Group A Streptococcal Bacteremia following Streptococcal Pharyngitis in an Older Patient with Diabetes: A Case Report


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Group A streptococcus (GAS) is responsible for a wide range of both invasive and noninvasive infections. Severe invasive group A streptococcal infection is associated with morbidity and mortality and has been linked to chronic medical conditions with skin and soft tissues involvement, and intravenous drug use (IVDU). Invasive diseases are, however, rare and have been recognized to affect the extremes of age (younger than 10 years of age and older than 74). We report a case of Group A streptococcus bacteremia following pharyngitis in a 76-year-old diabetic male with no history of IVDU. This report's main goal is to illustrate that chronic illnesses such as diabetes and congestive heart failure might predispose elderly patients to invasive diseases such as Group A streptococcus bacteremia.

An Epidemiologic Study on Ageing and Dysphagia in the Acute Care Geriatric-Hospitalized Population: A Replication and Continuation Study.

United States census data project dramatic increases in the geriatric population ageing demographics by 2060 with concomitant health-care consequences. The purpose of this replication and continuation study was to collect new 2014 demographic data relative to ageing, swallow evaluation referral rates, and oral feeding status in geriatric-hospitalized patients for comparison with published data from 2000 to 2007. This was a planned data acquisition study of consecutive hospitalized patients referred for swallow assessments. Swallow evaluation referral rates for 2014 were described according to inpatient discharges, age range 60-105 years grouped by decade, gender, admitting diagnostic category, results of swallow evaluations, and oral feeding status. Determination of aspiration risk status was made with the Yale Swallow Protocol and diagnosis of dysphagia made with fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES). There were 1348 referrals and 961 patients ≥60 years of age participated. Overall swallow evaluation referral rates increased an average of 63 % between the comparison years 2007 and 2014 with consistent increases corresponding to the decades, i.e., 60-69 (46 %), 70-79 (68 %), 80-89 (53 %), and 90+ (222 %). A total of 75 % of participants resumed oral alimentation and oral medications. Swallow evaluation referral rates increased by 63 % for 60-90+ year-old acute care geriatric-hospitalized participants despite only a 23 % increase in inpatient discharges for the years 2007 versus 2014. This corroborated previously reported increases for individual years from 2000 to 2007. For timely, safe, and successful initiation of oral alimentation, it is important to perform a reliable swallow screen for aspiration risk assessment with the Yale Swallow Protocol and, if failed, instrumental testing with FEES. More dysphagia specialists are needed through 2060 and beyond due to projections of continued population ageing resulting in ever increasing referral rates for swallow assessments.

Associations of Social and Behavioral Determinants of Health Index with Self-Rated Health, Functional Limitations, and Health Services Use in Older Adults.

OBJECTIVES: To characterize the cumulative risk factors of social and behavioral determinants of health (SDoH) and examine their association with self-rated general health, functional limitations, and use of health services among US older adults. DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis of the 2013-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. SETTING: Nationally representative health interview survey in the United States. PARTICIPANTS: Survey respondents aged 65 or older (n = 1,306 unweighted). MEASUREMENTS: A cumulative risk score of SDoH, developed by the National Academy of Medicine expert panel, was assessed using validated measures. Outcome variables included self-rated general health, functional limitations (eg, activities of daily living), and use of health services (eg, usual source of care and overnight hospitalization). We quantified the cumulative risk score of SDoH in older adults and used multivariable-adjusted logistic and Poisson regression analyses to assess the association of SDoH with self-rated health, functional limitations, and use of health services, adjusting for other covariates. RESULTS: About 25.7% of older adults, representative of 11.0 million people nationwide, reported having three or more cumulative SDoH risk factors. These older adults were more likely to have functional limitations (eg, activities of daily living) and less likely to report their general health as "very good" or "excellent" than those with two or fewer cumulative SDoH risk factors (P < .001 for each). Each additional cumulative SDoH risk factor was associated with increased odds of not having a usual source of care (adjusted odds ratio = 1.57; 95% confidence interval = 1.09-2.27). CONCLUSION: The SDoH index score may be a useful tool to predict access to care and quality of care in older adults. J Am Geriatr Soc 68:1731-1738, 2020.

Access to Care for Older Adults: An Insurmountable Flight of Stairs?

Inability to climb stairs safely can lead older adults to miss desired medical appointments. To facilitate adequate access to routine medical care for older adults, affordable transportation assistance up and down stairs should be available. J Am Geriatr Soc 67:663-664, 2019.

Prognosis Reconsidered in Light of Ancient Insights-From Hippocrates to Modern Medicine.

Whereas modern clinicians are often reluctant to discuss prognosis with their patients, such discussions were central to medical practice in ancient Greece. A historical analysis has the potential to explain the reasons for this difference in prognostic practices and provide insights into overcoming current challenges. Many scholars consider prognosis to be the principal scientific achievement of the Hippocratic tradition. The earliest treatise on the subject, On Prognostics, defines prognosis broadly as "foreseeing and foretelling, by the side of the sick, the present, the past, and the future." This definition makes clear that prognosis is not simply about predicting the future, but also involves an appreciation for the continuity of past, present, and future as sequences of connected events, or trajectories, that can be pieced together into a comprehensive story of the patient's health. In modern medicine, prognosis has lagged behind diagnosis and treatment in its establishment as a central component of medical care. An important basis for understanding this lies in the paradigm change that occurred with the discovery of pathogens as agents of disease, shifting attention toward individual diseases and away from diseased individuals. With this shift, diagnostics and treatments advanced dramatically and prognosis fell to the background. More recent attempts to advance prognosis have focused on narrower uses of the term, such as estimates of life expectancy and mortality risk. However, physicians have expressed a number of reservations about the use of such estimates in the care of patients, and patients have indicated the desire for a wide variety of predictive information. Adopting the broadness of the Hippocratic definition may allow clinicians to overcome their hesitancy and provide much-needed information to their patients.

Cost-Related Medication Nonadherence Among Older Adults: Findings From a Nationally Representative Sample.

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the rate of and risk factors associated with cost-related medication nonadherence among older adults. DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis of the 2017 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). SETTING: Nationally representative health interview survey in the United States. PARTICIPANTS: Survey respondents, aged 65 years or older (n = 5701 unweighted) in the 2017 wave of the NHIS. MEASUREMENTS: Self-reported, cost-related medication nonadherence (due to cost: skip dose, reduce dose, or delay or not fill a prescription) and actions taken due to cost-related medication nonadherence (ask for lower-cost prescription, use alternative therapy, or buy medications from another country) were quantified. We used a series of multivariable logistic regression analyses to identify factors associated with cost-related medication nonadherence. We also reported analyses by chronic disease subgroups. RESULTS: In 2017, 408 (6.8%) of 5901 older adults, representative of 2.7 million older adults nationally, reported cost-related medication nonadherence. Among those with cost-related medication nonadherence, 44.2% asked a physician for lower-cost medications, 11.5% used alternative therapies, and 5.3% bought prescription drugs outside the United States to save money. Correlates independently associated with a higher likelihood of cost-related medication nonadherence included: younger age, female sex, lower socioeconomic levels (eg, low income and uninsured), mental distress, functional limitations, multimorbidities, and obesity (P < .05 for all). Similar patterns were found in subgroup analyses. CONCLUSION: Cost-related medication nonadherence among older adults is increasingly common, with several potentially modifiable risk factors identified. Interventions, such as medication therapy management, may be needed to reduce cost-related medication nonadherence in older adults. J Am Geriatr Soc 67:2463-2473, 2019.

Functional Outcomes After Hip Fracture in Independent Community-Dwelling Patients.

OBJECTIVES: To determine predictors of new activities of daily living (ADLs) disability and worsened mobility disability and secondarily increased daily care hours received, in previously independent hip fracture patients. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Academic hospital with ambulatory follow-up. PARTICIPANTS: Community-dwelling adults 65 years or older independent in ADLs undergoing hip fracture surgery in 2015 (n = 184). MEASUREMENTS: Baseline, 3- and 6-month ADLs, mobility, and daily care hours received were ascertained by telephone survey and chart review. Comorbidities, medications, and characteristics of hospitalization were extracted from patient charts. Models for each outcome used logistic regression with a backward elimination strategy, adjusting a priori for age, sex, and race. RESULTS: Predictors of new ADL disability at 3 months were dementia (odds ratio [OR] = 11.81; P = .001) and in-hospital delirium (OR = 4.20; P = .002), and at 6 months were age (OR = 1.04; P = .014), dementia (OR = 9.91; P = .001), in-hospital delirium (OR = 3.00; P = .031) and preadmission opiates (OR = 7.72; P = .003). Predictors of worsened mobility at 3 months were in-hospital delirium (OR = 4.48; P = .001) and number of medications (OR = 1.13; P = .003), and at 6 months were age (OR = 1.06; P = .001), preadmission opiates (OR = 7.23; P = .005), in-hospital delirium (OR = 3.10; P = .019), and number of medications (OR = 1.13; P = .013). Predictors of increased daily care hours received at 3 and 6 months were age (3 months: OR = 1.07; P = .014; 6 months: OR = 1.06; P = .017) and number of medications (3 months: OR = 1.13; P = .004; 6 months: OR = 1.22; P = .013). The proportion of patients with ADL disability and care hours received did not change from 3 to 6 months, yet there were significant improvements in mobility. CONCLUSION: Age, dementia, in-hospital delirium, number of medications, and preadmission opiate use were predictors of poor outcomes in independent older adults following hip fracture. Further investigation is needed to identify factors associated with improved mobility measures from 3 to 6 months to ultimately optimize recovery.

Everyday decision-making ability in older persons with cognitive impairment.

OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate the reliability and validity of the Assessment of Capacity for Everyday Decision-Making (ACED), an instrument to evaluate everyday decision-making. METHODS: The authors administered the ACED to 39 persons with very mild to moderate cognitive impairment and 13 cognitively intact caregivers. RESULTS: Intraclass correlation coefficients showed good reliability for the measures of understanding, appreciation and reasoning, and Cronbach's alpha coefficients were > or =0.84 for all three decision-making abilities. The ACED also had a moderate to strong correlation with the MacArthur Competency Assessment Tool for Treatment, a validated measure of decision-making capacity for medical treatment decisions, and measures of overall cognition. Associations with measures of executive function were mixed, with moderate correlations observed only with ACED understanding and reasoning performance. CONCLUSION: The ACED is a reliable and valid measure to assess decision-making capacity. It may serve as an important addition to current methods used to assess everyday decision-making.

Access to primary care for Medicare beneficiaries.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the acceptance rate of new Medicare patients by all primary care physicians. Among primary care physicians accepting new patients, to determine whether demographic and geographic factors are associated with the likelihood of accepting new Medicare patients. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: Primary care physicians drawn from a national sample. PARTICIPANTS: Eight hundred forty-eight primary care physicians. MEASUREMENTS: Percentage of physicians accepting, not accepting, or conditionally accepting new Medicare patients. RESULTS: Of the 848 primary care physicians contacted, only 58% unconditionally accepted all new Medicare patients; 20% accepted new patients but restricted new Medicare patients using policies of nonacceptance or conditional acceptance. Of the 665 physicians accepting new patients, those in the south and west were more likely not to accept new Medicare patients than those in the northeast, with multivariable odds ratios (ORs) of 2.79 (95% confidence interval (CI)=1.34-5.78) and 3.14 (95% CI=1.35-7.33), respectively. Similarly, family physicians were more likely than internists not to accept new Medicare patients (OR=2.36, 95% CI=1.39-3.99). Primary care physicians in the Midwest were more likely to conditionally accept new Medicare patients than those in the northeast (OR=4.84, 95% CI=1.32-17.76), and primary care physicians in metropolitan areas with a population less than 100,000 were more likely to conditionally accept new Medicare patients than those in areas with a population greater than 100,000 (OR=2.39, 95% CI=1.18-4.84). CONCLUSION: Medicare beneficiaries' access to primary care is limited and varies significantly by region, population size, and type of provider.

Who can stay at home? Assessing the capacity to choose to live in the community.

While the courts have final responsibility, physicians are often asked to evaluate the ability of an older individual to remain living alone in the community. A person's capacity to make this decision can be more difficult to assess than the capacity to make medical decisions. Unsafe actions alone do not restrict the choice of individuals. Inability to understand the implications of these actions may also limit this choice. Decision-making ability is not well measured by global tests of cognitive function. Deficits in executive function resulting in impaired insight, problem-solving ability, and goal-directed planning limit one's ability to make and carry out decisions. Unsafe actions and deficits in executive function, combined with the refusal to accept help from family and social agencies, may indicate that independent living in the community presents unacceptable risks.

Systematic review: Health-related characteristics of elderly hospitalized adults and nursing home residents associated with short-term mortality.

OBJECTIVES: To identify the domains of health-related characteristics of older hospitalized adults and nursing home residents most strongly associated with short-term mortality. DESIGN: Systematic review. SETTING: Studies published in English in MEDLINE, Scopus, or Web of Science before August 1, 2010. PARTICIPANTS: Prospective studies consisting of persons aged 65 and older that evaluated the association between at least one health-related participant characteristic and mortality within a year in multivariable analysis. MEASUREMENTS: All health-related characteristics associated with mortality in multivariable analysis were extracted and categorized into domains. The frequency, with all studies combined, with which particular domains were associated with mortality in multivariable analysis was determined. RESULTS: Thirty-three studies (28 in hospitalized individuals, five in nursing home residents) reported a large number of characteristics associated with mortality that could be categorized in seven domains: cognitive function, disease diagnosis, laboratory values, nutrition, physical function, pressure ulcers, and shortness of breath. Measures of physical function and nutrition were the domains most frequently associated with mortality up to 1 year from the time of evaluation for hospitalized individuals and nursing home residents; measures of physical function, cognitive function, and nutrition were the domains most frequently associated with in-hospital mortality for hospitalized individuals. CONCLUSION: Of a large number of health-related characteristics of older persons shown to be associated with short-term mortality, measures of nutrition, physical function, and cognitive function were the domains of health most frequently associated with mortality. These domains provide easily measurable factors that may serve as helpful markers for individuals at high mortality risk.

Development and Validation of the Emergency Department Geriatric Readmission Assessment at Yale (ED GRAY): Part 2, Prognostic Accuracy.

Objective: The Emergency Department (ED) Geriatric Readmission Assessment (ED-GRAY) is a 16-item questionnaire we developed that can be used to evaluate the prognostic ability to determine if geriatric patients will recidivate to the ED, be admitted or die within 30 days. Methods: We conducted an observational prospective cohort study at a single academic urban university-affiliated hospital. Subjects (n=250) were consenting, non-critically ill, English-speaking adults older than 65 years and receiving care in the ED. Multivariable logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to evaluate the ability to accurately predict the likelihood of a 30-day event: subsequent ED visit, hospitalization, or death. Results: 56 participants (22%) experienced at least one 30-day return visit or death. Greater disability as measured by the ED GRAY global disability was associated with an increased likelihood of an event (OR=1.7 for each 1-point worsening in severity; 95% CI 1.2, 2.5). In the multivariable model, prior ED visits (OR=2.7, 95% CI=1.4, 5.2), ED GRAY global score (OR=1.4, 95% CI=1.0, 2.1), and age (OR=1.03, 95% CI=0.99, 1.07) were associated with a greater likelihood of a 30-day event. The fit of the multivariable model was good (Hosmer-Lemeshow Goodness of Fit test, p=0.85) and it provided good discrimination between those having and not having a 30-day event (AUROC=0.70). The predicted probability of a return visit ranged from 3–56%. Conclusions: ED GRAY demonstrated good predictive validity when combined with prior ED visits, poly-pharmacy and age.

Development and Validation of the Emergency Department Geriatric Readmission Assessment at Yale (ED GRAY): Part 1, Fundamental Measurement.

Objective: Our primary objective was to develop a reliable, valid, and efficient screening tool that measures recovery disability among geriatric patients for the Department of Emergency Medicine (ED) Geriatric Readmission Assessments (GRAY). Methods: We conducted a retrospective medical chart review and prospective data analysis of geriatric patients admitted to hospital from the emergency department that were discharged, admitted, or died at a single academic urban university-affiliated hospital to identify items for ED GRAY. Rasch analysis was then used to reduce items and construct an interval/ratio scale of physical and cognitive disabilities. Patients consisted of a cohort of consenting, non-critically ill, English-speaking adults older than 65 years and receiving care in the ED to reduce the number of items. Results: Rasch analyses resulted in infit and outfit statistics that eliminated redundant items or items that did not fit a unidimensional disability construct. From the 158 original items, sixteen items comprise the ED GRAY global health questionnaire, representing five sub-constructs: physical disability, cognitive disability, stress, depression, and isolation. All infit and outfit statistics for the global recovery disability score ranging from 1 (least healthy) to 5 (most healthy) were consistent with forming a unidimensional scale. Conclusions: Our study resulted in an objective measurement tool of physical and cognitive disability using Rasch analyses. This screening tool allows healthcare providers the ability to screen older ED patients on a continuum of risk, with high-risk patients being most likely to benefit from in-depth evaluation—e.g., comprehensive geriatric assessment—followed by intervention (when necessary).