Film based round the ear electrodes (cEEGrids) provide both, the accessibility of unobtrusive mobile EEG as well as a rapid EEG application in stationary settings when extended measurements are not possible. In a large-scale evaluation of driving abilities of older adults (N > 350) in a realistic driving simulation, we evaluated to what extent mental demands can be measured using cEEGrids in a completely unrestricted environment. For a first frequency-based analysis, the driving scenario was subdivided into different street segments with respect to their task loads (low, medium, high) that was a priori rated by an expert. Theta activity increased with task load but no change in Alpha power was found. Effects gained clarity after removing pink noise effects, that were potentially high in this data set due to motion artifacts. Theta fraction increased with task load and Alpha fraction decreased. We mapped this effect to specific street segments by applying a track-frequency analysis. Whilst participants drove with constant speed and without high steering wheel activity, Alpha was high and theta low. The reverse was the case in sections that required either high activity or increased attentional allocation to the driving context. When calculating mental demands for different street segments based on EEG, this measure is highly significant correlated with the experts’ rating of task load. Deviances can be explained by specific features within the segments. Thus, modulations in spectral power of the EEG were validly reflected in the cEEGrids data. All findings were in line with the prominent literature in the field. The results clearly demonstrate the usability of this low-density EEG method for application in real-world settings where an increase in ecological validity might outweigh the loss of certain aspects of internal validity.

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Zusammenfassung. Ein zunehmend komplexes Gesundheitssystem geht mit erhöhten Anforderungen an die Fähigkeit, sich darin zurechtzufinden, einher. So sehen sich Leistungsempfänger mit einer Fülle an zum Teil widersprüchlichen gesundheitsbezogenen Informationen konfrontiert, die es adäquat zu nutzen gilt. Hierfür müssen sie über eine Reihe von Fähigkeiten und Fertigkeiten verfügen, die in der Literatur seit einigen Jahren unter dem Begriff der health literacy bzw. Gesundheitskompetenz subsumiert werden. Allerdings besteht bislang kein Konsens darüber, was genau unter dem Begriff Gesundheitskompetenz zu verstehen ist. Der vorliegende Artikel versucht einen Beitrag zur begrifflichen Klärung zu leisten, indem er einen Überblick über den Stand der Forschung zu health literacy und Gesundheitskompetenz gibt. Kernelemente der verschiedenen Definitions- und Modellansätze werden diskutiert.

Many of the psychometric instruments employed in dementia research are adapted versions of tests developed in countries different from those in which they are applied. The validity of these instruments has been established in their countries of origin; however, there is little information available regarding their validity when transferred to other cultures. The SKT, a short cognitive performance test for the assessment of memory and attention deficits developed and validated in Germany, was administered in research centers in Chile, Greece, Russia, and England. SKT raw scores were factor analyzed with regard to a prespecified target structure, i.e., the factor solution found for a large German reference sample. The cross-cultural stability of the test was assessed using a statistical method that combined the perfect congruent weights approach and the bootstrapping technique. This procedure allowed for testing the similarity between factorial solutions obtained for the different centers. Results clearly indicate the factorial stability of the SKT in the countries participating in the study.

Objectives: The main goal of this research project was to translate and adapt the European Survey on Ageing Protocol (ESAP) to 7 European countries/cultures. This article presents preliminary results from the ESAP, the basic assessment instrument of EXCELSA (European Longitudinal Study of Aging). Methods: 672 individuals aged 30–85, selected through quota sampling (by age, gender, education and living conditions), participated in this study, with 96 subjects from each of the 7 European countries. The basic research protocol for assessing competence and its determinants was designed to be administered in a 90-min in-home face-to-face interview. It contains a series of questions, instruments, scales and physical tests assessing social relationships and caregiving, mental abilities, well-being, personality, mastery and perceived control, self-reported health, lifestyles, anthropometry, biobehavioral measures and sociodemographic variables. Results: 84% of ESAP measures are age-dependent and 75% of them discriminate between education levels. Minor differences were found due to gender, and between people living in rural and urban areas. Exploratory factor analysis yielded 10 factors accounting for 67.85% of total variance, one of which was identified as cognitive and physical ‘competence’. This factorial structure was tested across countries through concordance coefficients. Finally, using structural equation modeling, our data were fitted into a model of competence. When the sample was split into younger groups (aged 30–49 years) and older ones (50 and more years), the same model was appropriate for our data. Discussion: The results are discussed in accordance with other findings on psychosocial, biophysical and sociodemographic components of competence, and also in accordance with theories on competence and successful aging.