There is agreement on the usefulness of defining frailty in clinical settings as well as on its main dimensions. However, additional research is needed before an operative definition of frailty can be established.

Breakup distress and reasons for breakup including affiliation, intimacy, sexuality and autonomy reasons were studied in 119 university students who had experienced a recent breakup of a romantic relationship. The sample was divided into high and low breakup distress groups based on a median score on the Breakup Distress Scale. The groups were then compared on their responses on the Breakup Reasons Scale. Only the intimacy subscale differentiated the high versus low breakup distress groups. These data highlight the importance of intimacy for romantic relationships and the loss of intimacy as a reason for breakups.

This document outlines the methodology of the Salud, Bienestar y Envejecimiento (Health, Well-Being, and Aging) survey (known as the "SABE survey"), and it also summarizes the challenges that the rapid aging of the population in Latin America and the Caribbean imposes on society in general and especially on health services. The populations of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are aging at a rate that has not been seen in the developed world. The evaluation of health problems and disability among older adults in those countries indicates that those persons are aging with more functional limitations and worse health than is true for their counterparts in developed nations. In addition, family networks in Latin America and the Caribbean are changing rapidly and have less capacity to make up for the lack of protections provided by social institutions. The multicenter SABE study was developed with the objective of evaluating the state of health of older adults in seven cities of Latin America and the Caribbean: Bridgetown, Barbados; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Havana, Cuba; Mexico City, Mexico; Montevideo, Uruguay; Santiago, Chile; and São Paulo, Brazil. The SABE survey has established the starting point for systematic research on aging in urban areas of Latin America and the Caribbean. Comparative studies of these characteristics and with this comparative nature should be extended to other countries, areas, and regions of the world in order to expand the knowledge available on older adults.

Reference to 'ageing societies' conjures imageries that differ sharply. In some cases they revolve around nearly bankrupt pension or social security systems, or about families physically and economically overburdened with responsibilities of simultaneously caring for very young children and the very old. In others, they point to societies overloaded with unsatisfied health care demands of the chronically ill, functionally disabled, and the mentally and physically impaired. In yet others, references to ageing evoke rumblings about stagnant economies, sluggish increases in productivity, heavy taxation burdens, conservative ideologies, and dismal mobility prospects for younger generations. As is plain from reviews of the process in general, 1-15 each and every one of these issues, sharing a negative connotation, corresponds to a dimension of the ageing process. In this paper we consider only two dimensions: demographic profile and health status. The demographic dimension consists of conditions related to the relative size, rate of growth, and composition of the elderly population. The health dimension is a function of conditions that influence current and prospective health status of the elderly population and their demand for and actual use of health care.

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