COVID-19 outbursts have been registered worldwide within care homes with asymptomatic transmission combined with shortage/inaccuracy of diagnostic tests undermining the efforts at containment of the disease. Nursing facilities in Lombardy (Italy) were left with no, or limited, access to testing for 8 weeks after the outbreak of COVID-19. This study includes 246 residents and 286 workers of three different nursing homes in Brescia-Lombardy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Older nursing home residents often have a large number of diseases and frequently require multiple medications; the high consumption of psychotropic drugs is of particular concern. The majority of residents in nursing homes suffer from dementia, and the use of psychotropic drugs in these patients is very high. Prescription for short periods of time only are usually recommended to avoid the risk of adverse drug reactions and potentially severe drug-drug interactions (DDIs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: There is growing evidence that tight glycemic control may be more harmful than beneficial in older persons with Type 2 diabetes (T2DM). It remains controversial if tight glycemic control (lower glycated hemoglobin A1c (A1c)) is associated with functional impairments in older frail patients with T2DM. We explored associations between A1c and losses in Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) in diabetic nursing home (NH) patients and tested for differences according to anti-diabetic treatment: diet, anti-diabetic oral drug (AOD), insulin, combined insulin+AOD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn an Italian long-term-care facility (LTCF), we observed a 17.5% adherence to hand hygiene (HH), as well as 47.5% rate of glove use.
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