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Researchers at the University of Warwick and Queen Mary, University of London have shown that exercise is not effective in reducing burden of depression among elderly care home residents. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-ineffective-home-depression.html Health Thu, 02 May 2013 06:31:40 EST news286695094 The cost implications of the UK government's recent plans to reform the funding system for care and support in England are analysed in a new research paper, which also considers the effects of options to give more help to lower income care home residents. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-reforms-uk-funding-published.html Health Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:42:03 EST news286011712 (HealthDay)—Health staff at nursing homes often give patients sleeping pills to help them sleep, but a new study suggests that a certain class of medications may put patients at raised risk for hip fractures. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-aids-hip-fracture-nursing-homes.html Health Mon, 04 Mar 2013 16:59:52 EST news281638786 While most infection control measures are focused on hospitals, a new study points to the need for more targeted interventions to prevent the spread of drug-resistant bugs in nursing homes as community-associated strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) are on the rise in these facilities. The study is published in the March issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-high-prevalence-drug-resistant-mrsa-nursing.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 11 Feb 2013 13:27:30 EST news279811635 The number of medications prescribed to a care home resident and the frequency of their contact with their GP are strong predictors of mortality in care homes shows research published today in Age & Ageing, the scientific journal of the British Geriatrics Society. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-mortality-older-home-residents.html Health Fri, 11 Jan 2013 08:35:45 EST news277115710 A new review in The Cochrane Library finds that education and social support for staff and caregivers can reduce the use of antipsychotics in nursing home patients with dementia. Improved staff training and education, communication between personal and professional caregivers and support for everyone involved in the patient's care are effective non-pharmacological methods to try before using antipsychotic medications. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-antipsychotic-drugs-nursing-home-patients.html Health Fri, 14 Dec 2012 09:00:06 EST news274697316 The more states spend on home-delivered meals under the Older Americans Act, the more likely they are to help people who don't need nursing home care to stay in their homes, according to a newly published Brown University statistical analysis of a decade of spending and nursing home resident data. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-meals-seniors-homes.html Health Tue, 04 Dec 2012 09:39:12 EST news273836340 (Medical Xpress)—A Medicare rule that blocks thousands of nursing home residents from receiving simultaneous reimbursement for hospice and skilled nursing facility (SNF) care at the end of life may result in those residents receiving more aggressive treatment and hospitalization, according a new analysis. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-medicare-barrier-hospice-hospitalization.html Health Wed, 31 Oct 2012 16:23:15 EST news270919385 The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have each released new tools and information to help track deadly healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in nursing homes and other long-term care settings. Potentially deadly HAIs strike volumes of nursing home residents each year, with best estimates suggesting that up to 2.8 million infections can occur in this population annually. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-tools-nursing-homes-track-deadly.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 18 Sep 2012 14:36:07 EST news267197760 A Kansas State University researcher and writing team are developing ways for nursing home residents and elementary school students to learn in a shared setting: an intergenerational classroom. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-ageless-intergenerational-classrooms-nursing-homes.html Other Wed, 25 Jul 2012 12:39:00 EST news262438735 One in five short-stay nursing home patients sustains a fall after their admission, and certified nursing assistant (CNA) staffing is associated with decreased fall risk, according to a study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-percent-newly-nursing-home-residents.html Health Wed, 20 Jun 2012 09:17:38 EST news259402565 A new study that tracked what Alzheimer's disease and related disorders (ADRD) costs Medicare during three distinct stages of patient care suggests that the government insurer could realize substantial savings through efforts to reduce the hospitalizations that occur before patients became permanent nursing home residents. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-pre-nursing-home-hospitalization-dementia-patients.html Health Tue, 10 Apr 2012 10:37:17 EST news253273017 As loved ones age and face challenges that prevent them from living on their own, family members often struggle with the decision to place their relatives in nursing homes. Sometimes viewed as last alternatives, long-term care facilities can have reputations as hopeless, institutionalized environments. Now, those negative perceptions are changing, say two University of Missouri researchers in the Sinclair School of Nursing. After conducting a statewide survey of Missouri nursing homes, the researchers found that nearly 90 percent of nursing home residents and their family members are satisfied with the residents' long-term care facilities. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-expert-comment-missouri-nursing-homes.html Health Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:47:21 EST news252064036 The majority of institutionalized elderly female patients are vitamin D deficient and there is an inverse association of vitamin D deficiency and mortality, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (JCEM). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-vitamin-d-deficiency-linked-higher.html Health Tue, 06 Mar 2012 08:12:15 EST news250243929 Nursing home residents with dementia who use average doses of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are three times more likely to have an injurious fall than similar people who don't use these drugs. The association can be seen in people who use low doses of SSRIs and the risk increases as people take higher doses. The results are published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-nursing-home-residents-dementia-antidepressants.html Health Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:40:03 EST news246168702 (AP) -- Government inspectors will tell lawmakers Wednesday that the Medicare health plan needs to do more to stop doctors from prescribing powerful psychiatric drugs to nursing home patients with dementia, an unapproved practice that has flourished despite repeated government warnings. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-inspector-highlights-psych-drug-elderly.html Health Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:27:49 EST news241885658 The scoring system government agencies use to rate nursing home quality does not provide an adequate evaluation because they do not take into account the degree of cognitive impairment of their patient populations and whether facilities include a specialized dementia unit according to a new study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-nursing-home-quality-scorecards-dont.html Health Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:43:02 EST news241094574 The decision by nursing homes whether or not to treat an ill resident on-site or send them to a hospital are often linked to that person's insurance status. A new study out this month shows that on average individuals enrolled in Medicaid are 27 percent more likely to be sent to the hospital than individuals with private insurance – decisions that often result in higher costs of care and poor health outcomes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-nursing-home-hospitalizations-driven-payer.html Health Mon, 03 Oct 2011 13:02:36 EST news236865748 A new study in the Sept. 29, 2011, edition of the New England Journal of Medicine reports that nearly one in five nursing home residents with advanced dementia experiences burdensome transitions in the last 90 days of life, such as moving to a different facility in the last three days of life or repeat hospitalizations for expected complications of dementia in the last 90 days of life. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-dementia-patients-burdensome-transitions-days.html Health Wed, 28 Sep 2011 18:42:14 EST news236454118 Higher flu vaccination rates for health care personnel can dramatically reduce the threat of flu outbreak among nursing home residents, according to a study published in the October issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-flu-vaccines-nursing-home-workers.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:05:29 EST news235047912 Nursing home residents taking certain antidepressant medications are at an increased risk of falling in the days following the start of a new prescription or a dose increase of their current drug, according to a new study by the Institute for Aging Research of Hebrew SeniorLife, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-nursing-home-residents-heightened-falling.html Health Fri, 15 Jul 2011 17:30:01 EST news229967182 Among nursing home residents at high risk for pressure ulcers, black residents had higher prevalence rates than white residents from 2003 through 2008, with the disparity largely related to the higher rates among nursing homes that disproportionately serve black residents, according to a study in the July 13 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-prevalence-pressure-ulcers-black-high-risk.html Health Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:49:59 EST news229708189 UC Irvine psychologist Karen Rook can trace her interest in how loneliness affects the elderly to her childhood, when she saw a much-loved, once-robust grandmother decline markedly after losing her husband. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-lonely-people.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:57:08 EST news226155417