"Falls prevention among older people and care providers: protocol for an integrative review".

AIM: To review the evidence about the role of care providers in fall prevention in older adults aged ≥ 65 years, this includes their views, strategies, and approaches on falls prevention and effectiveness of nursing interventions. BACKGROUND: Some fall prevention programmes are successfully implemented and led by nurses and it is acknowledged the vital role they play in developing plans for fall prevention. Nevertheless, there has not been a systematic review of the literature that describes this role and care providers' views on fall's prevention initiatives. DESIGN: A convergent synthesis of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods studies. The eligibility criteria will be based on participants, interventions/exposure, comparisons, and outcomes for quantitative studies and on population, the phenomena of interest and the context, for qualitative studies. To extract data and assess study qualities members of the research team will work in pairs according to their expertise. The review will follow the guidelines for integrative reviews and the proposed methods will adhere to the PRISMA statement checklist complemented by the ENTREQ framework. As qualitative synthesis are emergent, all procedures and changes in procedure will be documented. DISCUSSION: The review has a constructivist drive as studies that combine methods ought to be paradigmatic driven. Review questions are broad to allow issues emerge and have purposefully left the design flexible to allow for adjustments as the review progresses. The review seeks to highlight the roles that care providers play in fall prevention and their views on fall's prevention initiatives.

Pilot study of a preventive multicomponent nurse intervention to reduce the incidence and severity of delirium in hospitalized older adults: MID-Nurse-P.

BACKGROUND: Although multicomponent interventions are the gold standard for delirium management, few nurse-led interventions in Acute Geriatric Units (AGU) are described. OBJECTIVES: To analyze if a preventive multicomponent non-pharmacologic nurse-led intervention randomized clinical trial (MID-Nurse Study) is feasible (pilot study), and can reduce the incidence, duration, and severity of delirium in hospitalized older adults in an AGU. DESIGN: Parallel-group double-blind randomized clinical trial (pilot Study). SETTING: AGU Complejo Hospitalario Universitario, Albacete (Spain). PARTICIPANTS: 50 patients ≥65 years hospitalized in the AGU. Intervention group (IG) 21, control group (CG) 29. INTERVENTION: After risk factor analysis, all participants in the IG received a daily multicomponent non-pharmacologic intervention (orientation, sensorial deficit, sleep, mobilization, hydration, nutrition, drug chart review, elimination, oxygenation, pain) by the intervention nurses. The CG received usual care. MEASUREMENTS: Daily delirium presence with the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM), and severity with the Delirium Rating Scale-Revised-98 (DRS). Outcome measures were delirium incidence, prevalence, severity, and number of days with delirium, mortality, length of stay, use of physical restraint measures, and use of drugs for delirium control. RESULTS: Mean age 86.5 (48% women). 21 participants presented delirium during hospitalization (14CG and 7 IG). Process, resources, management, and scientific objectives were considered positive, making the study feasible. Delirium prevalence (33.3% vs 48.3%) and incidence (14.3% vs 41.4%; p=0.039) were reduced in the IG compared to CG. Total delirium severity was lower in the IG compared to the CG (35.0 vs 65.0; p=0.040). Mortality was not different between groups (CG 17.2% vs IG 19.0%). CONCLUSION: The MID-Nurse Study is feasible, and a multicomponent nurse-led intervention on patients with delirium in an AGU can reduce delirium prevalence, incidence, and severity. The clinical trial registration number ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02558777.

Frailty in INstitutionalized older adults from ALbacete. The FINAL Study: rationale, design, methodology, prevalence and attributes.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about frailty in institutionalized older adults, and there are few longitudinal studies on this topic. OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence and attributes of frailty in institutionalized Spanish older adults. DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis of basal data of a concurrent cohort study. SETTING: Two nursing homes, Vasco Núñez de Balboa and Paseo de la Cuba, in Albacete, Spain. PARTICIPANTS: 331 institutionalized adults older than 65 years. MEASUREMENTS: Frailty was defined by the presence of 3 or more Fried criteria and prefrailty by the presence of 1 or 2: unintentional weight loss, low energy, exhaustion, slowness, and low physical activity. Covariables were sociodemographic, anthropometric, functional, cognitive, affective and of comorbidity. Hospitalization, emergency visits and falls in the 6 previous months was recorded. Differences between non-frail and prefrail as one group and frail participants were analyzed using χ(2) tests, t-Student and logistic regression. RESULTS: Mean age 84.1 (SD 6.7), with 209 (65.1%) women. 68.8% were frail, 28.4% pre-frail, 2.8% non-frail, and in 2.2% three criteria were not available to determine frailty status. Women were more frequently frail than men (77.1% vs. 22.9%; p<0.001), and frail participants were older (85.1 vs. 82.3; p<0.001) than non-frail ones. Female sex (OR 2.7 95%CI 1.2-6.2), Barthel index (OR 2.2 95%CI 1.2-4.4), depression risk (OR 2.2 95%CI 1.0-4.9) and Short Physical Performance Battery scores (0.7 95%CI 0.6-0.8) were independently associated with frailty status. Frailty had a non-significant association with hospitalization (OR 1.9 95%CI 0.8-4.5) and emergency visits (OR 1.5 95%CI 0.7-3.2) in the previous 6 months. CONCLUSION: In a cohort of institutionalized older adults the prevalence of frailty was 68.8% and was associated with adverse health geriatric outcomes.

Frailty and mortality or incident disability in institutionalized older adults: the FINAL study.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about frailty in institutionalized older adults, and there are few longitudinal studies on this topic. OBJECTIVES: To determine the association between frailty and mortality or incident disability in basic activities of daily living (BADL) in institutionalized Spanish older adults. DESIGN: Concurrent cohort study. SETTING: Two nursing homes, Vasco Núñez de Balboa and Paseo de la Cuba, in Albacete, Spain. PARTICIPANTS: Of the 324 institutionalized adults older than 65 years enrolled at baseline, 21 (5.5%) were lost during the one-year follow-up. Of the 303 remaining, 63 (20.8%) died, 91 (30.0%) developed incident disability, and 140 (49.2%) were free of both events. 16 participants were not suitable for analysis due to incomplete data. MEASUREMENTS: Frailty was defined by the presence of three or more Fried criteria: unintentional weight loss, low energy, exhaustion, slowness, and low physical activity. Incident disability in BADL was considered when new onset disability in bathing, grooming, toileting, dressing, eating or transferring was detected with the Barthel index. Logistic regression models were constructed adjusted for age, sex, body mass index (BMI), previous Barthel index and Minimental State Examination (MMSE), and high comorbidity (Charlson index ≥3). RESULTS: 287 participants with valid data. Mean age 84.2 (SD 6.8), with 187 (65.2%) women. 199 (69.3%) were frail, and 72 (25.1%) had high comorbidity. Mean BMI 27.6 (SD 5.2), Barthel index 53.4 (SD 37.1), and MMSE 14.2 (SD 9.7). At follow-up, 43 (21.6%) frail participants and 15 (17.0%) non-frail ones died. 73 (46.8%) frail participants and 16 (21.9%) non-frail ones developed incident disability in BADL (p<0.001). Frailty was associated with incident disability or mortality (OR 3.3; 95% CI 1.7-6.6) adjusted for all study covariables. CONCLUSION: In a cohort of institutionalized older adults, frailty was associated with mortality or incident disability in BADL.

[Frailty and dependence in Albacete (FRADEA study): reasoning, design and methodology]. / Fragilidad y dependencia en Albacete (estudio FRADEA): razonamiento, diseño y metodología.

OBJECTIVE: To obtain a cohort of subjects of equal to or greater than 70 years, representative of a Spanish urban population, to estimate the prevalence of frailty and follow it up over time to analyse associated factors. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A prospective, population-based cohort study. From a population of 18,137 elderly persons, a representative sample of 1172 was randomly stratified, of which 993 (84.7%) agreed to take part. The variables collected were; sociodemographic, comorbidity, functional (n=825), cognitive, affective and quality of life. On the patients who agreed, body composition was determined by bioimpedance analysis (n=557), basal metabolic rate by indirect calorimetry (n=450) and a blood sample was obtained for biomarkers (n=859). Frailty was defined by the presence of 3 or more Fried criteria: unintentional weight loss, low energy, exhaustion, slow walking, and low physical activity. The cohort will be followed up over time until the death of the subjects. RESULTS: Mean age 79.4 (SD 6.4) years, with 601 (60.5%) women. A total of 21.3% were institutionalised; 16.9% were frail, 48.5% pre-frail, 21.3% non-frail, and 12.8% did not have the 3 criteria to be able to determine their state, of which 9.5% had moderate-severe incapacity, which would increase the prevalence of frailty to 26.4%. CONCLUSIONS: A FRADEA cohort has been constructed, representative of an urban population in Spain. The prevalence of frailty in the cohort was 16.9%.