Heart Transplants: Age is No Barrier to Successful Surgery

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society Research Summary

A new study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society suggests that survival rates after heart transplant surgery are similar in adults ages 18 to 69 and adults ages 70 and older.

Researchers examined a large U.S. database of patients who were listed as candidates for surgery to replace their failing hearts with healthier donor hearts. The researchers found that:

  • Only 1 in 50 people who are considered for heart transplant surgery and 1 in 50 people who receive a heart transplant are ages 70 or older.
  • For older adults in the study, the likelihood of surviving one or five years after a heart transplant was about the same as for younger adults.
  • Having a stroke after heart transplant surgery was more common in older adults, but the risk in both age groups was low.
  • Older patients were more likely to receive hearts from higher-risk donors, who are older and more likely to have diabetes and high blood pressure.
  • Advanced age alone should not prevent people from being considered as candidates for heart transplants.

Why We May Need Heart Transplants as We Age Continue reading

High Blood Pressure Treatment and Nursing Home Residents

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society Research Summary

Although 27 percent of all older adults who live in nursing homes in this country have both high blood pressure and dementia, we don’t have enough research yet to inform healthcare providers about the best way to treat their high blood pressure.

Specifically, we don’t know when the benefits of taking medication to lower blood pressure outweigh the potential risks, especially in older adults who also have moderate to severe dementia and a poor prognosis (the medical term for the likely course of a disease). That’s because clinical trials for high blood pressure treatments typically do not include older adults who have severe chronic illnesses or disabilities.

 A team of researchers designed a study to learn more about the best high blood pressure treatments for older adults who live in nursing homes. Their study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

The research team used information from Medicare records. The team identified 255,670 long-term nursing home residents in the United States during 2013 who had high blood pressure. Of these, nearly half had moderate or severe dementia-related difficulties with thinking and decision-making. Slightly more than half of them had no or only mild cognitive impairment. Continue reading

High-Quality Nursing Homes Lower Risks for Long-Term Care Placement for Older Adults

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society Research Summary

After being discharged from the hospital, an older person often is admitted directly to a skilled nursing facility (SNF). SNFs specialize in the skilled care we need to recover properly.  These facilities also provide the additional rehabilitation we may need before returning home. However, experts have raised concerns about the uneven quality of SNF services, the substantial differences among them, and how they are used in different parts of the country. A transfer from an SNF to a long-term care facility, for example, is considered a failure to achieve the goals of SNF care.  Most older people view a move to a long-term care facility as a step in the wrong direction.

In a new study, researchers decided to examine the role that SNFs play with regard to older adults’ placements in long-term care facilities. Their study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society.

The researchers studied the role of SNF quality and how it affected older adults’ risks of transitioning to long-term care facilities. They also looked at whether any aspects of skilled nursing were linked with an older adult’s risk of entering long-term care facilities. The research team focused specifically on whether the quality ratings of SNFs (available to the public, free of charge, here) helped predict long-term care placements. Continue reading

What Influences Older Adults’ Preferences for Care?

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society Research Summary

We all know that family and friends are important, and that the people close to us have a big impact on our health. Now, a team of researchers has found that family support is also important when older people with advanced illnesses think about how the type of care they would prefer as they age.

 Understanding how we would prefer to be cared for as we age is vital to providing person-centered care. Person-centered care puts individual values and preferences at the heart of care decisions.  It focuses attention on the health and life goals we have individually.  Person-centered care is considered a gold standard for health care.

Until now, we haven’t had a good understanding of how older adults form care preferences. To learn more about care preferences and how they might be influenced for older adults with advanced illnesses, a team of researchers from the United Kingdom searched for existing medical studies about the topic and collected the results. They published their findings in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

The research team looked at 57 studies about the preferences of older adults with advanced illness.  They included research that investigated preferences for where people wanted to be cared for, the kinds of communication and decision-making they wanted, and what quality of life they hoped to have over time. Continue reading

End-of-Life Hospital and Healthcare Use Among Older Adults with Alzheimer’s Disease

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society Research Summary

Because people are now living longer and often healthier lives, the rate of some illnesses that are more likely to develop with age has risen. These illnesses include dementia. In fact, the number of us living with dementia was already 47 million worldwide in 2015. It could reach 131 million by 2050.

Dementia is a general term that includes different types of mental decline. The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease, which accounts for 60 to 80 percent of all dementia cases.

As Alzheimer’s disease worsens, older adults may become more likely to have trouble performing daily activities, can develop trouble swallowing, and may become less active. This increases the risk for other concerns like infections. These infections, such as pneumonia, can increase the risk for death. As a result, the cause of death for people living with Alzheimer’s disease is often infections or some other cause, rather than the Alzheimer’s disease itself.

A team of researchers from Belgium recently studied how people with Alzheimer’s disease use medical services during their final months. The goal was to learn more about the best ways to help older adults with dementia at the end of their lives. Their study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Continue reading