•Hearing loss and dementia often occur together and hearing loss may be an independent risk factor for subsequent dementia.•Several mechanisms may contribute to the association, including brain ...pathology but also social factors.•Hearing loss is linked to multiple physical and psychological comorbidities in persons with dementia.•Multiple barriers exist in both screening and treatment of hearing loss among people with dementia.•Extended clinical trials are needed to establish whether treating hearing loss is effective in the prevention of dementia.
Dementia and hearing loss are both common among older people. The co-occurrence of the two conditions increases complexities in all aspects of an individual’s care and management plan. There has been increasing research interest in the relationship between dementia and hearing loss in recent years. In this review we discuss the relationship between hearing loss and dementia, including hearing loss as a risk factor for dementia; the effects of dementia with hearing loss on affected persons’ quality of life and the care they receive; screening and available interventions; and opportunities for prevention. We also discuss dementia and hearing loss in the care home setting, as the majority of residents have either, or indeed both, dementia and/or hearing loss. Several mechanisms have been suggested for how hearing loss and dementia may be related but the evidence for how these may operate together is still unclear. Similarly, although it is to be hoped that the active identification and management of hearing problems may help to reduce the future development of cognitive impairment, evidence for this is still lacking.
Abstract Objectives This paper aims to systematically review observational studies that have analysed whether depressive symptoms in the community are associated with higher general hospital ...admissions, longer hospital stays and increased risk of re-admission. Methods We identified prospective studies that looked at depressive symptoms in the community as a risk factor for non-psychiatric general hospital admissions, length of stay or risk of re-admission. The search was carried out on MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library Database, and followed up with contact with authors and scanning of reference lists. Results Eleven studies fulfilled our inclusion and exclusion criteria, and all were deemed to be of moderate to high quality. Meta-analysis of seven studies with relevant data suggested that depressive symptoms may be a predictor of subsequent admission to a general hospital in unadjusted analyses (RR = 1.36, 95% CI: 1.28–1.44), but findings after adjustment for confounding variables were inconsistent. The narrative synthesis also reported depressive symptoms to be independently associated with longer length of stay, and higher re-admission risk. Conclusions Depressive symptoms are associated with a higher risk of hospitalisation, longer length of stay and a higher re-admission risk. Some of these associations may be mediated by other factors, and should be explored in more details.
Summary Background Findings from observational studies have suggested a delay in nursing home placement with dementia drug treatment, but findings from a previous randomised trial of patients with ...mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease showed no effect. We investigated the effects of continuation or discontinuation of donepezil and starting of memantine on subsequent nursing home placement in patients with moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's disease. Methods In the randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled Donepezil and Memantine in Moderate to Severe Alzheimer's Disease (DOMINO-AD) trial, community-living patients with moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's disease (who had been prescribed donepezil continuously for at least 3 months at a dose of 10 mg for at least the previous 6 weeks and had a score of between 5 and 13 on the Standardised Mini-Mental State Examination) were recruited from 15 secondary care memory centres in England and Scotland and randomly allocated to continue donepezil 10 mg per day without memantine, discontinue donepezil without memantine, discontinue donepezil and start memantine 20 mg per day, or continue donepezil 10 mg per day and start memantine 20 mg per day, for 52 weeks. After 52 weeks, choice of treatment was left to participants and their physicians. Place of residence was recorded during the first 52 weeks of the trial and then every 26 weeks for a further 3 years. A secondary outcome of the trial, reported in this study, was nursing home placement: an irreversible move from independent accommodation to a residential caring facility. Analyses restricted to risk of placement in the first year of follow-up after the patients had completed the double-blind phase of the trial were post-hoc. The DOMINO-AD trial is registered with the ISRCTN Registry, number ISRCTN49545035. Findings Between Feb 11, 2008, and March 5, 2010, 73 (25%) patients were randomly assigned to continue donepezil without memantine, 73 (25%) to discontinue donepezil without memantine, 76 (26%) to discontinue donepezil and start memantine, and 73 (25%) to continue donepezil and start memantine. 162 (55%) patients underwent nursing home placement within 4 years of randomisation, with similar numbers for all groups (36 49% in patients who continued donepezil without memantine, 42 58% who discontinued donepezil without memantine, 41 54% who discontinued donepezil and started memantine, and 43 59% who continued donepezil and started memantine). We noted significant (p=0·010) heterogeneity of treatment effect over time, with significantly more nursing home placements in the combined donepezil discontinuation groups during the first year (hazard ratio 2·09 95% CI 1·29–3·39) than in the combined donepezil continuation groups, and no difference during the next 3 years (0·89 0·58–1·35). We noted no effect of patients starting memantine compared with not starting memantine during the first year (0·92 0·58–1·45) or the next 3 years (1·23 0·81–1·87). Interpretation Withdrawal of donepezil in patients with moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's disease increased the risk of nursing home placement during 12 months of treatment, but made no difference during the following 3 years of follow-up. Decisions to stop or continue donepezil treatment should be informed by potential risks of withdrawal, even if the perceived benefits of continued treatment are not clear. Funding Medical Research Council and UK Alzheimer's Society.
It is important to investigate the needs, experiences, and outcomes of older forensic mental health inpatients. In this consensus document, we offer practitioners working with older forensic ...inpatients recommendations to meet the unique older-age-related needs of this group.
We report on the findings of a scoping review of service provision and age-responsive interventions for this population. We complement this with a review of qualitative studies investigating staff and patient views on age-responsive inpatient care.
The guidance synthesizes this evidence into sections on: epidemiological studies of demographic, clinical, and legal profiles; qualitative studies; investigations of patient need; evidence for interventions tailored to this patient group; future directions for research; and finally, recommendations for practice. Forensic patients over the age of 50 years have a different set of psychological and physical health needs from their peers. There is a dearth of dedicated interventions and support to assist patients through secure services and into the community.
We suggest service providers involve older patients in treatment and service organization decisions, adapt interventions to be responsive to this group, train staff to recognize physical vulnerabilities and cognitive decline, and embrace methods of communication developed in other areas of care, such as dementia Care.
There is a lack of research informing service requirements for older (aged≥55 years) forensic mental health patients. The aim of this research was to increase knowledge about older forensic mental ...health patients' quality of life, wellbeing, recovery, and progress, in order to make recommendations of how to facilitate and enhance these factors.
In-depth interviews with patients (N = 37) and staff (N = 48) were undertaken; data were analysed using thematic analysis.
Environmental (e.g., physical, structural and facilities), relational (staff, family and friends) and individual (characteristics, feelings, behaviours) factors were identified as enablers and/or obstacles to wellbeing, recovery, progress and quality of life.
The physical and psychological environment of services needs to be adapted to meet the needs of patients. Therapeutic relationships with staff should be encouraged and a person-centred and individual recovery approach adopted. Prosocial relationships with peers, friends and family need to be fostered to enable positive recovery outcomes. Older patients should be empowered to develop a sense of autonomy to enable quality of life, wellbeing, and recovery, and progress.
Aim
Although multiple COVID-19 vaccines are approved for global use, vaccine hesitancy poses a substantial risk for global health. Therefore, the aim of this umbrella review is to identify those ...factors that influence COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy in the general population. This is necessary to improve the effectiveness of future vaccination programmes.
Methods
PubMed, Embase, Scopus, PsycInfo, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Epistemonikos, and PROSPERO (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews) were searched on December 21, 2021. This review included reviews which investigated factors of intention, willingness, or hesitancy with regard to the COVID-19 vaccination in adult populations, with no restrictions on setting. Content-based structure was used to synthesise the extracted data. The findings were presented based on the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) Working Group Model for vaccine hesitancy.
Results
A total of 3,392 studies were identified, of which 31 met the inclusion criteria. The most frequently documented factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy included contextual factors, such as sex, age, and social inequalities; individual and group factors, such as trust in the healthcare system, public health authorities, and governments, and history of vaccination; vaccine-specific factors, such as concern for vaccine safety, perceived vaccine barriers, perceived effectiveness of vaccines, and concern about the rapid development of the vaccine; and disease-specific factors, such as fear of being infected with COVID-19, perceived severity of COVID-19, and knowledge of COVID-19.
Conclusion
There are multiple factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Our findings lay the foundation to further understand COVID-19 vaccination uptake and provide possible targets for intervention programmes. However, there are gaps in research concerning certain populations, including vaccination in people with mental disorders.
There have been fundamental shifts in the attitude towards, access to and nature of long term care in high income countries. The proportion and profile of the older population living in such settings ...varies according to social, cultural, and economic characteristics as well as governmental policies. Changes in the profiles of people in different settings are important for policy makers and care providers. Although details will differ, how change occurs across time is important to all, including lower and middle income countries developing policies themselves. Here change is examined across two decades in England.
Using the two Cognitive Function and Ageing Studies (CFAS I: 77% response, CFAS II: 56% response), two population based studies of older people carried out in the same areas conducted two decades apart, the study diagnosis of dementia using the Automated Geriatric Examination for Computer Assisted Taxonomy, health and wellbeing were examined, focusing on long term care. The proportion of individuals with three or more health conditions increased for everyone living in long term care between CFAS I (47.6%, 95% CI: 42.3-53.1) and CFAS II (62.7%, 95% CI: 54.8-70.0) and was consistently higher in those without dementia compared to those with dementia in both studies. Functional impairment measured by activities of daily living increased in assisted living facilities from 48% (95% CI: 44%-52%) to 67% (95% CI: 62%-71%).
Health profiles of residents in long term care have changed dramatically over time. Dementia prevalence and reporting multiple health conditions have increased. Receiving care in the community puts pressure on unpaid carers and formal services; these results have implications for policies about supporting people at home as well as for service provision within long term care including quality of care, health management, cost, and the development of a skilled, caring, and informed workforce.
Managing hearing communication for residents living with hearing loss and dementia in long-term care settings is challenging. This paper explores how care can be effective in optimising hearing ...communication for residents living with dementia. We argue that the underlying notion of permission or authorisation allows care staff to do what they know will be effective in providing person-centred care that enhances hearing communication. The paper also indicates that this notion of permission can usefully be applied to other areas of care home practice.
To address hearing-related communication in care homes, we conducted a realist synthesis (RS). As a theory-driven approach to reviewing literature, it also uses expert opinion to understand complex health situations. Using RS, we developed a theory surrounding the management of hearing-related communication in care homes. Applying formal processes to the literature search and data extraction, the analysis uncovered relevant mechanisms and contexts to help confirm, refute or refine our understanding of how hearing communication could be improved.
Forty-three papers were selected for the realist synthesis. The documents were analysed to construct five context-mechanism-outcome configurations (CMOCs). The CMOCs represent possible care interventions to optimise hearing-related communication in care homes for person living with dementia and hearing loss (PLWDHL). They include leadership promoting positive regard and empathy through person-centred care, communication training for staff, 'knowing the person' and relationship building for responsive awareness of residents' hearing needs, maintaining and monitoring hearing communication through care planning, and managing noise in the care home environment.
Leadership that provides appropriate training and resources is likely to enhance knowledge and skills, leading to staff feeling able and equipped to respond to the hearing-related communication needs of PLWDHL. Collaboration with local hearing services is likely to raise awareness of hearing loss among care home staff. Importantly, care staff require a sense of permission from leadership, to work with knowledge and autonomy in the interest of residents living with dementia and hearing loss.
Both hearing loss and dementia are extremely pervasive, especially amongst older adults. As hearing loss and dementia have common symptoms, misdiagnosis can be common, and failure to address hearing ...loss for people with dementia could accelerate cognitive decline. The timely detection of cognitive impairment is clinically important, however the use of cognitive assessments in adult audiology services is a hotly debated topic. Although the early detection of cognitive impairment may improve patient care and quality of life, patients attending audiology services for hearing assessment might not expect to be asked questions about their cognition. The aim of this study was to qualitatively explore patient and public perspectives and preferences on the use of cognitive screening within adult audiology services.
Quantitative and qualitative data were gathered from an online survey and a workshop. Descriptive statistics were applied to quantitative data and an inductive thematic analysis was performed on free-text responses.
In total, 90 respondents completed the online survey. Overall, cognitive screening in audiology was reported to be acceptable to participants (92%). A reflexive thematic analysis of the qualitative data reported four themes: i) knowledge of cognitive impairment and screening, ii) implementation of cognitive screening, iii) impact of screening on patient and iv) contributions to future care and research. A workshop was held with five participants to discuss and reflect on the findings in more detail.
Participants found cognitive screening to be acceptable within adult audiology services providing audiologists had suitable training, and sufficient explanation and justification were provided. However, implications such as additional time and staff resource and supplementary training for audiologists would be required to address participants concerns.
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