Access to, use of, and experiences with social alarms in home-living people with dementia: results from the LIVE@Home.Path trial.

Background: Social alarms are considered an appropriate technology to ensure the safety and independence of older adults, but limited research has been conducted on their actual use. We, therefore, explored the access, experiences, and use of social alarms among home-bound people with dementia and their informal caregivers (dyads).

Methods: From May 2019 to October 2021, the LIVE@Home.

The Effect of Music-Based Intervention on General Cognitive and Executive Functions, and Episodic Memory in People with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Recent Randomized Controlled Trials.

Background: Music-based intervention has been used as first-line non-pharmacological treatment to improve cognitive function for people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia in clinical practice. However, evidence regarding the effect of music-based intervention on general cognitive function as well as subdomains of cognitive functions in these individuals is scarce.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of music-based interventions on a wide range of cognitive functions in people with MCI or dementia.

Factors associated with access to assistive technology and telecare in home-dwelling people with dementia: baseline data from the LIVE@Home.Path trial.

Background: There is a knowledge gap regarding factors that may influence the access to different devices for home-dwelling people with dementia (PwD). The aim of this study was to identify different assistive technology and telecare (ATT) devices installed in the home and key factors associated with access to such technology.

Methods: The baseline data came from the LIVE@Home.

Scoping Review: Intergenerational Resource Transfer and Possible Enabling Factors.

We explore the intergenerational pattern of resource transfer and possible associated factors. A scoping review was conducted of quantitative, peer-reviewed, English-language studies related to intergenerational transfer or interaction. We searched AgeLine, PsycINFO, Social Work Abstracts, and Sociological Abstracts for articles published between Jane 2008 and December 2018.

LIVE@Home.Path-innovating the clinical pathway for home-dwelling people with dementia and their caregivers: study protocol for a mixed-method, stepped-wedge, randomized controlled trial.

Background: The global health challenge of dementia is exceptional in size, cost and impact. It is the only top ten cause of death that cannot be prevented, cured or substantially slowed, leaving disease management, caregiver support and service innovation as the main targets for reduction of disease burden. Institutionalization of persons with dementia is common in western countries, despite patients preferring to live longer at home, supported by caregivers.

The safety attitudes questionnaire - ambulatory version: psychometric properties of the Norwegian version for nursing homes.

Background: Patient safety culture involves leader and staff interaction, routines, attitudes, practices and awareness that influence risks of adverse events in patient care. The Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) is an instrument to measure safety attitudes among health care providers. The instrument aims to identify possible weaknesses in clinical settings and motivate quality improvement interventions leading to reductions in medical errors.

Analgesic treatments in people with dementia - how safe are they? A systematic review.

Introduction: People with dementia may be unable to verbally express pain and suffer from untreated pain. Use of analgesics in people with dementia has increased during the last decade, in particular opioid analgesics with high potential for adverse effects.

Areas Covered: This article presents a systematic review of the current evidence for safety and tolerability of analgesic drugs from randomized controlled trials in people with dementia.

Comparing unplanned and potentially planned home deaths: a population-based cross-sectional study.

Background: There is little research on number of planned home deaths. We need information about factors associated with home deaths, but also differences between planned and unplanned home deaths to improve end-of-life-care at home and make home deaths a feasible alternative. Our aim was to investigate factors associated with home deaths, estimate number of potentially planned home deaths, and differences in individual characteristics between people with and without a potentially planned home death.

Patient safety culture in Norwegian nursing homes.

Background: Patient safety culture concerns leader and staff interaction, attitudes, routines, awareness and practices that impinge on the risk of patient-adverse events. Due to their complex multiple diseases, nursing home patients are at particularly high risk of adverse events. Studies have found an association between patient safety culture and the risk of adverse events.

Staff Distress Improves by Treating Pain in Nursing Home Patients With Dementia: Results From a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

Context: Most people with dementia develop neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPSs), which are distressing for their carers. Untreated pain may increase the prevalence and severity of NPSs and thereby staff burden.

Objectives: We investigated the association between NPSs and the impact of individual pain treatment on distress in nursing home staff.

Analgesic prescribing patterns in Norwegian nursing homes from 2000 to 2011: trend analyses of four data samples.

Background: the analgesic drug use has been reported to increase in general in nursing home patients. However, there is insufficient evidence in terms of what agents are used, variations of use over time and to whom these drugs are prescribed.

Objective: we investigated the prescribing patterns of scheduled analgesic drugs in Norwegian nursing home patients from 2000 to 2011, with the association to age, gender, cognitive function and type of nursing home unit.

[Pain assessment in dementia].

Background: Patients with dementia are often unable to describe their pain because of memory deficiency and speech problems. This may lead to under-diagnosing and suboptimal pain treatment. The article summarises a thesis on development and testing of a new instrument for pain assessment: Mobilisation-Observation-Behavior-Intensity-Dementia (MOBID-2) pain scale.

[On-call physicians in nursing homes].

Background: Patients in Norwegian nursing homes are old and multimorbid; they often need emergency treatment and regular medical follow-up is a must. The aim of the study was to investigate reasons for contacting a physician and to find out if unnecessary hospitalization can be reduced.

Material And Methods: The study took place at Bergen Red Cross Nursing home, which has 174 patients in long-term wards, dementia wards, a short-term ward and a palliative care ward.

Who suffers most? Dementia and pain in nursing home patients: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: To explore the relationship between nursing home patients with different stages of dementia and different dementia diagnoses and use of pain medication according to pain intensity.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting And Participants: Participants included 181 consecutive, long-term stay patients, 43 primary caregivers, 1 geriatric study nurse, and 4 physicians of a Norwegian nursing home.

Mobilization-Observation-Behavior-Intensity-Dementia Pain Scale (MOBID): development and validation of a nurse-administered pain assessment tool for use in dementia.

Pain assessment in older persons with severe cognitive impairment (SCI) is a challenge due to reduced self-report capacity and lack of movement-related pain assessment instruments. The purpose of this article was to describe the development of the Mobilization-Observation-Behaviour-Intensity-Dementia Pain Scale (MOBID) and to investigate aspects of reliability and validity. MOBID is a nurse-administered instrument developed for use in patients with SCI, where presence of pain behavior indicators (pain noises, facial expression, and defense) may be observed during standardized active, guided movements, and then inferred to represent pain intensity.

[Care at the end of life or active euthanasia?].

Estimates for the next 50 years indicate that the number of European citizens above 65 will increase from today's 15 - 20 % to 30 - 40 %. In the same period the number of patients suffering from dementia wills more than double. Norway has the largest percentage of beds in nursing facilities per capita in Europe, more than twice that of most European countries.

[Nursing homes as arenas of terminal care--how do we do in practice?].

40% of all deaths in Norway take place in nursing homes, more than in any other European country. The nursing homes are suitable places for the terminally ill old, provided that they are met by caregivers with the necessary skills in and resources for palliative care. A recently published study from Bergen Red Cross Nursing Home showed that the vast majority of the old in their final days or hours of life need palliative treatment with morphine and other symptom-relieving drugs.

[Ethical end-of-life decision making in nursing homes].

Background: A recent publication from Norwegian health authorities describes necessary routines for end-of-life decisions in hospitals. There are no comparable national recommendations regarding patients in nursing homes. 40% of deaths in Norway occur in nursing homes.