BMC geriatrics
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Economic evaluation of an extended nutritional intervention in older Australian hospitalized patients: a randomized controlled trial.
Prevalence of malnutrition in older hospitalized patients is 30%. Malnutrition is associated with poor clinical outcomes in terms of high morbidity and mortality and is costly for hospitals. Extended nutrition interventions improve clinical outcomes but limited studies have investigated whether these interventions are cost-effective. ⋯ This health economic analysis suggests that the use of extended nutritional intervention in older general medical patients is likely to be cost-effective in the Australian health care setting in terms of both primary and secondary outcomes.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Cost-effectiveness of comprehensive geriatric assessment at an ambulatory geriatric unit based on the AGe-FIT trial.
Older people with multi-morbidity are increasingly challenging for today's healthcare, and novel, cost-effective healthcare solutions are needed. The aim of this study was to assess the cost-effectiveness of comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) at an ambulatory geriatric unit for people ≥75 years with multi-morbidity. ⋯ CGA in an ambulatory setting for older people with multi-morbidity results in a cost per QALY of 46,000 EUR compared with usual care, a figure generally considered reasonable in a Swedish healthcare context. A rather simple reorganisation of care for older people with multi-morbidity may therefore cost effectively contribute to meet the needs of this complex patient population.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Description of an advance care planning intervention in nursing homes: outcomes of the process evaluation.
Advance Care Planning (ACP) is the repeated communication and decision-making process between the patient, family, and healthcare professionals. This study describes an ACP intervention in nursing homes and evaluates the outcomes of the implementation process. ⋯ Monthly communication with the family was the most frequently conducted communication, and the predefined criteria of successfully implemented ACP were largely achieved. Nursing home routines and engagement of leaders and staff were crucial facilitators, whereas lack of time and competence reduced the implementation success.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Clinically significant discrepancies between sleep problems assessed by standard clinical tools and actigraphy.
Sleep disturbances are widespread among nursing home (NH) patients and associated with numerous negative consequences. Identifying and treating them should therefore be of high clinical priority. No prior studies have investigated the degree to which sleep disturbances as detected by actigraphy and by the sleep-related items in the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD) and the Neuropsychiatric Inventory - Nursing Home version (NPI-NH) provide comparable results. Such knowledge is highly needed, since both questionnaires are used in clinical settings and studies use the NPI-NH sleep item to measure sleep disturbances. For this reason, insight into their relative (dis)advantages is valuable. ⋯ Compared to actigraphy, proxy-raters clearly underreported NH patients' sleep disturbances as assessed by sleep items in NPI-NH and CSDD. The results suggest that the usefulness of proxy-rater measures of sleep may be questionable and further research is needed into their clinical value. The results highlight the need for NH staff to acquire and act on knowledge about sleep and sleep challenges among NH patients.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Patient-centered professional practice models for managing low back pain in older adults: a pilot randomized controlled trial.
Low back pain is a debilitating condition for older adults, who may seek healthcare from multiple providers. Few studies have evaluated impacts of different healthcare delivery models on back pain outcomes in this population. The purpose of this study was to compare clinical outcomes of older adults receiving back pain treatment under 3 professional practice models that included primary medical care with or without chiropractic care. ⋯ Professional practice models that included primary care and chiropractic care led to modest improvements in low back pain intensity and disability for older adults, with chiropractic-inclusive models resulting in better perceived improvement and patient satisfaction over the primary care model alone.