Rationales that providers and family members cited for the use of antipsychotic medications in nursing home residents with dementia.

Objectives: To describe the rationales that providers and family members cite for the use of antipsychotic medications in people with dementia living in nursing homes (NHs).

Design: Qualitative, descriptive study.

Setting: Twenty-six medium-sized and large facilities in five Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regions.

Research using emergency department-related data sets: current status and future directions.

The 2009 Academic Emergency Medicine consensus conference focused on "Public Health in the ED: Surveillance, Screening and Intervention." One conference breakout session discussed the significant research value of health-related data sets. This article represents the proceedings from that session, primarily focusing on emergency department (ED)-related data sets and includes examples of the use of a data set based on ED visits for research purposes.

Walker use, but not falls, is associated with lower physical functioning and health of residents in an assisted-living environment.

The relationship between perceived health and walker use has seldom been addressed. Concerns over falls and falls risk are precursors to walker use. We compared the SF-36 scores of 26 women and 14 men, mean age 86.