Improving How Caregivers of People Living With Dementia Are Identified in the Electronic Health Record: Qualitative Study and Exploratory Chart Review.

Background: Family and unpaid caregivers play a crucial role in supporting people living with dementia; yet, they are not systematically identified and documented by health systems.

Objective: The aims of the study are to determine the extent to which caregivers are currently identified and documented in the electronic health record (EHR) and to elicit the perspectives of caregivers and clinical staff on how to best identify, engage, and support caregivers of people living with dementia through the EHR.

Methods: People with dementia were identified based on International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes or dementia medications in the EHR.

Race Differences in Purpose in Life Among Family Caregivers: Findings From the Caregiving Transitions Study.

Family caregiving may affect purpose in life, defined as the sense that life has meaning and intentionality. Few studies have compared caregivers to non-caregivers or examined the characteristics of caregivers associated with purpose in life. Using data from the Caregiving Transitions Study ( = 486), we conducted multiple linear regression analyses to test the effects of caregiver status, age, gender, social network, and physical and mental health on purpose in life.

Understanding the home hospice experience of Puerto Rican caregivers.

Hospice use among Hispanic Medicare beneficiaries has declined in the last few years, and Hispanic caregivers have reported insufficient support around the emotional and spiritual aspects of care. Understanding the home hospice experience of Puerto Rican (PR) caregivers can yield insight into ways to improve hospice participation and quality of care for the Hispanic population. This exploratory study utilizes qualitative methods to identify PR caregivers' experience in the setting of home hospice care.

Pharmacist-led telehealth deprescribing for people living with dementia and polypharmacy in primary care: A pilot study.

Background: People living with dementia (PLWD) have complex medication regimens, exposing them to increased risk of harm. Pragmatic deprescribing strategies that align with patient-care partner goals are needed.

Methods: A pilot study of a pharmacist-led intervention to optimize medications with patient-care partner priorities, ran May 2021-2022 at two health systems.

Promising Impact of Telenovela Intervention for Caregivers of Hospice Patients: A Pilot Study.

Background: Hospice family caregivers (HFCGs) support the needs of their loved ones but are at risk of developing distress and anxiety. NOVELA is a four-chapter telenovela-style educational video to support topics related to hospice caregiving. Telehealth visits are scheduled in 4 weekly sessions consisting of a chapter and subsequent discussion with an interventionist.

"At least we finally found out what it was": Dementia diagnosis in minoritized populations.

Background: Disparities in diagnosis persist among persons living with dementia (PLWD); most research on delayed diagnosis relies on medical records or administrative claims. This study aimed to identify factors that delay or facilitate dementia diagnoses in racial or ethnic minoritized PLWD and elicit care partner perspectives on timing and effects of diagnosis.

Methods: Maryland-based participants cared for a PLWD age 60 or older, self-identified as Black/African/African-American, Asian, or Hispanic/Latino, and spoke English.

The combined effects of physical frailty and cognitive impairment on emergency department- versus direct-admission hospitalizations.

Background: We aimed to study whether physical frailty and cognitive impairment (CI) increase the risk of recurrent hospitalizations in older adults, independent of comorbidity, and disability.

Methods: Two thousand five hundred forty-nine community-dwelling participants from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) with 3 + years of continuous Medicare coverage from linked claims data were included. We used the marginal means/rates recurrent events model to investigate the association of baseline CI (mild CI or dementia) and physical frailty, separately and synergistically, with the number of all-source vs.

Recruitment, Retention and Intervention Delivery Experiences With Hospice Family Caregivers.

Background: Recruitment and attrition are inherently challenging issues in hospice research. We sought to describe strategies of recruitment, retention, and delivery of NOVELA (short for tele), an intervention for hospice family caregivers (HFCG).

Methods: Statistics were kept of every referral, consenting participant, visit session, and intervention activity.

Telomere shortening and the transition to family caregiving in the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study.

Telomere length (TL) is widely studied as a possible biomarker for stress-related cellular aging and decreased longevity. There have been conflicting findings about the relationship between family caregiving stress and TL. Several initial cross-sectional studies have found associations between longer duration of caregiving or perceived stressfulness of caregiving and shortened TL, suggesting that caregiving poses grave risks to health.

Hospice Family Caregiver Perceptions of Benefits and Challenges of a Telenovela Educational Intervention.

Telenovelas show significant promise as a mode of education that could potentially enhance hospice family caregivers' (HFCG) ability to manage distress or pain for themselves and the care recipient. We sought to understand HFCGs' perceived benefits and challenges of NOVELA using the Levels of Kirkpatrick as a conceptual framework. HFCGs from two hospices in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.

Sleep Quality Reports From Family Caregivers and Matched Non-caregiving Controls in a Population-Based Study.

The stress of family caregiving may affect many health-related variables, including sleep. We evaluated differences in self-reported sleep quality between incident caregivers and matched non-caregiving controls from a national population-based study. Caregivers and controls were identified in the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study and matched on seven different demographic and health history factors.

Can volunteer medical visit companions support older adults in the United States?

Background: Older adults are encouraged to use Medical Visit Companions (MVCs) for routine medical encounters; however, many vulnerable older adults attend alone or fail to attend. In the absence of available family or friends, community volunteers could potentially fill this gap. We aimed to understand the role and acceptability of volunteer MVCs accompanying older adults to medical visits and explore potential barriers and facilitators of increasing MVC availability and expanding roles beyond transportation.

Developing a sensor-based mobile application for in-home frailty assessment: a qualitative study.

Background: Frailty syndrome disproportionately affects older people, including 15% of non-nursing home population, and is known to be a strong predictor of poor health outcomes. There is a growing interest in incorporating frailty assessment into research and clinical practice, which may provide an opportunity to improve in home frailty assessment and improve doctor patient communication.

Methods: We conducted focus groups discussions to solicit input from older adult care recipients (non-frail, pre-frail, and frail), their informal caregivers, and medical providers about their preferences to tailor a mobile app to measure frailty in the home using sensor based technologies.

Change in Life's Simple 7 Measure of Cardiovascular Health After Incident Stroke: The REGARDS Study.

Background And Purpose: Life's Simple 7 (LS7) is a metric for cardiovascular health based on the 7 domains of smoking, diet, physical activity, body mass index, blood pressure, total cholesterol, and fasting glucose. Because they may be targeted for secondary prevention purposes, we hypothesized that stroke survivors would experience improvement in LS7 score over time compared with people who did not experience a stroke. We addressed this hypothesis in the REGARDS study (Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke) cohort of Black and White adults enrolled between 2003 and 2007.

Effects of Transitions to Family Caregiving on Well-Being: A Longitudinal Population-Based Study.

Background/objectives: Few studies have rigorously examined the magnitude of changes in well-being after a transition into sustained and substantial caregiving, especially in population-based studies, compared with matched noncaregiving controls.

Design: We identified individuals from a national epidemiological investigation who transitioned into caregiving over a 10- to 13-year follow-up and provided continuous in-home care for at least 18 months and at least 5 hours per week. Individuals who did not become caregivers were individually matched with caregivers on age, sex, race, education, marital status, self-rated health, and history of cardiovascular disease at baseline.

Transitions to family caregiving: enrolling incident caregivers and matched non-caregiving controls from a population-based study.

Background And Aim: Providing care to an older adult with a disability has been associated with increased risk to the caregiver's health, but most previous studies of caregiving and health compare persons who are already caregivers with poorly matched non-caregiving controls and are often based on convenience samples. In this report, we describe the enrollment of persons who transitioned into a family caregiving role while participating in a national epidemiological study.

Methods: Participants in the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study were asked on two occasions 9-14 years apart if they were providing care on an ongoing basis to a family member with a chronic illness or disability.

Screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) curriculum integration and sustainability: Social work and nursing faculty perspectives.

Background: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has funded grants to universities to provide training and conduct research on the dissemination of Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) to health care professionals. However, when it comes to integrating SBIRT content into an existing curriculum, difficulties can arise. When there is so much content already in the curriculum, adding more can be challenging.