"No One Wants to Die Alone": Incarcerated Patients' Knowledge and Attitudes About Early Medical Release.

Context: Deaths among incarcerated individuals have steadily increased in the U.S., exceeding 5000 in 2014.

Cognition and Incarceration: Cognitive Impairment and Its Associated Outcomes in Older Adults in Jail.

Objectives: To determine prevalence of, and outcomes associated with, a positive screen for cognitive impairment in older adults in jail.

Design: Combined data from cross-sectional (n=185 participants) and longitudinal (n=125 participants) studies.

Setting: Urban county jail.

Older adults in jail: high rates and early onset of geriatric conditions.

Background: The number of older adults in the criminal justice system is rapidly increasing. While this population is thought to experience an early onset of aging-related health conditions ("accelerated aging"), studies have not directly compared rates of geriatric conditions in this population to those found in the general population. The aims of this study were to compare the burden of geriatric conditions among older adults in jail to rates found in an age-matched nationally representative sample of community dwelling older adults.

Chronic disease burden predicts food insecurity among older adults.

Objective: Increased out-of-pocket health-care expenditures may exert budget pressure on low-income households that leads to food insecurity. The objective of the present study was to examine whether older adults with higher chronic disease burden are at increased risk of food insecurity.

Design: Secondary analysis of the 2013 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) Health Care and Nutrition Study (HCNS) linked to the 2012 nationally representative HRS.

Six-Month Emergency Department Use among Older Adults Following Jail Incarceration.

Although the number of older adults who are arrested and subject to incarceration in jail is rising dramatically, little is known about their emergency department (ED) use or the factors associated with that use. This lack of knowledge impairs the ability to design evidence-based approaches to care that would meet the needs of this population. This 6-month longitudinal study aimed to determine the frequency of 6-month ED use among 101 adults aged 55 or older enrolled while in jail and to identify factors associated with that use.

Characteristics of Older Adults in Primary Care Who May Benefit From Primary Palliative Care in the U.S.

Context: Older adults with advanced illness and associated symptoms may benefit from primary palliative care, but limited data exist to identify older adults in U.S. primary care to benefit from this care.

Functional Impairment: An Unmeasured Marker of Medicare Costs for Postacute Care of Older Adults.

Objectives: To assess the effects of preadmission functional impairment on Medicare costs of postacute care up to 365 days after hospital discharge.

Design: Longitudinal cohort study.

Setting: Health and Retirement Study (HRS).

Survival, Functional Status, and Eating Ability After Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy Tube Placement for Acute Stroke.

Objectives: To determine the long-term survival and independence of individuals with stroke and percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube placement.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: A longitudinal nationally representative community-based sample of older adults.

Good Cop, Better Cop: Evaluation of a Geriatrics Training Program for Police.

Objectives: To develop, implement, and evaluate a training program in aging-related health for police officers.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: Crisis intervention training program for police officers in San Francisco.

Difficulty Managing Medications and Finances in Older Adults: A 10-year Cohort Study.

Background: Difficulty managing medicines and finances becomes increasingly common with advanced age, and compromises the ability to live safely and independently. Remarkably little is known how often this occurs.

Objectives: To provide population-based estimates of the risk of developing incident difficulty managing medications and finances in older adults.

Desire for predictive testing for Alzheimer's disease and impact on advance care planning: a cross-sectional study.

Background: It is unknown whether older adults in the United States would be willing to take a test predictive of future Alzheimer's disease, or whether testing would change behavior. Using a nationally representative sample, we explored who would take a free and definitive test predictive of Alzheimer's disease, and examined how using such a test may impact advance care planning.

Methods: A cross-sectional study within the 2012 Health and Retirement Study of adults aged 65 years or older asked questions about a test predictive of Alzheimer's disease (N = 874).

High Levels of Geriatric Palliative Care Needs in Hip Fracture Patients Before the Hip Fracture.

Context: Most hip fracture care models are grounded in curative models where the goal is to return the patient to independent function. In many instances, however, hip fractures contribute to continued functional decline and mortality. Although the negative impact of hip fractures is appreciated once they have occurred, what is less understood is what proportion of older adults have high illness burden before experiencing hip fracture and might benefit from geriatric palliative care.

Rates of Recovery to Pre-Fracture Function in Older Persons with Hip Fracture: an Observational Study.

Background: Knowledge about expected recovery after hip fracture is essential to help patients and families set realistic expectations and plan for the future.

Objectives: To determine rates of functional recovery in older adults who sustained a hip fracture based on one's previous function.

Design: Observational study.

Detained and Distressed: Persistent Distressing Symptoms in a Population of Older Jail Inmates.

Distressing symptoms are associated with poor function, acute care use, and mortality in older adults. The number of older jail inmates is increasing rapidly, prompting calls to develop systems of care to meet their healthcare needs, yet little is known about multidimensional symptom burden in this population. This cross-sectional study describes the prevalence and factors associated with distressing symptoms and the overlap between different forms of symptom distress in 125 older jail inmates in an urban county jail.

Skin Cancer in U.S. Elderly Adults: Does Life Expectancy Play a Role in Treatment Decisions?

Objectives: To examine whether life expectancy influences treatment pattern of nonmelanoma skin cancer, or keratinocyte carcinoma (KC), the most common malignancy and the fifth most costly cancer to Medicare.

Design: Nationally representative cross-sectional study.

Setting: Nationally representative Health and Retirement Study linked to Medicare claims.

Increase in Disability Prevalence Before Hip Fracture.

Objectives: To establish the prevalence and correlates of disability during the 2 years before hip fracture.

Design: Data from participants who experienced hip fracture in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) with hip fracture identified using linked Medicare claims. Each participant was interviewed at varying time points in the 2 years before hip fracture.

Changing Patterns of Glucose-Lowering Medication Use in VA Nursing Home Residents With Diabetes, 2005 to 2011.

Objective: Although nursing home (NH) residents make up a large and growing proportion of Americans with diabetes mellitus, little is known about how glucose-lowering medications are used in this population. We sought to examine glucose-lowering medication use in Veterans Affairs (VA) NH residents with diabetes between 2005 and 2011.

Research Design And Methods: Retrospective cohort study, using linked laboratory, pharmacy, administrative, and NH Minimum Dataset (MDS) 2.

Geriatric Syndromes in Older HIV-Infected Adults.

Background: Geriatric syndromes such as falls, frailty, and functional impairment are multifactorial conditions used to identify vulnerable older adults. Limited data exist on these conditions in older HIV-infected adults, and no studies have comprehensively examined these conditions.

Methods: Geriatric syndromes including falls, urinary incontinence, functional impairment, frailty, sensory impairment, depression, and cognitive impairment were measured in a cross-sectional study of HIV-infected adults aged 50 years and older who had an undetectable viral load on antiretroviral therapy.

Time to benefit for colorectal cancer screening: survival meta-analysis of flexible sigmoidoscopy trials.

Objective: To determine the time to benefit of using flexible sigmoidoscopy for colorectal cancer screening.

Design: Survival meta-analysis.

Data Sources: A Cochrane Collaboration systematic review published in 2013, Medline, and Cochrane Library databases.

Functional impairment and hospital readmission in Medicare seniors.

Importance: Medicare currently penalizes hospitals for high readmission rates for seniors but does not account for common age-related syndromes, such as functional impairment.

Objective: To assess the effects of functional impairment on Medicare hospital readmissions given the high prevalence of functional impairments in community-dwelling seniors.

Design, Setting, And Participants: We created a nationally representative cohort of 7854 community-dwelling seniors in the Health and Retirement Study, with 22,289 Medicare hospitalizations from January 1, 2000, through December 31, 2010.

Predictors of urinary incontinence in community-dwelling frail older adults with diabetes mellitus in a cross-sectional study.

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a potent risk factor for urinary incontinence. Previous studies of incontinence in patients with diabetes have focused on younger, healthier patients. Our objective was to characterize risk factors for urinary incontinence among frail older adults with diabetes mellitus in a real-world clinical setting.

A clinical index to predict progression from mild cognitive impairment to dementia due to Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Mild cognitive impairment is often a precursor to dementia due to Alzheimer's disease, but many patients with mild cognitive impairment never develop dementia. New diagnostic criteria may lead to more patients receiving a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment.

Objective: To develop a prediction index for the 3-year risk of progression from mild cognitive impairment to dementia relying only on information that can be readily obtained in most clinical settings.