An examination of data from the 1982 National Long-Term Care Survey reveals that informal caregivers to the disabled elderly are predominantly female and that three-quarters of them live with the care recipient. The data suggest that caregivers as well as care recipients are a vulnerable group since one-third are over age 65, report incomes in the poor to near-poor category and describe t eir h...

CMS has had a continuing interest in exploring ways to incorporate frailty adjustment into the CMS Hierarchical Condition Categories (CMS-HCC) risk adjustment methodology for Medicare Advantage and other Medicare private organizations. In this article we present research results for Medicare risk adjustment of the frail elderly since the adoption of frailty adjustment for Program of All-Inclusi...

Background: Burns are one of the most devastating forms of trauma worldwide. In the elderly, flame and scald burns, or scalds alone, are the major causes of burns, occur at home, particularly in the kitchen and bathroom. Because elderly burned patients suffer from greater morbidity and mortality than younger patients with similar burn extents, preventing burns is paramount to continuing functio...

PURPOSE The purpose of the study was to understand better the clinical collaboration process among primary care physicians (PCPs), case managers (CMs), and geriatricians in integrated models of care. METHODS We conducted a qualitative study with semistructured interviews. A purposive sample of 35 PCPs, 7 CMs, and 4 geriatricians was selected in 2 integrated models of care for frail elderly pa...

BACKGROUND If brief and easy to use self report screening tools are available to identify frail elderly, this may avoid costs and unnecessary assessment of healthy people. This study investigates the predictive validity of three self-report instruments for identifying community-dwelling frail elderly. METHODS This is a prospective study with 1-year follow-up among community-dwelling elderly a...

PURPOSE Integrated care for the frail elderly and other populations with complex, chronic, disabling conditions has taken centre stage among policymakers, planners and providers in the United States and other countries. There is a growing belief that integrated care strategies offer the potential to improve service co-ordination, quality outcomes, and efficiency. Therefore, it is critical to ha...

OBJECTIVE To measure the prevalence in frail elderly people, their consequences and associated demographic factors. METHODS This was an epidemiological and cross-sectional study with a probabilistic sample composed of 240 elderly people (≥ 60 years) living in Ribeirão Preto, Sao Paulo state. Data were collected between November 2010 and February 2011, through a questionnaire that included soc...

BACKGROUND A major effort is underway to integrate primary and community care in Canada's western province of British Columbia and in Fraser Health, its largest health authority. Integrated care is a critical component of Fraser Health's planning, to meet the challenges of caring for a growing, elderly population that is presenting more complex and chronic medical conditions. DESCRIPTION OF I...

The 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine was formulated to prevent invasive infection in the elderly and other high-risk populations from the most prevalent Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes. However, the immunogenicity of all 23 vaccine polysaccharides has not been fully characterized in elderly adults. We previously reported that whereas the majority of elderly subjects had vigorous...