Geriatric Medicine News

SAN ANTONIO — The odds of inpatient mortality were nearly four times higher among geriatric adults than adults aged younger than 75 years who were admitted to a hospital primarily for inflammatory bowel disease, according to data presented at the American College of Gastroenterology Annual Meeting.

SAN ANTONIO — Older patients with Crohn’s disease were less likely to receive biologic agents and more than twice as likely to receive mesalamine compared with younger patients, according to data presented at the American College of Gastroenterology Annual Meeting.

Conservative estimates indicate that more than 100,000 U.S. Medicare recipients have undiagnosed dementia, according to published reports.

Clinicians may be able to distinguish between memory loss caused by traumatic brain injury, or TBI, vs. Alzheimer’s disease by using tailored MRI scans, according to study results published in Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

The estimated burden of the 2017-2018 influenza season was 48.8 million illnesses, 959,000 hospitalizations and 79,400 deaths, according to the CDC. To ensure that patients are protected throughout the influenza season, the timing of vaccination is critical.

Nonpharmacologic interventions, including massage and touch therapy, may be more effective than pharmacologic methods in reducing aggression and agitation in adults with dementia, according to findings published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

For older adults with dementia, three nonpharmacological interventions — chair yoga, music intervention and chair-based exercise — were safe and feasible, according to findings published in the American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease & Other Dementias. In addition, chair yoga and chair-based exercises improved quality of life in this population.

Impaired mobility during hospitalization for acute MI may be a risk factor for functional decline among older patients who survived the event, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

For older adults with multiple chronic conditions, an intervention program designed to align patient care with individual health goals may be associated with reductions in treatment burden and unwanted health care, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Older patients prescribed donepezil had a higher risk for hospital admission for rhabdomyolysis than patients prescribed rivastigmine or galantamine, according to a population-based cohort study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.