Incremental burden on health-related quality of life, health service utilization and direct medical expenditures associated with cognitive impairment among non-institutionalized people with diabetes aged 65 years and older.

Aims: To quantify the incremental health and economic burden associated with cognitive impairment (CI) among non-institutionalized people with diabetes ≥65 years in the United States.

Materials And Methods: Using 2016-2019 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys data, we identified participants ≥65 years with diabetes. We used propensity score weighting to quantify the CI-associated incremental burden on health-related quality of life measured by the 12-item Short Form Survey (SF-12), including the mental component summary score, physical component summary score and health utility.

Trajectories of prescription opioid dose and risk of opioid-related adverse events among older Medicare beneficiaries in the United States: A nested case-control study.

Background: Despite the rising number of older adults with medical encounters for opioid misuse, dependence, and poisoning, little is known about patterns of prescription opioid dose and their association with risk for opioid-related adverse events (ORAEs) in older patients. The study aims to compare trajectories of prescribed opioid doses in 6 months preceding an incident ORAE for cases and a matched control group of older patients with chronic noncancer pain (CNCP).

Methods And Findings: We conducted a nested case-control study within a cohort of older (≥65 years) patients diagnosed with CNCP who were new users of prescription opioids, assembled using a 5% national random sample of Medicare beneficiaries from 2011 to 2018.

Disease Severity and Risk Factors of 30-Day Hospital Readmission in Pediatric Hospitalizations for Pneumonia.

Pneumonia is the leading cause of hospitalization in pediatric patients. Disease severity greatly influences pneumonia progression and adverse health outcomes such as hospital readmission. Hospital readmissions have become a measure of healthcare quality to reduce excess expenditures.