scholarly journals Unveiling the Burden of Interactions Among Clinical Risk Factors for 1-Year Mortality in Hospitalized Older Patients

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabrizia Lattanzio ◽  
Valentina Corigliano ◽  
Luca Soraci ◽  
Alessia Fumagalli ◽  
Graziano Onder ◽  
...  

Background: Hospitalized older patients are particularly exposed to adverse health outcomes.Objective: In this study, we aimed at investigating the prognostic interactions between disability in basic activities of daily living (BADL), cognitive impairment, low handgrip strength, anticholinergic cognitive burden (ACB), and depression on 1-year mortality.Setting and Subjects: Our series consisted of 503 older patients discharged from acute care hospitals.Methods: Disability in at least one BADL, ACB, depression, cognitive impairment, and low handgrip strength was considered in the analysis. One-year mortality was investigated by Cox regression analysis and prognostic interactions among study variables were assessed by survival tree analysis.Results: Basic activities of daily living disability, ACB, cognitive impairment, and low handgrip strength were significantly associated with 1-year mortality. Survival tree analysis showed that patients with BADL disability and high ACB carried the highest risk of poor survival [hazard ratio (HR): 16.48 (2.63–74.72)], followed by patients with BADL disability and low ACB (HR: 8.43, 95% CI: 1.85–38.87). Patients with cognitive impairment and no BADL disability were characterized by a lower but still significant risk of mortality (HR: 6.61, 95% CI: 1.51–28.97) and those with high ACB scores and good cognitive and functional performance (HR: 5.28, 95% CI: 1.13–24.55).Conclusion: Basic activities of daily living dependency, cognitive impairment, and ACB score were the three main predictors of 1-year mortality among patients discharged from acute care hospitals; the interaction between BADL dependency and ACB score wasfound to significantly affect survival. Early identification of such high-risk patients may help tailor targeted interventions to counteract their detrimental effects on prognosis.

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (S4) ◽  
pp. 264-272
Author(s):  
Eva-Luisa Schnabel ◽  
Hans-Werner Wahl ◽  
Susanne Penger ◽  
Julia Haberstroh

Abstract Background and objective Acutely ill older patients with cognitive impairment represent a major subgroup in acute care hospitals. In this context, communication plays a crucial role for patients’ well-being, healthcare decisions, and medical outcomes. As validated measures are lacking, we tested the psychometric properties of an observational instrument to assess Communication Behavior in Dementia (CODEM) in the acute care hospital setting. As a novel feature, we were also able to incorporate linguistic and social-contextual measures. Material and methods Data were drawn from a cross-sectional mixed methods study that focused on the occurrence of elderspeak during care interactions in two German acute care hospitals. A total of 43 acutely ill older patients with severe cognitive impairment (CI group, Mage ± SD = 83.6 ± 5.7 years) and 50 without cognitive impairment (CU group, Mage ± SD = 82.1 ± 6.3 years) were observed by trained research assistants during a standardized interview situation and rated afterwards by use of CODEM. Results Factor analysis supported the expected two-factor solution for the CI group, i.e., a verbal content and a nonverbal relationship aspect. Findings of the current study indicated sound psychometric properties of the CODEM instrument including internal consistency, convergent, divergent, and criterion validity. Conclusion CODEM represents a reliable and valid tool to examine the communication behavior of older patients with CI in the acute care hospital setting. Thus, CODEM might serve as an important instrument for researcher and healthcare professionals to describe and improve communication patterns in this environment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 79 (4) ◽  
pp. 1509-1515
Author(s):  
Alberto Castagna ◽  
Andrea Fabbo ◽  
Ciro Manzo ◽  
Roberto Lacava ◽  
Carmen Ruberto ◽  
...  

Background: Background: Citicoline has been proven to have beneficial effects in patients with cognitive impairment. In previous studies, combined treatment with memantine and acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) maintained cognitive function in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) better than memantine or AChEIs alone. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of a combination therapy of oral citicoline, memantine, and an AChEI in AD when compared with memantine and an AChEI without citicoline. Methods: This was a retrospective multi-centric case-control study, conducted in Italian Centers for Cognitive Impairment and Dementia. Overall, 170 patients were recruited (34.11%of men, mean age 76,81±4.93 years): 48.8%treated with memantine and donepezil; 48.2%with memantine and rivastigmine; 2.9%with memantine and galantamine. 89 patients (control-group) were treated with memantine and an AChEI, whereas 81 patients (case-group) were treated with oral citicoline 1000 mg/day added to memantine and an AChEI given orally. Cognitive functions, activities of daily living, instrumental activities of daily living, comorbidities, mood and behavioral disturbances were assessed at baseline, month 6, and month 12. Results: In the case group, MMSE score had a statistically significant increasing trend between T0 and T2 (14.88±2.95 versus 15.09±3.00; p = 0.040), whereas in the control group, MMSE score showed a statistically significant decrease trend (14.37±2.63 versus 14.03±2.92 p = 0.024). Conclusion: In older patients with AD, a triple therapy with citicoline, memantine, and AChEI was more effective than memantine and AChEI without citicoline in maintaining the MMSE total score after 12 months.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 1693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zengarini ◽  
Giacconi ◽  
Mancinelli ◽  
Riccardi ◽  
Castellani ◽  
...  

Sarcopenia and cognitive impairment are associated with an increased risk of negative outcomes, but their prognostic interplay has not been investigated so far. We aimed to investigate the prognostic interaction of sarcopenia and cognitive impairment concerning 12-month mortality among older patients discharged from acute care wards in Italy. Our series consisted of 624 patients (age = 80.1 ± 7.0 years, 56.1% women) enrolled in a prospective observational study. Sarcopenia was defined following the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP) criteria. Cognitive impairment was defined as age- and education-adjusted Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score < 24 or recorded diagnosis of dementia. The study outcome was all-cause mortality during 12-month follow-up. The combination of sarcopenia and cognitive ability was tested against participants with intact cognitive ability and without sarcopenia. Overall, 159 patients (25.5%) were identified as having sarcopenia, and 323 (51.8%) were cognitively impaired. During the follow-up, 79 patients (12.7%) died. After adjusting for potential confounders, the combination of sarcopenia and cognitive impairment has been found associated with increased mortality (HR = 2.12, 95% CI = 1.05–4.13). Such association was also confirmed after excluding patients with dementia (HR = 2.13, 95% CI = 1.06–4.17), underweight (HR = 2.18, 95% CI = 1.03–3.91), high comorbidity burden (HR = 2.63, 95% CI = 1.09–6.32), and severe disability (HR = 2.88, 95% CI = 1.10–5.73). The co-occurrence of sarcopenia and cognitive impairment may predict 1-year mortality in older patients discharged from acute care hospitals.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 1022-1031 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula D. Cebrián ◽  
Omar Cauli

Background: Many neurological disorders lead to institutionalization and can be accompanied in their advanced stages by functional impairment, and progressive loss of mobility, and cognitive alterations. Objective: We analyzed the relationship between functional impairment and cognitive performance and its related subdomains in individuals with Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease accompanied by motor dysfunction, and with other neurological disorders characterized by both motor and cognitive problems. Methods: All participants lived in nursing homes (Valencia, Spain) and underwent cognitive evaluation with the Mini-Mental State Examination; functional assessment of independence in activities of daily living using the Barthel score and Katz index; and assessment of mobility with the elderly mobility scale. Results: The mean age of the subjects was 82.8 ± 0.6 years, 47% of the sample included individuals with Parkinson’s disease, and 48 % of the sample presented severe cognitive impairment. Direct significant relationships were found between the level of cognitive impairment and functional capacity (p < 0.01) and mobility (p < 0.05). Among the different domains, memory impairment was not associated with altered activities of daily living or mobility. The functional impairment and the risk of severe cognitive impairment were significantly (p<0.05) higher in female compared to male patients. Among comorbidities, overweight/obesity and diabetes were significantly (p < 0.05) associated with poor cognitive performance in those individuals with mild/moderate cognitive impairment. Conclusion: In institutionalized individuals with movement disorders there is an association between functional and cognitive impairment. Reduction of over-weight and proper control of diabetes may represent novel targets for improving cognitive function at such early stages.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pi-Hsia Lee ◽  
Ting-Ting Yeh ◽  
Hsin-Yen Yen ◽  
Wan-Ling Hsu ◽  
Valeria Jia-Yi Chiu ◽  
...  

AbstractStroke and cognitive impairment are common in older population. They often occur together and their combined effects significantly increase disability in both basic (BADLs) and instrumental (IADLs) activities of daily living. We investigated the individual and combined impacts of stroke and cognitive impairment on BADLs and IADLs. A total of 3331 community-dwelling older adults were enrolled from the Taiwan longitudinal study on aging in 2011. Both BADLs and IADLs were analyzed. Combination of stroke and cognitive impairment increased severity of ADL disabilities, but similar prevalence, similar numbers of summed BADL and IADL tasks with disability, and similar levels of difficulty for each BADL and IADL task were found between the stroke group and cognitive impairment group. The former had more difficult in dressing while the latter had more difficult in using the telephone, transport, and managing finances. A hierarchy of ADLs was also observed in all groups. ADL skill training supplemented with cognitive and physical interventions should focus on secondary prevention of dementia and improve motor functional capacity to reduce loss of ADLs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Muhammad ◽  
Shobhit Srivastava ◽  
T. V. Sekher

Abstract Background Greater cognitive performance has been shown to be associated with better mental and physical health and lower mortality. The present study contributes to the existing literature on the linkages of self-perceived income sufficiency and cognitive impairment. Study also provides additional insights on other socioeconomic and health-related variables that are associated with cognitive impairment in older ages. Methods Data for this study is derived from the 'Building Knowledge Base on Population Ageing in India'. The final sample size for the analysis after removing missing cases was 9176 older adults. Descriptive along with bivariate analyses were presented to show the plausible associations of cognitive impairment with potential risk factors using the chi-square test. Also, binary logistic regression analysis was performed to provide the relationship between cognitive impairment and risk factors. The software used was STATA 14. Results About 43% of older adults reported that they had no source of income and 7.2% had income but not sufficient to fulfil their basic needs. Older adults with income but partially sufficient to fulfil their basic needs had 39% significantly higher likelihood to suffer from cognitive impairment than older adults who had sufficient income [OR: 1.39; OR: 1.21–1.59]. Likelihood of cognitive impairment was low among older adults with asset ownership than older adults with no asset ownership [OR: 0.83; CI: 0.72–0.95]. Again, older adults who work by compulsion (73.3%) or felt mental or physical stress due to work (57.6%) had highest percentage of cognitive impairment. Moreover, older adults with poor self-rated health, low instrumental activities of daily living, low activities of daily living, low subjective well-being and low psychological health were at increased risk for cognitive impairment. Conclusion The study highlights the pressing need for care and support and especially financial incentives in the old age to preserve cognitive health. Further, while planning geriatric health care for older adults in India, priority must be given to financially backward, with no asset ownership, with poor health status, older-older, widowed, and illiterate older individuals, as they are more vulnerable to cognitive impairment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 213
Author(s):  
Dulce Romero-Ayuso ◽  
Cristian Cuerda ◽  
Carmen Morales ◽  
Ricardo Tesoriero ◽  
José Matías Triviño-Juárez ◽  
...  

Cognitive dysfunction affects the performance of Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and the quality of life of people with these deficits and their caregivers. To the knowledge of the authors, to date, there are few studies that focus on knowing the relationship between personal autonomy and deductive reasoning and/or categorization skills, which are necessary for the performance of the ADL. The aim of this study was to explore the relationships between ADL and categorization skills in older people. The study included 51 participants: 31 patients with cognitive impairment and 20 without cognitive impairment. Two tests were administered to assess cognitive functions: (1) the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA); and (2) the digital version of Riska Object Classification test (ROC-d). In addition, the Routine Tasks Inventory-2 (RTI-2) was applied to determine the level of independence in activities of daily living. People with cognitive impairment performed poorly in categorization tasks with unstructured information (p = 0.006). Also, the results found a high correlation between cognitive functioning and the performance of ADLs (Physical ADL: r = 0.798; p < 0.001; Instrumental ADL: r = 0.740; p < 0.001), a moderate correlation between Physical ADLs and categorization skills (unstructured ROC-d: r = 0.547; p < 0.001; structured ROC-d: r = 0.586; p < 0.001) and Instrumental ADLs and categorization skills in older people (unstructured ROC-d: r = 0.510; p < 0.001; structured ROC-d: r = 0.463; p < 0.001). The ROC-d allows the assessment of categorization skills to be quick and easy, facilitating the assessment process by OT, as well as the accuracy of the data obtained.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. e044416
Author(s):  
Tan Van Nguyen ◽  
Huyen Thanh Dang ◽  
Mason Jenner Burns ◽  
Hiep HH Dao ◽  
Tu Ngoc Nguyen

ObjectivesThis study aims to investigate the prevalence of impairment of activities of daily living (ADLs) in older patients with heart failure (HF), and to examine the impact of ADL impairment on readmission after discharge.Design and settingsA prospective cohort study was conducted in patients aged ≥65 years with HF admitted to a tertiary hospital in Vietnam from August 2016 to June 2017. Difficulties with six ADLs were assessed by a questionnaire. Participants were classified into two categories (with and without ADL impairment). The associations of ADL impairment with 3-month readmission were examined using logistic regression models.ResultsThere were 180 participants (mean age 80.6±8.2, 50% female) and 26.1% were classified as having ADL impairment. The most common impaired activity was bathing (21.1%), followed by transferring (20.0%), toileting (12.2%), dressing (8.9%), eating (3.3%), and continence (2.8%). During 3-month follow-up, 32.8% of the participants were readmitted to hospitals (55.3% in participants with ADL impairment, 24.8% in those without ADL impairment, p<0.001). ADL impairment significantly increased the risk of 3-month readmission (adjusted OR 2.75, 95% CI 1.25 to 6.05, p=0.01).ConclusionsIn summary, ADL impairment was common in older hospitalised patients with HF and was associated with increased readmission. These findings suggest further studies on ADL assessment and intervention during transition care for older patients with HF after discharge to prevent readmission.


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