Observational studyThe American journal of hospice & palliative care2018
Pneumonia in Nursing Home Patients With Advanced Dementia: Decisions, Intravenous Rehydration Therapy, and Discomfort.
Observational study in The American journal of hospice & palliative care, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Palliative Care in Advanced Dementia: Comparison of Strategies in Three Countries.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Trends in antibiotics use among long-term US nursing-home residents.Infection control and hospital epidemiology · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundComfort may be an appropriate goal in advanced dementia. Longitudinal studies on physician decision-making and discomfort assessed by direct observation are rare, and intravenous rehydration therapy is controversial.
methodsTo assess treatment decisions and discomfort in patients with advanced dementia and pneumonia and to compare by intravenous rehydration therapy, we used data from the observational multicenter Italian End of Life Observatory-Prospective Study On DEmentia patients Care. We analyzed 109 episodes of pneumonia, which involved decisions in 77 nursing home patients with Functional Assessment Staging Tool stage 7. We assessed decisions, decision-making, and treatments every fortnight. Trained observers assessed discomfort with the Discomfort Scale-Dementia Alzheimer Type (DS-DAT).
resultsMost decisions referred to treatment with antibiotics (90%; 98 of 109) and intravenous rehydration therapy (53%; 58 of 109), but hospitalization was rare (1%). Selecting decisions with antibiotics, with rehydration therapy, the prognosis was more frequently <15 days (34% vs 5% without rehydration therapy; P = .001), and a goal to reduce symptoms/suffering was more common (96% vs 74%; P = .005) while there was no difference in striving for life prolongation (a minority). With rehydration therapy, the decision was more often discussed with family rather than communicated only. Mean DS-DAT scores over time proximate to the first decision ranged between 9.2 and 10.5.
conclusionsItalian nursing home patients with advanced dementia and pneumonia frequently received invasive rehydration therapy in addition to antibiotics, however, mostly with a palliative intent. Discomfort was high overall and symptom relief may be improved. Relations between invasive rehydration therapy and discomfort need further study.
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