Associations between Cognitive Function, Hospitalizations and Costs in Nursing Homes: A Cross-sectional Study.

In an Australian nursing home population, associations between cognitive function and 12-month hospitalizations and costs were examined. Participants with dementia had 57% fewer hospitalizations compared to those without dementia, with 41% lower mean hospitalization costs; poorer cognition scores were also associated with fewer hospitalizations. The cost per admission for those with dementia was 33% greater due to longer hospital stays (5.5 days versus 3.1 days for no dementia, p = .05). People with dementia were most frequently hospitalized for fractures. These findings have policy implications for increasing investment in accurate and timely diagnosis of dementia and fall and fracture prevention strategies to further reduce associated hospitalization costs.

Thoracic aortic aneurysm and atrial fibrillation: clinical associations with the risk of stroke from a global federated health network analysis.

BACKGROUND: An association with aortic aneurysm has been reported among patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). The aims of this study were to investigate the prevalence of thoracic aorta aneurysm (TAA) among patients with AF and to assess whether the co-presence of TAA is associated with a higher risk of adverse clinical outcomes. METHODS AND RESULTS: Using TriNetX, a global federated health research network of anonymised electronic medical records, all adult patients with AF, were categorised into two groups based on the presence of AF and TAA or AF alone. Between 1 January 2017 and 1 January 2019, 874,212 people aged ≥ 18 years with AF were identified. Of these 17,806 (2.04%) had a TAA. After propensity score matching (PSM), 17,805 patients were included in each of the two cohorts. During the 3 years of follow-up, 3079 (17.3%) AF patients with TAA and 2772 (15.6%) patients with AF alone, developed an ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA). The risk of ischemic stroke/TIA was significantly higher in patients with AF and TAA (HR 1.09, 95% CI 1.04-1.15; log-rank p value < 0.001) The risk of major bleeding was higher in patients with AF and TAA (OR 1.07, 95% CI 1.01-1.14), but not significant in time-dependent analysis (HR 1.04, 95% CI 0.98-1.10; log-rank p value = 0.187), CONCLUSION: This retrospective analysis reports a clinical concomitance of the two medical conditions, and shows in a PSM analysis an increased risk of ischemic events in patients affected by TAA and AF compared to AF alone.