Elderly Healthcare

Research Findings

Research Activities, February 2012:
Depression, hearing impairment, and health literacy influence older adults' abilities to self-manage their care
Study finds potentially suboptimal use of antidepressants for residents in Veterans Affairs nursing homes

Research Activities, January 2012:
Residents should document sexual history during health care maintenance visits for older, asymptomatic adults
State regulation of care quality is costly to nursing homes
Clinical informatics monitoring tool helps reduce adverse drug events in nursing home settings
Lower educational level increases the likelihood of preclinical changes in mobility in older women
More seniors getting pneumonia shots, but some lag behind

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Research Activities, December 2011:
Human factors challenges in home health care
Three Publications Highlight Human Factors Research

Research Activities, November 2011:
Fecal occult blood tests and followup need to be better targeted to healthy older adults

Research Activities, October 2011:
Study identifies fractures most and least likely to be caused by osteoporosis

Research Activities, September 2011:
Informal caregivers of older adults need more practical information to care for loved ones
Anxiety is common among older adults receiving care from aging services agencies

Research Activities, August 2011:
High performance on quality measures linked to financial benefits for nursing homes
Patients with heart failure are older, have more illnesses, and take more medications than earlier
Studies examine possible disparities surrounding implantable cardioverter defibrillators

Research Activities, July 2011:
Studies examine safety of pain killers among older adults
Communication problems between hospitalists and primary care providers lead to postdischarge problems for seniors

Research Activities, June 2011:
Patient gender does not influence the management or diagnosis of acute abdominal pain in the elderly, but affects outcome
Mental status deficits a major factor in elderly falls in the hospital
Older persons with chronic kidney disease and lower systolic blood pressure have higher mortality rates
Elders' preferences for end-of-life care are not captured by documentation in their medical records

Research Activities, May 2011:
Low health literacy linked to higher risk of death and more emergency room visits and hospitalizations

Research Activities, April 2011:
Korean Americans with high blood pressure who are confident they can achieve blood pressure control are more likely to do so
Patients' income and where they live influence hospitalization for chronic lung disease

Research Activities, March 2011:
Colony-stimulating factor is effective in reducing infection for elderly patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma on chemotherapy
Anemia is common among nursing home residents and affects their physical functioning
Better hospital quality of care for the elderly is associated with lower mortality after discharge
More nursing home residents are receiving hospice care
Approximately 5 percent of seniors report one or more cognitive disorders
Routine osteoporosis screening recommended for all women over age 65

Research Activities, February 2011:
Nurse-facilitated guided care for elders and their caregivers leads to improved perceptions of quality of care
Use of physician extenders associated with increase in antidepressant prescribing in nursing homes
Gender trumps religiosity in older Mexican Americans' views on physician-assisted suicide
More than one in five hospital patients in 2008 were born in 1933 or earlier

Research Activities, January 2011:
Black Medicare patients less likely than whites to follow their doctor's instructions on taking medicines
Public reporting on quality of care has definite, if modest, effects on nursing home care improvement
Public report cards prompt nursing homes to spend more on clinical services
Nursing home hospice patients are not receiving adequate treatment for nonpain symptoms
Review looks at approaches to improve drug prescribing in nursing homes
Rates of emergency department use greater among women and low-income, older, and rural Americans

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Research Activities, December 2010:
Dependent elderly people are adversely affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa
Risk factors for cognitive decline still murky
Four million hospital admissions potentially unnecessary
Older Americans getting pneumonia shots, but not enough

Research Activities, October 2010:
For elderly patients with depression, cost-sharing insurance policies reduce drug use without increasing use of care
Rural elderly with dementia are hospitalized more often for conditions that primary care visits might have caught

Research Activities, September 2010:
Blacks with lung cancer have higher mortality rates than whites
Study shows Guided Care benefits family caregivers, chronically ill older adults, and physicians, and may reduce costs
Benefits of chemotherapy for elderly patients with lung cancer must be weighed against risk of long-term toxicities
Measure of inappropriate prescribing predicts risk of adverse drug events in older adults
Early followup with a physician reduces readmissions for Medicare patients hospitalized for heart failure
Use of physical restraint in nursing homes cut by half in 8 years

Research Activities, July 2010:
Elderly lung cancer patients experience more adverse events during chemotherapy than younger patients
Implantable heart defibrillator is effective in reducing deaths among older heart failure patients
Evidence inconclusive regarding prevention of Alzheimer's disease and cognitive decline

Research Activities, June 2010:
Disadvantages in housing, food, and health care all predict health declines in older Americans
Nursing homes using more agency staff have lower quality of care
Nursing home physicians and nurses struggle with communication barriers
Developing community health resources entices more elderly patients to seek hospital care locally

Research Activities, May 2010:
Opioid-naïve nursing home residents are commonly prescribed long-acting opioids, a potentially dangerous practice

Research Activities, April 2010:
Older black women with breast cancer do not receive beneficial chemotherapy as often as white women
Aging causes changes in the brain's white matter, which is worsened by hypertension and other vascular problems
Medication review technique may help identify drug-related problems in the elderly
Many older adults with mental health problems do not believe they need help
A guided care approach helps curb health care costs of elderly patients with chronic conditions
Caregiver dissatisfaction affects outpatient care for the elderly with dementia
Cholesterol and diabetes drugs lead drug spending for the elderly

Research Activities, March 2010:
Octogenarians fare well after aortic valve replacements
Nursing home studies focus on the costs of staff turnover rates and selective admission of patients

Research Activities, February 2010:
Many unhealthy people remain happy because they adapt to their medical conditions

Research Activities, January 2010:
Medicare payment caps on home care add to the family caregiving burden, especially among lower-income families
Persons with mental disorders switching from Medicaid to Medicare drug coverage may have drug access problems
Criteria used to identify "drugs to avoid" in the elderly are not very accurate
Antibiotic resistance is prevalent and varied in long-term-care facilities
Computerized decisionmaking systems improve physician prescribing for long-term-care residents

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Research Activities, December 2009:
Using trigger tools to review medical charts helps identify adverse drug events among older adults
More antipsychotic medications are being prescribed for youth and nursing home residents, despite lack of evidence
Severity of small blood vessel damage predicts clinical outcome after stroke

Research Activities, November 2009:
Older black women with breast cancer do not receive beneficial chemotherapy as often as white women
Inappropriate medications raise the risk of adverse drug events among older adults
Use of restorative care improves nursing home resident functioning and nursing assistants' job satisfaction
Falls send more than 2 million seniors to emergency departments

Research Activities, October 2009:
Algorithm now available to prevent recurrent bone fractures in nursing home residents
Several approaches can help motivate cognitively impaired nursing home residents to participate in restorative care
Risk factors for harboring multiple strains of E. coli are elusive
Per-capita health care spending for seniors has increased by nearly a third

Research Activities, September 2009:
Degraded white matter causes slower brain function as people age
To capture the burden of multiple diseases on seniors, self-report should be added to data-based measures

Research Activities, August 2009:
Making medication administration a dedicated activity free of interruptions could improve long-term care drug safety
Public reporting of nursing home care improves care delivery
Coronary artery bypass surgery may be better than angioplasty for older patients and those with diabetes
Varied Medicare reimbursement for bone density scans may be due to lack of clear diagnostic codes for test indications

Research Activities, July 2009:
Studies explore survival and treatment disparities among black and white elderly patients with cancer
Elderly patients on digoxin, recently discharged from the hospital, are at higher risk for drug-related toxicity
Dramatic changes in family structure have altered the care of disabled elderly parents
Elderly women still see lifelong cervical cancer screening as important
Nonelderly patients have more negative perceptions of patient-provider communication than the elderly

Research Activities, June 2009:
Caregiving is especially challenging for Korean Americans
Deaths and rehospitalizations for elderly patients have not decreased despite advances in heart failure therapies
Race and gender affect the likelihood that elderly patients will take their antihypertensive medications

Research Activities, April 2009:
Enrollment in a program of all-inclusive elderly care is largely a matter of luck
Nearly a fifth of elderly patients are readmitted after a hospital stay for psychiatric care
Depression and substance abuse treatment hospitalizations declined for Medicare beneficiaries over a decade

Research Activities, February 2009:
Care quality and treatment differences may underlie greater functional disability among older blacks and Latinos
Older black women do not receive chemotherapy as often as white women after ovarian cancer surgery
Many older women prefer to have annual Pap tests
Older white men are most likely to be diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma
Retaining home care nurses depends on their job tenure and job satisfaction
The Web-based Nursing Home Compare report card improves nursing home quality, but not across the board
The volume and charges for vertebroplasty performed in Medicare patients doubled from 2001 to 2005, but rates varied considerably by State

Research Activities, January 2009:
Inpatient treatment for elderly nondementia psychiatric illnesses is shifting into less expensive settings
Culturally appropriate interventions raise flu and pneumonia vaccine rates at inner-city health centers

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