Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
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To determine, in disabled, older, community-dwelling women who were hospitalized, the rates and predictors of functional decline, the probability and time course of subsequent functional recovery, and predictors of functional recovery. ⋯ Although most recovery of function occurs by 6 months after the first visit after a hospitalization, a substantial proportion of disabled community-dwelling women recover over the following 2 years.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Older people contact more obstacles when wearing multifocal glasses and performing a secondary visual task.
To determine whether wearing multifocal glasses affects obstacle avoidance and eye and head movements during walking with and without a secondary visual task in older people. ⋯ The findings demonstrate that older adults contact more obstacles while walking with their attention divided when wearing multifocal glasses. This is probably because of a failure to adopt a compensatory increase in pitch head movement, resulting in blurred vision of obstacles viewed through the lower segments of multifocal glasses.
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To determine the relationship between the reason for an emergency department (ED) visit and subsequent risk of adverse health outcomes in older adults discharged from the ED. ⋯ Adverse health outcomes were common in older patients with an ED discharge diagnosis classified as a chronic condition. ED discharge diagnosis may improve risk assessment and inform the development of targeted interventions to reduce adverse health outcomes in older adults discharged from the ED.
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The aging of the U. S. population has resulted in a large number of persons with multiple, chronic illnesses and gradual functional decline. Many older adults with these conditions are homebound and have great difficulty accessing medical care. ⋯ Caregivers for the elderly, mostly African-American patients, more than half of whom had dementia, were overall very satisfied with their experience, despite the large amount of time necessary to provide the care that patients required. Themes extracted during qualitative analysis were the desire to remain at home, the need for easy access to a practitioner specializing in geriatrics and palliative medicine, and the challenges of transitions of care. PATCH was able to address many of these needs and provide high levels of caregiver satisfaction.