Purpose: The initial diagnosis and treatment of cognitive disorders such as mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease is highly dependent on caregiver reports of patient performance of activities of daily living (ADLs). However, these reports may not always be reliable. We investigated the cognitive skills of caregivers, specifically their…

Purpose: To examine racial differences in (a) the prevalence of financial exploitation and psychological mistreatment since turning 60 and in the past 6 months and (b) the experience--perpetrator, frequency, and degree of upset--of psychological mistreatment in the past 6 months. Design and methods: Random digit dial telephone recruitment and…

Purpose: Patients with Lewy body dementia (LBD) may present a unique set of symptoms and challenges to family caregivers compared with other types of dementia. Prominent difficulties include motor impairment, activities of daily living (ADLs) disability, recurrent behavioral and emotional problems (BEPs), and diagnostic difficulties. These…

Purpose: Using the Activity Card Sort (ACS), we derived a measure of lifestyle-adjusted function and examined the distribution of this measure and its correlates in a community sample of older adults at risk for disability transitions. Design and Methods: Participants in the Sources of Independence in the Elderly project (n = 375) completed the…

Purpose: To report the impact on patient and informal caregiver satisfaction, patient empowerment, and health and disability status of a primary care-affiliated disease self-management-health promotion nurse intervention for Medicare beneficiaries with disabilities and recent significant health services use. Design and Methods: The Medicare…

Purpose: We sought to characterize self-neglect definitively as a geriatric syndrome by identifying an association with functional impairment. Design and Methods: We performed a cross-sectional home evaluation of 100 community-living older adults referred by Adult Protective Services for geriatric self-neglect and 100 matched adults from a…

We describe national trends during the 1990s in late-life difficulty and assistance with self-care activities. Among older Americans living in the community and experiencing difficulty with self-care activities, assistive-technology use increased substantially whereas use of personal care declined. Using a decomposition technique, we demonstrate…

Purpose: We examined the relationship between the quality indicator for decline in activities of daily living (ADL) and the use of the Minimum Data Set (MDS) for determining Medicaid skilled nursing facility reimbursement. Design and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis using the 2004 National MDS Facility Quality Indicator reports as…

Purpose: This research investigates what factors affect the degree to which nursing home performance explains variance in residents' change in status of activities of daily living (ADL) after admission. Design and Methods: The database included all residents admitted in 2002 to a 10% random sample of nursing homes in the United States.…

Purpose: It is widely believed that physical restraint use causes mental and physical health decline in nursing home residents. Yet few studies exist showing an association between restraint initiation and health decline. In this research, we examined whether physical restraint initiation is associated with subsequent lower physical or mental…

Purpose: This study used the Disablement Process Model to predict whether a sample of the oldest-old maintained their disability or disability-free status over a 2- and 4-year follow-up, or whether they transitioned into a state of disability during this time. Design and Methods: We followed a sample of 149 Swedish adults who were 86 years of age…

Purpose: A national quality report card for nursing homes, Nursing Home Compare, has been published since 2002. It has been shown to have some, albeit limited, positive impact on quality of care. The objective of this study was to test empirically the hypothesis that nursing homes have responded to the publication of the report by adopting cream…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between nursing home staffing level, care received by individual residents, and resident quality-related care processes and functional outcomes. Design and Methods: Nurses recorded resident care time for 5,314 residents on 156 units in 105 facilities in four states (Colorado,…

Tested hierarchical scale comprising 18 activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) items on 101 noninstitutionalized older adults in Netherlands. Results confirmed possibility of constructing unidimensional, hierarchical. polychotomous scale measuring "functional problems on ADL-IADL." Considered…

Examined how well older frail households cope with requirements of independent living (household operation activities, housing consumption adjustments, health-related activities). Found that those lacking financial resources and informal supports were less likely to cope with independent living requirements and that families carried major burden…