Assessing Symptoms, Concerns, and Quality of Life in Noncancer Patients at End of Life: How Concordant Are Patients and Family Proxy Members?

Context: It has become commonplace to use family caregivers as proxy responders where patients are unable to provide information about their symptoms and concerns to health care providers.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the degree of concordance between patients' and family members' reports of patient symptoms and concerns at end of life.

Methods: Sample dyads included a mix of patients residing at home, in a nursing home, in a long-term care facility, or in hospice.

A Randomized Placebo Controlled Clinical Trial to Determine the Impact of Digestion Resistant Starch on Glucose, Insulin, and Insulin Resistance in Elderly and Mid-Age Adults.

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) has reached epidemic proportions in North America. Recent evidence suggests that prebiotics can modulate the gut microbiome, which then plays an important role in regulating lipid metabolism, blood glucose, and insulin sensitivity. As such, prebiotics are appealing potential therapeutic strategies for prediabetes and T2D.

Correction: Dignity and Distress towards the End of Life across Four Non-Cancer Populations.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

From 'just the facts' to 'more theory and methods, please': The evolution of the research article in Administrative Science Quarterly, 1956-2008.

This paper analyzes the surface structure of research articles published in Administrative Science Quarterly between 1956 and 2008. The period is marked by a shift from essays that interweave theory, methods and results to experimental reports that separate them. There is dramatic growth in the size of theory, methods and discussion sections, accompanied by a shrinking results section.

A randomized trial to determine the impact of a digestion resistant starch composition on the gut microbiome in older and mid-age adults.

Background: The elderly often have a diet lacking resistant starch (RS) which is thought to lead to gut microbiome dysbiosis that may result in deterioration of gut colonocytes.

Objective: The primary objective was to assess if elderly (ELD; ≥ 70 years age) had microbiome dysbiosis compared to mid-age (MID; 30-50 years age) adults and then determine the impact of daily consumption of MSPrebiotic (a RS) or placebo over 3 months on gut microbiome composition. Secondary objectives included assessment of stool short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) and inflammatory markers in ELD and MID Canadian adults.

Dignity and Distress towards the End of Life across Four Non-Cancer Populations.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify four non-cancer populations that might benefit from a palliative approach; and describe and compare the prevalence and patterns of dignity related distress across these diverse clinical populations.

Design: A prospective, multi-site approach was used.

Setting: Outpatient clinics, inpatient facilities or personal care homes, located in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Coevolution in management fashion: an agent-based model of consultant-driven innovation.

The rise of management consultancy has been accompanied by increasingly marked faddish cycles in management techniques, but the mechanisms that underlie this relationship are not well understood. The authors develop a simple agent-based framework that models innovation adoption and abandonment on both the supply and demand sides. In opposition to conceptions of consultants as rhetorical wizards who engineer waves of management fashion, firms and consultants are treated as boundedly rational actors who chase the secrets of success by mimicking their highest-performing peers.

Profiling the multidimensional needs of new nursing home residents: evidence to support planning.

Introduction: Nursing home (NH) residents have various needs that affect the care they require. This article describes the diverse needs that new NH residents have, emphasizing the proportion of people with milder needs in multiple areas.

Methods: Research was conducted on all older adults newly admitted to not-for-profit NHs in the Winnipeg Health Region, between April 1, 2005, and March 31, 2007, provided that they were assessed using the Resident Assessment Instrument Minimum Data Set (RAI/MDS 2.

Nursing home adverse events: further insight into highest risk periods.

Introduction: Adverse events (AEs) occur frequently in nursing homes (NHs). Although the literature identifies several AE risk factors, the effect of resident transition on AE risk is less well defined. This article is the first to describe how AE risk varies across several NH transition periods and to define the most vulnerable junctures of an NH stay.

Assessing the quality of drug detailing.

This study measured the validity of a new instrument, the Assessment Instrument for Drug Detailing (AIDD), used by doctors to score the quality of drug detailing provided by pharmaceutical representatives in their offices. Five pharmaceutical representatives provided "good, medium, and poor" details to 135 family doctors in their offices, who were blinded to the quality of the details. A "reference standard group" constructed the details and trained the representatives.