BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES
Many older adults wish to age in place, and voice‐controlled intelligent personal assistants (VIPAs; eg, Amazon Echo and Google Home) potentially could support unmet home needs. ...No prior studies have researched the real‐world use of VIPAs among older adults. We sought to explore how older adults and caregivers utilize VIPAs.
DESIGN/MEASUREMENT
Retrospective review of all verified purchase reviews of the Amazon Echo posted on Amazon.com between January 2015 and January 2018, with filtering for health‐related older adult key words. Open‐ended reviews were qualitatively analyzed to identify relevant themes.
RESULTS
On retrieval, there were 73 549 reviews; and with subsequent key word filtering, 125 total reviews were subsequently analyzed. Five major themes were identified: (1) entertainment (“For two very senior citizens…we have really had fun with Echo. She tells us jokes, answers questions, plays music.); (2) companionship (“A senior living alone…I now have Alex to talk to.”); (3) home control; (4) reminders (“I needed something that would provide me with information I couldn't remember well, such as the date, day, or my schedule…I highly recommend for anyone with memory challenges”); and (5) emergency communication. Several felt it reduced burdening caregivers. “…You also feel guilt from fear of overburdening your caregivers. Alexa has alleviated much of this.” Specifically, caregivers found that: “By making playlists of songs from her youth whoever is providing care, family or professional caregiver, can simply request the right song for the moment in order to sooth, redirect, or distract Mom.” Alternatively, negative reviewers felt the VIPA misunderstood them or could not adequately respond to specific health questions.
CONCLUSION
VIPAs are a low‐cost artificial intelligence that can support older adults in the home and potentially reduce caregiver burden. This study is the first to explore VIPA use among older adults, and further studies are needed to examine the direct benefits of VIPAs in supporting aging in place. J Am Geriatr Soc 68:176–179, 2019
Dissemination of cutting‐edge geriatrics‐focused research is essential for academic geriatrics researchers, clinicians, and older adults and their caregivers. Social media channels, such as Twitter, ...provide a means of quickly reaching a wide array of users, globally. Besides standard tweets with links to research articles, visual s are a means of delivering research results visually to end users succinctly. We compared the use of a standard tweet with a linked article with a tweet that held an added visual , for a recent Journal of the American Geriatrics Society article. While the standard tweet received 24 984 impressions with 17 retweets and 36 likes over 8 days, the visual inclusive tweet received 168 447 impressions with 81 retweets and 100 likes in 4 days. To assist researchers on future visual development, we provide a framework and real‐world guide on translation of research s into visual s. We hope that by providing evidence and the means to create visual s, researchers in geriatrics may be empowered to disseminate their research through this method and potentially advance the care of older adults worldwide.
See related editorial by Eric Widera et al. in this issue.
This prospective longitudinal study investigated the association between baseline objectively measured sedentary time and 2-year onset of physical frailty.
We studied 1333 Osteoarthritis Initiative ...participants 55 to 83 years of age who were at risk for physical frailty, as assessed via low gait speed (< 0.6 m per second) or inability to perform a single chair stand. Baseline sedentary time was assessed through accelerometer monitoring. Hazard ratios (HRs) for physical frailty onset were estimated with discrete survival methods that controlled for moderate physical activity, sociodemographic characteristics, baseline gait and chair stand functioning, and health factors.
The incidence of physical frailty in this high-risk group was 20.7 per 1000 person-years. Greater baseline sedentary time (adjusted HR = 1.36 per sedentary hour; 95% confidence interval CI = 1.02, 1.79) was significantly related to incident physical frailty after control for time spent in moderate-intensity activities and other covariates.
Our prospective data demonstrated a strong relationship between daily sedentary time and development of physical frailty distinct from insufficient moderate activity. Interventions that promote reductions in sedentary behaviors in addition to increases in physical activity may help decrease physical frailty onset.
BACKGROUND
Inadequate health literacy is prevalent among seniors and is associated with poor health outcomes. At hospital discharge, medications are frequently changed and patients are informed of ...these changes via their discharge instructions.
OBJECTIVES
Explore the association between health literacy and medication discrepancies 48 hours after hospital discharge and determine the causes of discharge medication discrepancies.
DESIGN
Face-to-face surveys assessing health literacy at hospital discharge using the short form of the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (sTOFHLA). We obtained the medication lists from the written discharge instructions. At 48 hrs post-discharge, we phoned subjects to assess their current medication regimen, any medication discrepancies, and the causes of the discrepancies.
PARTICIPANTS
Two hundred and fifty-four community-dwelling seniors ≥70 years, admitted to acute medicine services for >24 hours at an urban hospital.
RESULTS
Of 254 seniors mean age 79.3 yrs, 53.1% female, 142 (56%) had a medication discrepancy between their discharge instructions and their actual home medication use 48 hrs after discharge. Subjects with inadequate and marginal health literacy were significantly more likely to have unintentional non-adherence—meaning the subject did not understand how to take the medication inadequate health literacy 47.7% vs. marginal 31.8% vs. adequate 20.5% p = 0.002. Conversely, those with adequate health literacy were significantly more likely to have intentional non-adherence—meaning the subject understood the instructions but chose not to follow them as a reason for the medications discrepancy compared with marginal and inadequate health literacy adequate 73.3% vs. marginal 11.1% vs. inadequate 15.6%, p < 0.001. Another common cause of discrepancies was inaccurate discharge instructions (39.3%).
CONCLUSION
Seniors with adequate health literacy are more inclined to purposefully not adhere to their discharge instructions. Seniors with inadequate health literacy are more likely to err due to misunderstanding their discharge instructions. Together, these results may explain why previous studies have shown a lack of association between health literacy and overall medication discrepancies.
Social isolation has been associated with many adverse health outcomes in older adults. We describe a phone call outreach program in which health care professional student volunteers phoned older ...adults, living in long-term care facilities and the community, at risk of social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conversation topics were related to coping, including fears or insecurities, isolation, and sources of support; health; and personal topics such as family and friends, hobbies, and life experiences. Student volunteers felt the calls were impactful both for the students and for the seniors, and call recipients expressed appreciation for receiving the calls and for the physicians who referred them for a call. This phone outreach strategy is easily generalizable and can be adopted by medical schools to leverage students to connect to socially isolated seniors in numerous settings.
PDF
