Turner, SG., Robinson, JRM., Pillemer, KA, and RM Cary. 2024. ‘Pain Limits Family Caregivers’ Daily Activities.” Lerner Center Population Health Research Brief Series. Research Brief #109. Accessed at: https://surface.syr.edu/lerner/240 Vaitsiakhovich, N., Landes, SD., Swenor BK. (2024). Are We Accurately Counting the Disabled Population in the United States? Lerner Center Population Health Research Brief Series. Research Brief #110. Accessed […]
Turner, SG., Robinson, JRM., Pillemer, KA, and RM Cary. 2024. ‘Pain Limits Family Caregivers’ Daily Activities.” Lerner Center Population Health Research Brief Series. Research Brief #109. Accessed at: https://surface.syr.edu/lerner/240
Vaitsiakhovich, N., Landes, SD., Swenor BK. (2024). Are We Accurately Counting the Disabled Population in the United States? Lerner Center Population Health Research Brief Series. Research Brief #110. Accessed at: https://surface.syr.edu/lerner/241/
CAPRA’s latest newsletter introduces a new cohort of five pilot awardees whose research spans a broad spectrum of population-based Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) research and touches on important and diverse topics that will benefit and contribute to the ADRD research community.
The issue also features some important ADRD disparities-focused research from one of our first CAPRA Pilot Awardees, Toni Coe, and highlights a few interesting articles that the CAPRA leadership are reading.
Pinka Chatterji (CAPS – University at Albany) & Yu Lie found that at first, the COVID19 pandemic drastically reduced outpatient care seeking. Ambulatory visits then rebounded and plateaued in the 3rd quarter of 2020.
Pinka Chatterji and Yu Lie (2021). Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Outpatient Providers in the United States. Medical Care, 59(1): 58-61.
Abstract:
Background:
During the COVID-19 pandemic, there is concern that social distancing, fear of contagion, quarantining of providers, cancellation of elective procedures, media coverage about the pandemic, and other factors drastically reduced physician visits, putting severe financial strain on outpatient providers, and having unknown ramifications for health outcomes.
Objectives:
We estimate the effect of the pandemic on utilization of outpatient services.
Research Design:
Using 2010–2020 data from a national dataset, the Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network, we estimate the difference in outpatient care utilization during the time period of the COVID-19 pandemic versus the same weeks in prior years.
Results:
Our findings indicate that the pandemic started to reduce visits during the week of March 15–21. The effect on visits grew until reaching a peak during the week of April 5–11, 2020, when the pandemic reduced the total number of outpatient visits per provider by 70% relative to the same week in prior years. We find negative effects of the pandemic on visits for non-flu symptoms as well as on visits for flu symptoms, but the magnitudes of these latter effects tended to be larger in magnitude. The pandemic’s impact declined over time, and by the week of June 28 to July 4, 2020, there was no longer any difference in total visits per provider relative to the same week in prior years. Despite the resurgence of COVID-19 in June and July, we still find no effects on total visits when our data end in July 26 to August 1, 2020.
Conclusions:
Our findings show that one by-product of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is a large decline in the use of outpatient care which peaked around the week of April 5–11. Total outpatient visits rebounded completely and remain stable as of July 26 to August 1, 2020.
Analyzing changes in the prevalence of probable dementia, 2011-2015, Vicki Freedman, Judith Kasper, Brenda Spillman, and Brenda Plassman find declines of 1.4% to 2.6% per year, which are concentrated among women, non-Hispanic white and black groups, and those with no vascular conditions or risk factors. These declines in are largely attributable to age- and education-related shifts in population composition.
Physical and cognitive abilities of older workers decline with age, which can cause a mismatch between abilities and job demands, potentially leading to early retirement. We link longitudinal Health and Retirement Study data to O*NET occupational characteristics to estimate to what extent changes in workers’ physical and cognitive resources change their work-limiting health problems, mental health, subjective probabilities of retirement, and labor market status. While we find that physical and cognitive decline strongly predict all outcomes, only the interaction between large-muscle resources and job demands is statistically significant, implying a strong mismatch at older ages in jobs requiring large-muscle strength. The effects of declines in fine motor skills and cognition are not statistically different across differing occupational job demands.
“We describe a novel and collaborative approach used to develop the first geriatric training fellowship in Ghana. Faculty from the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons and the University of Michigan worked together to develop a rigorous and evidence-based geriatrics curriculum, based on US standards but adapted to be appropriate for the cultural, economic, educational, and social norms in Ghana. This approach led to a strong training model for care of older adults while also strengthening the ongoing collaboration between the two partner universities in Ghana and the United States.”
Which country has the oldest population depends on how you measure ‘old.’ Eileen M. Crimmins of the University of Southern California finds biological evidence that Americans appear to be aging more slowly than they were two decades ago. Decelerating aging and postponing age-related disease and disability can improve individual quality of life and have profound economic implications.
However, a University of Washington study finds that a 30-year gap separates countries with the highest and lowest ages at which people experience the health problems of an average 65-year-old, reports Nicholas Kassebaum, Joseph Dieleman, and colleagues.