Katarina Wilhelmson

Introduction: Research has shown that older people experienced mental and physical health issues due to isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, more in-depth knowledge is needed regarding the consequences for frail older people. Aim: To explore frail older people’s experiences of managing everyday life in quarantine during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. Material and Methods: Twenty people were interviewed, and the data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: The people experienced powerlessness under the restrictions and limitations in everyday life beyond control. To cope with these experiences, they accepted and trusted the restrictions and strived for meaningfulness in everyday life. Conclusions: Frail older people experienced managing everyday life in double exposure during the pandemic, where personal vulnerabilities and external restrictions intersected, limiting their ability to adapt and maintain autonomy in everyday life. Supporting meaningful routines and enabling participation are therefore central, underscoring the important role of occupational therapy in mitigating the impact of disrupted everyday life. Significance: These findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the needs of frail older people. This approach is essential to sustaining leisure activities, fostering social connections, and promoting health and well-being during future disruptive events.

Background: Today’s acute hospital care is poorly adapted to the complex needs of frail older people. This exposes them to avoidable risks, such as loss of functional capacities, leading to unnecessary health and social care needs. Being frail and in need of acute hospital care often leads to higher dependence in Activities of Daily Living (ADL), especially if one’s needs are not acknowledged. Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) is one way to meet frail older people’s complex needs. The study’s aim was to investigate the effects on frail older people’s ADL 12 months after receiving CGA. Methods: This is a two-armed randomised controlled intervention study. Participants were frail older people (75+) who sought the emergency department and needed admission to a medical ward. The intervention was CGA performed at a geriatric management unit during the hospital stay. The CGA included comprehensive assessment of medical, functional, psychological, social, and environmental status as well as treatment, rehabilitation, discharge planning, and follow-up. Multidisciplinary teamwork and a person-centred approach were used. The control was care at an ordinary medical hospital ward. The primary outcome was change in dependence in ADL from 2 weeks before admission to the 12-month follow-up. Results: At admission, 155 people participated (77 in the control, 78 in the intervention). At the 12-month follow-up, 78 participated (40 in the control, 38 in the intervention). Attrition was mainly due to mortality. Four participants in the control (5.2%) and twelve in the intervention group (15.4%) had improved in their ADL 1 year after discharge (OR = 3.32; 95% CI = 1.02–10.79). Conclusions: In-hospital CGA performed at a geriatric management unit improves frail older people’s ADL. Being less dependent in ADL increases frail older people’s ability to remain in their own housing, which is important for both the individual and society. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02773914. Retrospectively registered 16 May 2016.

Aims: This study aimed to examine the multimorbidity as well as the 30-day and 1-year readmission rates in a large, unselected cohort of elderly patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Methods and Results: All patients ≥70 years hospitalized due to ACS during January 1, 2006, to December 31, 2013, and registered in the SWEDEHEART registry were included. In-hospital multimorbidity and disease burden were determined. Outcomes included 30-day and 1-year all-cause mortality, any readmission, and readmissions due to ACS, heart failure, ischaemic stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA), and bleeding events. Out of 80,176 patients, 25.6% had ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and 74.4% non-ST-segment elevation ACS (NSTE-ACS). The mean age was 79.8 (±6.4 standard deviation) and 43.4% were women. Multimorbidity, or two chronic diseases, was present in 67.7%, thereof in 53.0% of STEMI patients and 72.7% of NSTE-ACS patients. In-hospital mortality was 7.0%. Of the 74,577 patients who survived to discharge, 24.6% were readmitted within 30 days and 59.5% were readmitted during the following year. Multimorbid patients had a higher risk of readmissions than those without multimorbidity. Multimorbid STEMI patients were admitted the following year in 56.2% of cases compared to 44.5% of STEMI patients without multimorbidity, adjusted odds ratio (OR) 1.35 (95% confidence interval: 1.26–1.45). Multimorbid patients with NSTE-ACS were readmitted in 63.4% of cases the following year compared with 49.1% of those without multimorbidity, adjusted OR 1.42 (1.35–1.50). More than half of the readmissions were due to cardiovascular causes (ACS, stroke, TIA, or heart failure) or bleeding events. Conclusions: Older people with ACS have a high multimorbidity burden and a high readmission rate both within 30 days and 1 year. Half of the readmissions were due to a cardiovascular event or a bleeding event. The presence of multimorbidity increases the risk of readmissions for patients with ACS. As hospital admissions are costly for the health care system and can include risks, especially for older patients, there may be opportunities in better risk stratifying this group at discharge for subsequent decrease in readmission rates.

Background: The comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) designed to manage frail older people requiring acute medical care, is responsible for diagnostics, assessment, treatment, and planning while addressing a person’s medical, psychological, social, and functional capabilities. The aim was to investigate if CGA had an impact on frail older people’s activities of daily living (ADL) status, self-rated health, and satisfaction with hospital care. Methods: A two-armed design with frail people aged 75 or older who required an unplanned hospital admission were randomized to either the CGA ward or to an acute medical ward. Analyses were made based on the intention-to-treat principle (ITT). The primary outcome was ADL. Data were analyzed using Chi-square and odds ratio. A subgroup analysis was performed due to non-adherence and contamination. Results: One-hundred and fifty-five people participated in the study; 78 in the intervention and 77 in the control. Participants in the intervention group had a higher odds ratio of reporting having received written information and felt that care met their needs during their hospital stay. No additional statistically significant results for the primary or secondary outcomes in the ITT analysis were achieved. Conclusion: Participants felt that the care they received with the CGA ward met their needs. The lack of additional results supporting the CGA could be due to difficulties performing pragmatic intervention trials in clinical hospital settings, and because a CGA during one hospital stay is probably not enough to have long-term effects.

The aim of the study is to evaluate the effects of the Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) for frail older people in Swedish acute hospital settings – the CGA-Swed study. In this study protocol, we present the study design, the intervention and the outcome measures as well as the baseline characteristics of the study participants. The study is a randomised controlled trial with an intervention group receiving the CGA and a control group receiving medical assessment without the CGA. Follow-ups were conducted after 1, 6 and 12 months, with dependence in activities of daily living (ADL) as the primary outcome measure. The study group consisted of frail older people (75 years and older) in need of acute medical hospital care. The study design, randomisation and process evaluation carried out were intended to ensure the quality of the study. Baseline data show that the randomisation was successful and that the sample included frail older people with high dependence in ADL and with a high comorbidity. The CGA contributed to early recognition of frail older people’s needs and ensured a care plan and follow-up. This study is expected to show positive effects on frail older people’s dependence in ADL, life satisfaction and satisfaction with health and social care.

Comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) practices multidimensional, interdisciplinary, and diagnostic processes as a means to identify care needs, plan care, and improve outcomes of frail older people. Conventional content analysis was used to analyze frail older people’s experiences of receiving CGA. Through a secondary analysis, interviews and transcripts were revisited in an attempt to discover the meaning behind the participants’ implied, ambiguous, and verbalized thoughts that were not illuminated in the primary study. Feeling “respected as a person” is the phenomenon participants described on a CGA acute geriatric ward, achieved by having a reciprocal relationship with the ward staff, enabling their participation in decisions when engaged in communication and understanding. However, when a person was too ill to participate, then care was person-supportive care. CGA, when delivered by staff practicing person-centered care, can keep the frail older person in focus despite them being a patient. If a person-centered care approach does not work because the person is too ill, then person-supportive care is delivered. However, when staff and/or organizational practices do not implement a person-centered care approach, this can hinder patients feeling “respected as a person”.

Open Access Journal of Gerontology & Geriatric Medicine is a specialty that focuses on health care of elderly people. It aims to promote health by preventing and treating diseases and disabilities in older adults and the disease related to studying physical

Health-promoting interventions tailored to support older persons to remain in their homes, so-called “ageing in place” is important for supporting or improving their health. The health-promoting programme “Elderly Persons in the Risk Zone,” (EPRZ) was set up for this purpose and has shown positive results for maintaining independence in activities of daily living for older persons 80 years and above at 1- and 2 year follow-ups. The aim of this study was to explore factors for maintaining independence in the EPRZ health-promoting programme. Total of 459 participants in the original trial was included in the analysis; 345 in the programme arm and 114 in the control arm. Thirteen variables, including demographic, health, and programme-specific indicators, were chosen as predictors for independence of activities of daily living. Logistic regression was performed separately for participants in the health promotion programme and in the control arm. In the programme arm, being younger, living alone and self-rated lack of tiredness in performing mobility activities predicted a positive effect of independence in activities of daily living at 1-year follow-up (odds ratio [OR] 1.18, 1.73, 3.02) and 2-year, (OR 1.13, 2.01, 2.02). In the control arm, being less frail was the only predictor at 1-year follow up (OR 1.6 1.09, 2.4); no variables predicted the outcome at the 2-year follow-up. Older persons living alone — as a risk of ill health — should be especially recognized and offered an opportunity to participate in health-promoting programmes such as “Elderly Persons in the Risk Zone”. Further, screening for subjective frailty could form an advantageous guiding principle to target the right population when deciding to whom health-promoting intervention should be offered. The original clinical trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov. Identifier: NCT00877058 , April 6, 2009.

The identification of frail older persons in different health care settings is widely seen as an important step in improving the healthcare system. Screening at an emergency department (ED) should be handled in just a few minutes without the use of tests or measurements. The FRESH-screening was developed for this purpose. This study’s aim was to evaluate the FRESH-screening and its construct validity; also assessed were the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values for frailty screening. The study had a cross-sectional design. A total of 161 elderly people who sought care at the emergency department at Mölndal Hospital were included. Inclusion criteria were ages ≥80 years or ages 65–79 with at least one chronic disease and dependence in at least one daily living activity. Sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values were calculated to describe the accuracy of the FRESH-screening in identifying those with frailty, as assessed by eight frailty indicators. Sensitivity and specificity were both set at a minimum of 80 %, and a percentage sum ≥150 of the sensitivity and positive prediction was considered a measure of excellent value. Both sensitivity and specificity were high (81 % and 80 %, respectively) when comparing the four questions of the FRESH-screening against the eight frailty indicators. The percentage sum of sensitivity and positive prediction was 173 (81 % + 92 %), thus exceeding the 150 cutoff. This study shows the FRESH-screening to be of excellent clinical value. Additionally, the clinical experience is that the instrument is simple and rapid to use, takes only a few minutes to administer, and requires minimal energy input by older persons.

This longitudinal study aimed to examine the pattern of alcohol consumption (using the AUDIT-C) among the oldest old (80+) and how it changed two years later. Five hundred seventy-six persons from the Gothenburg metropolitan area were interviewed between 2008 and 2011. Men represented a higher proportion of at-risk consumers (21.8%) than women (14.5%), but there was no sex difference in binge drinking (13.8% versus 12%). Men decreased their weekly consumption and also the proportion of binge drinking, and women decreased only in binge drinking. Further studies of the causality between alcohol consumption and health are suggested.