ArticleZeitschrift fur Gerontologie und Geriatrie2015
Type and course of symptoms demonstrated in the terminal and dying phases by people with dementia in nursing homes.
Article in Zeitschrift fur Gerontologie und Geriatrie, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic review of prevalence of pain among people with dementia living in the community.BMC neurology · 2026Pooled it
- A systematic review of prevalence of pain in nursing home residents with dementia.BMC geriatrics · 2023Pooled it
- Article
- Symptom- and function-based trajectories of patients with dementia in hospital and community palliative care settings in the last two weeks of life: a retrospective cohort study.BMC palliative care · 2024Article
- The Involvement of Caregivers in the End-of-life Care of an Older Adult Living in a Long-term Care Home: A Qualitative Case Study with Nurses and Relatives.The Canadian journal of nursing research = Revue canadienne de recherche en sciences infirmieres · 2024Article
- Noninvasive monitoring technologies to identify discomfort and distressing symptoms in persons with limited communication at the end of life: a scoping review.BMC palliative care · 2024Article
- Care dependency of patients and residents at the end of life: A secondary data analysis of data from a cross-sectional study in hospitals and geriatric institutions.Journal of clinical nursing · 2022Article
- Prevalence and persistent prescription of analgesic drugs in persons admitted with dementia to a nursing home - A longitudinal study.PloS one · 2022Article
- Cultural Adaptation and Validation of the Quality of Dying in Long-Term Care Scale (QoD-LTC) for Spanish Nursing Homes.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Prospective Evaluation of Intensity of Symptoms, Therapeutic Procedures and Treatment in Palliative Care Patients in Nursing Homes.Journal of clinical medicine · 2020Article
- Palliative Care Symptoms, Outcomes, and Interventions for Chronic Advanced Patients in Spanish Nursing Homes with and without Dementia.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Palliative Care in Advanced Dementia.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Review
- Opioid, antipsychotic and hypnotic use in end of life in long-term care facilities in six European countries: results of PACE.European journal of public health · 2019Article
- What enables good end of life care for people with dementia? A multi-method qualitative study with key stakeholders.BMC geriatrics · 2018Article
- Pain Intervention for people with Dementia in nursing homes (PID): study protocol for a quasi-experimental nurse intervention.BMC palliative care · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn all, 39 % of people living in Swiss nursing homes suffer from dementia. Detailed data about type and course of symptoms displayed by these patients in their terminal phase are lacking.
methodsThis descriptive, retrospective study analysed 65 nursing documents from deceased people with dementia in four nursing homes in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland.
resultsDifficulties with mobility (81 %), pain (71 %) and sleep disturbance (63 %) were the most frequent of the 10 identified symptoms. Towards the end of life, difficulties with mobility, sleep disturbance, agitation and other neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as episodes of depression, decreased (decrescent pattern), while pain, feeding problems, breathing abnormalities, apathy and anxiety increased (crescent pattern). Courses of pain were documented in 17 % of the nursing records. In addition, 76 % of the residents had been visited on a daily basis by next of kin in their last 7 days, compared with only one third of residents previously. Furthermore, daily communication between healthcare professionals and next of kin tripled during this period.
conclusionThe documented prevalence of a high and increasing level of pain towards the end of life, combined with the lack of documented courses of pain, shows potential for improvement in pain relief and pain identification for patients with dementia in their terminal phase. The increasing number of visits by next of kin and the increasingly intensive contact between healthcare professionals and next of kin in the last 7 days are a strong indicator that the end of life can be predicted relatively well by the involved participants and appropriate reactions follow.
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