used to evaluate ERS, b...
Chapter
Whether sex influences susceptibility to health deficits is well studied. The presence of sex differences in frailty is largely influenced by the constructs used to measure frailty. Index-based self-report measures of multi-dimensional health are consistently higher in females at a fixed age, but laboratory-based frailty grounded in cardiovascular...
Article
Introduction Any Frailty Index (FI) measures overall health. The FI-Lab employs common laboratory data and clinical measures to do so. Objective To examine how an FI-lab constructed from vital signs, laboratory tests, and electrocardiographic data is associated with in-patient admission and time to death. FI-Lab performance was compared with an FI...
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The frailty index (FI) uses a deficit accumulation approach to derive a single, comprehensive, and replicable indicator of age-related health status. Yet, many researchers continue to seek a single “frailty biomarker” to facilitate clinical screening. We investigated the prognostic accuracy of 70 individual biomarkers in predicting mortality, compa...
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Background Consistent and reproducible estimates of the underlying true level of frailty are essential for risk stratification and monitoring of health changes. The purpose of this study is to examine the reliability of the frailty index (FI). Methods A total of 426 community-dwelling older adults from the FRequent health Assessment In Later life...
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Background: Social vulnerability is the accumulation of disadvantageous social circumstances resulting in susceptibility to adverse health outcomes. Associated with increased mortality, cognitive decline, and disability, social vulnerability has primarily been studied in large population databases rather than frail hospitalized individuals. We exa...
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Background Hospitalized older patients spend most of the waking hours in bed, even if they can walk independently. Excessive bedrest contributes to the development of frailty and worse hospital outcomes. We describe the study protocol for the Breaking Bad Rest Study, a randomized clinical trial aimed to promoting more movement in acute care using a...
Article
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Background The effect of frailty and poor cardiovascular health on mortality for males and females is not fully elucidated. We investigated whether the combined burden of frailty and poor cardiovascular health is associated with all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality by sex and age. Methods We analyzed data of 35,207 non-institutiona...
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Background: Parallel to growth of aging and obese populations, the prevalence of metabolic diseases is rising. How body mass index (BMI) relates to frailty and mortality across frailty levels is controversial. We examined the associations of high BMI with frailty and mortality and explored the effects of percent body fat on these associations. Me...
Article
Background: The relationship between occupational physical activity and frailty is complex and understudied. Objective: We explore whether moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in retirement and main lifetime occupation physical demands (OPD) are associated with frailty in retirement. Methods: Retired adults aged 50 + who participated in...
Article
Background: Physical activity (PA) interventions may reduce the burden of frailty and can prevent mobility disability for older adults. We explored whether a 2-year PA intervention would improve frailty trajectory, lead to clinically meaningful frailty changes (CMC), or impact major mobility disability (MMD) across baseline frailty levels. Method...
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Background We report characteristics and outcomes of adults admitted to Canadian Immunization Research Network (CIRN) Ser-ious Outcomes Surveillance (SOS) Network hospitals with COVID-19 in 2020. Methods Patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 admitted to 11 sites in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, and Nova Scotia up to December 31, 2020 were enrolle...
Article
Background: Frailty can be operationalised using the deficit accumulation approach, which considers health deficits across multiple domains. We aimed to develop, validate and compare three different frailty indices (FI) constructed from self-reported health measures (FI-Self Report), blood-based biomarkers (FI-Blood) and examination-based assessme...
Article
This study investigated how serum testosterone related to frailty in ageing male C57Bl/6 mice with or without lifelong testosterone deficiency. Mice underwent a sham surgery (n=10) or gonadectomy (n=11, GDX) at 4-weeks and then aged. Frailty scores (31-item frailty index) and testosterone were measured between 18- to 24-months of age. Age predicted...
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Main problem: Frailty is an established risk factor for cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease. Few studies have examined the longitudinal relationship between frailty and cognition. Methods: Participants of Rush Memory and Aging project (n = 625, 67.5% female, 83.2 ± 5.9 years at baseline) underwent annual clinical evaluations (average follo...
Article
We investigated whether maladaptive, age-associated changes in heart structure and function were linked to circulating testosterone levels. Male C57BL/6 mice had a gonadectomy (GDX) or sham surgery at 4 weeks and effects of GDX on the heart were examined with echocardiography. Serum testosterone was measured with ELISA. Left ventricular (LV) mass i...
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Background Beyond intakes of total energy and individual nutrient, eating patterns may influence health, and thereby the risk of adverse outcomes. How different diet measures relate to frailty—a general measure of increased vulnerability to unfavorable health outcomes—and mortality risk, and how this might vary across the life course, is not known....
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Abstract Background/objectives Influenza is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, particularly for older adults. Persistent functional decline following hospitalization has important impacts on older adults' wellbeing and independence, but has been under‐studied in relation to influenza. We aimed to investigate persistent functional...
Article
Background Frailty is an established risk factor for cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. Changes in frailty have been associated with adverse health outcomes including mortality, health service use, institutionalization, and disability. Few studies have examined the longitudinal relationship between frailty and cognition. Here, we use data f...
Article
Background: frailty is a public health priority now that the global population is ageing at a rapid rate. A scientifically sound tool to measure frailty and generate population-based reference values is a starting point. Objective: in this report, our objectives were to operationalize frailty as deficit accumulation using a standard frailty inde...
Article
The Mild Behavioral Impairment Checklist: a promising tool for assessing mild behavioral impairment in community samples - Volume 32 Issue 6 - Judith Godin, Olga Theou
Article
Background Clinically meaningful change (CMC) for frailty index (FI) scores is little studied. We estimated the CMC by associating changes in FI scores with changes in the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) in hospitalized patients. Methods The Serious Outcomes Surveillance Network of the Canadian Immunization Research Network enrolled older adults (65+...
Article
Background We examined frailty as a predictor of recovery in older adults hospitalized with influenza and acute respiratory illness. Methods A total of 5011 patients aged ≥65 years were admitted to Canadian Serious Outcomes Surveillance Network hospitals during the 2011/2012, 2012/2013, and 2013/2014 influenza seasons. Frailty was measured using a...
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Background Frailty is characterized by increased vulnerability to adverse health outcomes. The prevalence of frailty across neurodegenerative disorders (NDD) is largely unknown. Symptoms of frailty and NDD overlap, calling into question a tautology in some frailty instruments. Our objectives were 1) to construct a Frailty Index (FI) independent of...
Article
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Obesity is associated with higher risk of metabolic diseases. How body mass index (BMI) relates to mortality across frailty levels is controversial. We investigated the association of high BMI with frailty, and their effects on mortality. We included 36,583 participants aged ≥50 years from the 1999-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Sur...
Article
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Frail older adults are vulnerable to stressors and are more likely to experience adverse outcomes. Post-traumatic stress is common in older adults, and can be related to common adverse outcomes, such as falls. We examined whether falls are associated with post-traumatic stress in middle-aged and older Canadians, by levels of frailty. We conducted c...
Article
Background: the Pictorial Fit-Frail Scale (PFFS) was designed as a simple and practical approach to the identification of frailty. Objectives: To investigate the feasibility and reliability of this visual image-based tool, when used by patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals (HCPs) in clinical settings. Design: observational study....
Article
Objectives: Despite their role in health and disease, the relationship between fatty acids (FAs) and frailty and mortality remains unclear. The aim of this study was to explore how FA intake is associated with frailty and mortality. Methods: This observational study included 4062 participants ≥50 y of age from the 2003-2006 cohorts of the Nation...
Article
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We sought to understand the association between social vulnerability and the odds of long-term care (LTC) placement within 30 days of discharge following admission to an acute care facility and whether this association varied based on age, sex, or pre-admission frailty. Patients admitted to hospital with acute respiratory illness were enrolled in t...
Article
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Background: Standardized frailty assessments are needed for early identification and treatment. We aimed to develop a frailty scale using visual images, the Pictorial Fit-Frail Scale (PFFS), and to examine its feasibility and content validity. Methods: In Phase 1, a multidisciplinary team identified domains for measurement, operationalized impai...
Article
We sought to examine how much sedentary time needs to be replaced by light or moderate-vigorous physical activity in order to reduce frailty and protect against mortality. We built isotemporal substitution models to assess the theoretical effect of replacing sedentary behavior with an equal amount of light or moderate-vigorous activity on frailty a...
Article
Background: Some people with substantial Alzheimer's disease pathology at autopsy had shown few characteristic clinical symptoms or signs of the disease, whereas others with little Alzheimer's disease pathology have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's dementia. We aimed to examine whether frailty, which is associated with both age and dementia, modera...
Article
Background How cognitive impairment and frailty combine to impact on older adults’ Quality of Life (QoL) is little studied, but their inter-relationships are important given how often they co-occur. We sought to examine how frailty and cognitive impairment, as well as changes in frailty and cognition, are associated with QoL and how these relations...
Article
We aimed to define minimal clinically important differences (MID) in the Frailty Index (FI) and to establish FI categories (FIc) in two clinical and three population cohorts. Data came from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE: n = 29851, median age in years [range]: 63.0 [50.0–104.0]), the Canadian Study of Health and Agei...
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Background: Many jurisdictions are considering or have already increased pension eligibility age and more adults are remaining employed for longer. As such, understanding how work characteristics impact the health and well-being of older workers and the predisposing factors that may predict work quality is important. We sought to examine how educat...
Article
Background: The hallmark neuropathological features of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) don’t correlate well with clinical dementia, suggesting cognitive impairment may be multifactorial in older adults with AD. We aimed to assess whether an index of diverse neuropathological features was more strongly associated with Alzheimer’s-type dementia than traditi...
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Objective: The current study investigated the buffering effect of positive social exchanges at work on the way workplace aggression and violence, both verbal and physical, affect individual well-being and commitment to the organization. Method: We collected survey responses from staff working in long-term care facilities (N = 723) about their exper...
Article
Background If worn, certain models of hip protectors are highly effective at preventing hip fractures from falls in residents of long-term care, but modest acceptance and adherence have limited the effectiveness of hip protectors. Residents of long-term care are more likely to accept the initial offer of hip protectors and to adhere to recommendati...
Article
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Background Influenza vaccination programs aim to prevent serious outcomes. Given that frailty may impact recovery from influenza, we examined frailty as a predictor of recovery in older adults hospitalized with acute respiratory illness. Methods Data came from the Canadian Immunization Research Network (CIRN) Serious Outcomes Surveillance (SOS) Ne...
Article
Background: Sedentary behaviours are associated with adverse health outcomes in middle-aged and older adults, even among those who exercise. We examined whether the degree of frailty affects the association between sedentary behaviours and higher risk of mortality. Methods: In this prospective cohort study, we used data from 3141 community-dwell...
Article
Hip fractures are a major threat to healthy aging, often triggering declines in health, mobility, quality of life, and even death. Wearable hip protectors represent a promising strategy to prevent hip fractures, but uncertainty surrounding their efficacy exists due to poor user adherence. In long-term care (LTC), adherence may depend on the commitm...
Article
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Researchers have examined the association between cognition and retirement; however, results are inconsistent and the direction of the relationship is unclear. Risks may be context dependent. Retirement may be viewed by some as an opportunity to pursue interests and hobbies, whereas others may derive meaning and benefits from employment. Our purpos...
Article
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Background: If worn during a fall, hip protectors substantially reduce risk for hip fracture. However, a major barrier to their clinical efficacy is poor user adherence. In long-term care, adherence likely depends on how committed care providers are to hip protectors, but empirical evidence is lacking due to the absence of a psychometrically valid...
Article
Background: Frailty has been considered an antecedent and, to a lesser extent, an outcome of cognitive impairment. Both frailty and cognitive impairment are multiply determined and each is strongly related to age, making it likely that the two interact, especially as people age. In consequence, understanding their interaction and co-occurrence can...
Article
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Although many common diseases occur mostly in old age, the impact of ageing itself on disease risk and expression often goes unevaluated. To consider the impact of ageing requires some useful means of measuring variability in health in animals of the same age. In humans, this variability has been quantified by counting age-related health deficits i...
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Background: Missing values are commonly encountered on the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), particularly when administered to frail older people. This presents challenges for MMSE scoring in research settings. We sought to describe missingness in MMSEs administered in Long Term Care Facilities (LTCF), and to compare and contrast approaches to...
Poster
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Background: Health status and quality of life (QoL) are known to be associated. Even so, QoL can vary substantially among people of similar health status. Here we sought to examine how frailty and change in cognition relate to QoL, and to explore the impact of social vulnerability, age, gender, employment status, and education. Methods: We conducte...
Article
Background: As cognitive decline mostly occurs in late life, where typically it co-exists with many other ailments, it is important to consider frailty in understanding cognitive change. Objective: Here, we examined the association of change in frailty status with cognitive trajectories in a well-studied cohort of older Japanese-American men. M...
Research
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Workshop presented at the 76th Annual Canadian Psychological Association Convention, Ottawa, ON, June 4-6, 2015. Researchers are often faced with the problem of missing data. To deal with this problem they commonly use ad hoc methods, such as listwise deletion or mean imputation, that have been shown to reduce power and produce biased estimates. Mu...
Article
This study explores the factor structure of the interRAI self-report nursing home quality of life survey and develops a measure that will allow researchers to compare predictors of quality of life (QOL) across resident, family, and staff perspectives. Nursing home residents (N = 319), family members (N = 397), and staff (N = 862) were surveyed abou...
Article
To determine whether cynicism changes over time as a function of job change for nurses with high and low intentions to leave. Cynicism develops in reaction to organisational events including leaders' actions and can result in costly passive withdrawal behaviours. Hospital staff nurses (n = 436) completed a survey assessing their intentions to leave...

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