[Report] Hospitalizations for Patients Aged 85 and Over in the United States, 2000–2010

Hospitalizations for Patients Aged 85 and Over in the United States, 2000–2010 

From the January 2015 NCHS Data Brief (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Key findings Data from the National Hospital Discharge Survey

• In 2010, adults aged 85 and over accounted for only 2% of the U.S. population but 9% of hospital discharges.
• From 2000 through 2010, the rate of hospitalizations for adults aged 85 and over declined from 605 to 553 hospitalizations per 1,000 population, a 9% decrease.
• The rate of fractures and other injuries was higher for adults aged 85 and over (51 per 1,000 population) than for adults aged 65–74 (9 per 1,000 population) and 75–84 (23 per 1,000 population).
• Adults aged 85 and over were less likely than those aged 65–74 and 75–84 to be discharged home and more likely to die in the hospital.

From 2000 through 2010, the number of adults aged 85 and over in the United States rose 31%, from 4.2 million to 5.5 million, and in 2010, this age group represented almost 14% of the population aged 65 and over (1). It is estimated that by 2050, more than 21% of adults over age 65 will be aged 85 and over (2). Given this increase, adults aged 85 and over are likely to account for an increasing share of hospital utilization and costs in the coming years (3). This report describes hospitalizations for adults aged 85 and over with comparisons to adults aged 65–74 and 75–84.

What percentage of hospital care was provided to adults aged 85 and over?

• In 2000, adults aged 85 and over accounted for only 2% of the U.S. population but 8% of hospital discharges. In 2010, adults aged 85 and over still accounted for 2% of the U.S. population but accounted for 9% of hospital discharges (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Population, discharges, and days of care, by age: United States, 2000 and 2010

NOTE: Population is the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population.
SOURCE: CDC/NCHS, National Hospital Discharge Survey, 2000–2010.

• In 2000 and 2010, adults aged 85 and over accounted for 12% and 14%, respectively, of those aged 65 and over. However, adults aged 85 and over accounted for more than 20% of hospital discharges for those aged 65 and over for both years.
• Adults aged 85 and over accounted for a disproportionate share of the total days of care, 10% in 2000 and 11% in 2010.

 

Figure 2. Hospitalizations, by age: United States, 2000–2010

¹Rate of hospitalization exceeds the rate for younger age groups for every year from 2000 through 2010 (p < 0.05).
SOURCE: CDC/NCHS, National Hospital Discharge Survey, 2000–2010.

• From 2000 through 2010, the hospitalization rate for adults aged 85 and over remained significantly higher than the rates for adults under age 65, aged 65–74, and aged 75–84.
• In 2010, the hospitalization rate for adults aged 85 and over (553 per 1,000 population) was more than five times higher than the rate for adults under 65 (80 per 1,000 population).

 

What were common causes of hospitalization for adults aged 85 and over?

• In 2010, congestive heart failure (43 per 1,000 population) was the most frequent first-listed diagnosis for adults aged 85 and over, but in 2000 and 2005, pneumonia (51 and 52 per 1,000 population, respectively) was the most common first-listed diagnosis for adults aged 85 and over (Table).
• Hospitalization rates for congestive heart failure, pneumonia, stroke, and hip fracture decreased from 2000 through 2010 for adults aged 85 and over, and the rates for urinary tract infections and septicemia increased from 2000 through 2010.

 

Table. Common causes of hospitalization for adults aged 85 and over: United States, 2010

First-listed diagnosis	2000	2005	2010	Percent change1 (2000 to 2010)
	Rate of hospitalization per 1,000 population
Congestive heart failure	48	47	43	–9.5
Pneumonia	51	52	34	–32.8
Urinary tract infection	19	24	30	+55.9
Septicemia	15	18	28	+84.8
Stroke	37	27	28	–25.0
Hip fracture	28	23	21	–25.4

¹Percent change for each diagnosis is significant from 2000 through 2010 (p < 0.05).
NOTE: First-listed diagnosis is considered to be the main cause or reason for the hospitalization. The diagnoses were chosen because they were the top six first-listed diagnoses in 2010.
SOURCE: CDC/NCHS, National Hospital Discharge Survey, 2000–2010.

How likely were adults aged 85 and over to be hospitalized for injury?

• The rate of all injuries for adults aged 85 and over (51 per 1,000 population) was higher than the rates for adults aged 65–74 and 75–84 (9 and 23 per 1,000 population, respectively) (Figure 3).
• The rate of hip fractures for adults aged 85 and over (21 per 1,000 population) was higher than the rates for adults aged 65–74 and 75–84 (2 and 8 per 1,000 population, respectively).
• The rate of other fractures for adults aged 85 and over (18 per 1,000 population) was higher than the rates for adults aged 65–74 and 75–84 (4 and 10 per 1,000 population, respectively).
• The rate of other injuries for adults aged 85 and over (12 per 1,000 population) was higher than the rates for adults aged 65–74 and 75–84 (3 and 6 per 1,000 population, respectively).

 

 

More at  http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db182.htm

 

[News article] 3-D printing to the rescue of gastronomy for frail seniors — ScienceDaily

 

 

3-D printing to the rescue of gastronomy for frail seniors — ScienceDaily.

Excerpt

Date: December 4, 2014

Source: youris.com

Summary: Researchers are now developing personalised food for elderly people with chewing or swallowing problems, by working on printable versions of meat and vegetables.

[News article] Web-savvy older adults who regularly indulge in culture may better retain ‘health literacy’ — ScienceDaily

Web-savvy older adults who regularly indulge in culture may better retain ‘health literacy’ — ScienceDaily.

From the news article

Date:November 25, 2014

Source:BMJ-British Medical Journal

Summary:Older people who are active Internet users and who regularly indulge in a spot of culture may be better able to retain their health literacy, and therefore maintain good health, suggests research.

…

There was a link between age and declining health literacy, and being non-white, having relatively low wealth, few educational qualifications, and difficulties carrying out routine activities of daily living.

Poorer memory and executive function scores at the start of the study were also linked to greater health literacy decline over the subsequent six years.

Around 40% of the entire sample said they never used the internet or email, while one in three (32%) said they did so regularly. Similar proportions said they had consistently engaged in civic (35%) and/or leisure (31%) activities over the six year follow-up period.

Almost four out of 10 (39%) said they had regularly engaged in cultural activities, such as going to the cinema, theatre, galleries, concerts or the opera, during this time.

Across all time points, internet use and engagement in civic, leisure, or cultural activities were lower among those whose health literacy declined.

After taking account of influential factors, only the links between regular internet use and engaging in cultural activities remained statistically significant.

But each factor appeared to exert an additive effect, and a combination of all four seemed to afford the best protection against health literacy decline, a finding that was independent of any tailing off in cognitive function.

This is an observational study so no definitive conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect.

,,,

[Reblog] A Workplace Counters Ageism – National Institutes of Health

Just had to repost this. Last week at the Area Office on Aging (where I volunteer 6 hours or so a week), one of my clients was a 70 year old woman.  She voiced much of what the woman below said, including feeling unwelcome.  And this after 30+ years with the company!   Maybe all workplaces should have time to read and discuss the article below…Multigenerational Teams Work best.

Thank you Marti Weston, thank you.

 

From the 13 November 2013 post by Marti Weston at As Our Parents Age

Last Thursday, on the Washington DC Metro, a woman sitting in front of me spoke to a seat mate about ageism, a term first coined by Dr. Robert Butler, the first director of the National Institute of Aging (NIA).

As I eavesdropped, the woman on the Metro spoke about comments from younger colleagues, the tendency of some to roll their eyes when she speaks, and remarks about her retirement, still about five years away if she waits until she is 65. “I feel so unwelcome,” she commented,” that sometimes I make jokes about my own retirement just to counteract what I hear.”

Yet as the conversation went on — my apologies for listening in — it was clear that this woman loved her job and was engaged in her work. Lots of people in their late 50s and 60’s can identify with this situation.

So I read with interest the November 10, 2013, Washington Post article, In an Era Plagued by Ageism, NIH Prizes Older Workers. Written by Post reporter Tara Bahrampour, the report details how the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has created a work environment that accepts — and even celebrates — its older and veteran staff members. The article also includes a link to the AARP 2013 list of best employers for people over age 50.

A Few Interesting Excerpts

• This year, NIH topped AARP’s list of best employers for workers over 50, based on criteria including career development opportunities, workplace accommodations, flexible scheduling, job sharing and other employee benefits.
• NIH offers perks with particular appeal for older employees, including flexible work schedules, generous telecommuting policies, opportunities to mentor younger workers and fitness programs geared for older bodies.
• The benefits were not part of a master plan but rather something that evolved, said Phil Lenowitz, deputy director of NIH’s office of human resources.
• A big draw for scientists such as Waldmann is the ability to view a project in terms of decades, rather than years.

Read the entire article to learn much more.

A Few More Links Where You Can Learn About Ageism

• Dr. Robert Butler, Founding Director of the National Institute on Aging – July 2010, AsOurParentsAge
• Multigenerational Teams Work Best –  June 2011, AsOurParentsAge
  As summed up by Marti –
  Two broad reasons that a variety of age groups work together well and produce better results are:
  • Every generation has its blind spots so the different ages and perspective help to avoid problems and compensate for them.
  • Each generation can shine based on individuals’ experience.
• Ageism in Action –  September 2013, Huffington Post,
• Readers Offer Tales of Silicon Valley Ageism –  August 2013, SF Gate (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Ageism and Millennials – Part I and Part II – Dr. Bill Thomas’ Changing Aging blog
• Ageism in America – 2006, A PDF of a comprehensive report published by Dr. Robert Butler and the International Longevity Center (also founded by Dr. Butler).

Related articles

• Raising Awareness about Ageism through Art ! (sharingconnection.wordpress.com)
• Ageism in the Workplace: A Growing Issue (mtannler.wordpress.com)
• Ageism: the Silent Killer (veteranstoday.com)
• Why the Tech Industry Needs to Deal With Its Ageism Problem (simplicity.laserfiche.com)
• Tapping into the Creative Potential of our Elders (3quarksdaily.com)
• Why Old Age Is Really Not For Sissies (agelessmarketing.typepad.com)
• Ageism: Its Effect On Seniors (awalker20099.wordpress.com)

 

[Repost] Tip-of-the-tongue moments may be benign

The 2011 Association for Psychological Science convention, which featured a Wikipedia booth with information about the APS Wikipedia Initiative and the Wikipedia Ambassador Program (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

From the 16 October 2013 EurekAlert

 

Despite the common fear that those annoying tip-of-the-tongue moments are signals of age-related memory decline, the two phenomena appear to be independent, according to findings published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Anecdotal evidence has suggested that tip-of-the-tongue experiences occur more frequently as people get older, but the relationship between these cognitive stumbles and actual memory problems remained unclear, according to psychological scientist and lead author Timothy Salthouse of the University of Virginia:

“We wondered whether these self-reports are valid and, if they are, do they truly indicate age-related failures of the type of memory used in the diagnosis of dementia?”

To find out, Salthouse and Arielle Mandell — an undergraduate researcher who was working on her senior thesis — were able to elicit tip-of-the-tongue moments in the laboratory by asking over 700 participants ranging in age from 18 to 99 to give the names of famous places, common nouns, or famous people based on brief descriptions or pictures.

Throughout the study, participants indicated which answers they knew, which they didn’t, and which made them have a tip-of-the-tongue experience.

Several descriptions were particularly likely to induce a tip-of-the-tongue moment, such as: “What is the name of the building where one can view images of celestial bodies on the inner surface of a dome?” and “What is the name of the large waterfall in Zambia that is one of the Seven Wonders of the World?” Of the pictures of the politicians and celebrities, Joe Lieberman and Ben Stiller were most likely to induce a tip-of-the-tongue moment.

Overall, older participants experienced more of these frustrating moments than did their younger counterparts, confirming previous self-report data. But, after the researchers accounted for various factors including participants’ general knowledge, they found no association between frequency of tip-of-the-tongue moments and participants’ performance on the types of memory tests often used in the detection of dementia.

“Even though increased age is associated with lower levels of episodic memory and with more frequent tip-of-the-tongue experiences…the two phenomena seem to be largely independent of one another,” write Salthouse and Mandell, indicating that these frustrating occurrences by themselves should not be considered a sign of impending dementia.

 

###

 

For more information about this study, please contact: Timothy A. Salthouse at salthouse@virginia.edu.

This research was supported by the National Institute on Aging and a Harrison Undergraduate Research Award from the University of Virginia.

The article abstract can be found online: http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/10/08/0956797613495881.abstract?patientinform-links=yes&legid=sppss;0956797613495881v1

The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article “Do Age-Related Increases in Tip-of-the-Tongue Experiences Signify Episodic Memory Impairments?” and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Anna Mikulak at 202-293-9300 or amikulak@psychologicalscience.org.

 

 

Related articles

 

• Brief Memory Test ‘Ages’ Older Adults (psychologicalscience.org)

 

[Reblog] Understanding Eyes as We Age

[Reblog] from the December 7, 2012 post at As Our Parents Age –Timely Topics for Adult Children

 

I’ve written several posts about eye medical care (post on cataracts – posts on detached retinas). Sometime soon I will share a bit more about my experience with cataract surgery — mine occurred several weeks ago.

Recently I discovered a terrific eye education resource. If you are trying to make sense of the medical health of your eyes or the eyes of an aging parent, get started by educating yourself about the structure of an eye. Check out this wonderful Eye Anatomy Tour, posted over at the Cleveland Clinic website.

Because most of my doctors offer explanations during fairly short appointments, I am not always able to absorb everything. My physicians usually explain things clearly and mostly in an unrushed manner, but I cannot always remember everything that I need (or want) to know.

The nice thing about this animated eye tour is that it can be run over and over — always a useful feature but especially so if an adult child is  explaining an eye condition to an aging parent. When you watch the tour you can also use the Dictionary of Eye Terms, linked from the same web page.

Related articles

• Understanding Eyes as We Age (asourparentsage.net)
• Medicine Today: Cataract surgery benefits more than eyes (chronicle.augusta.com)
• Secondary cataracts or clouding of lens (purpleborough.wordpress.com)
• How are your (previously cataracted) lens replacements? (ask.metafilter.com)
• Seeing Is Believing With Cataract Surgery (sacbee.com)
• Laser used for surgery on cataracts (nzherald.co.nz)

 

American Geriatrics Society Updated Beers Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Adults

Tablets and Patches of Clonidine, Comprimés et patch transdermique de clonidine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From the  April 2012 Full Text Report summary (with link to report)

Potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) continue to be prescribed and used as first-line treatment for the most vulnerable of older adults, despite evidence of poor outcomes from the use of PIMs in older adults. PIMs now form an integral part of policy and practice and are incorporated into several quality measures. The specific aim of this project was to update the previous Beers Criteria using a comprehensive, systematic review and grading of the evidence on drug-related problems and adverse drug events (ADEs) in older adults. This was accomplished through the support of The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and the work of an interdisciplinary panel of 11 experts in geriatric care and pharmacotherapy who applied a modi- fied Delphi method to the systematic review and grading to reach consensus on the updated 2012 AGS Beers Criteria. Fifty-three medications or medication classes encompass the final updated Criteria, which are divided into three categories: potentially inappropriate medications and classes to avoid in older adults, potentially inappropriate medications and classes to avoid in older adults with certain diseases and syndromes that the drugs listed can exacerbate, and finally medications to be used with caution in older adults. This update has much strength, including the use of an evidence-based approach using the Institute of Medicine standards and the development of a partnership to regularly update the Criteria. Thoughtful application of the Criteria will allow for (a) closer monitoring of drug use, (b) application of real-time e-prescribing and interventions to decrease ADEs in older adults, and (c) better patient outcomes.

Related articles

• Dozens of common medications identified as risky for the elderly (foxnews.com)
• Blame it on the Medication (uw20sciencemediaandculture.wordpress.com)
• The New Old Age Blog: Fistfuls of Pills (newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com)
• New AGS Beers Criteria Updated for 2012! (jajsamos.wordpress.com)

Why Do More People Die During Economic Expansions?

St Annes Nursing Home (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From the April 2012 brief at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College

The brief’s key findings are:

• When economic times are good, deaths in the United States increase.

• Previous research suggests that a likely culprit is poorer health habits tied to greater job demands.

• However, the increase in mortality is largely driven by deaths among elderly women in nursing homes.

• These nursing home deaths may reflect increased shortages of caregivers during economic expansions.

Related articles

• Death Rates Higher In Nursing Homes During Good Economy (nursingassistants.net)