Pilot Projects
Our Center is proud to support its members with pilot funding and other resources to facilitate their scholarly inquiry.
Mapping Care Transitions Among Long Term Services and Supports Recipients
Team: Mary Naylor (PI), Mark Toles, Karen Hirschman, Alexandra Hanlon
For many adults, older age is accompanied by significant changes in health and function. As these changes occur, health care providers and families often enroll older adults in programs to support their health and preserve their independence. Approximately 6 million older adults in the U.S. receive these services each year in a range of settings, including home and community based services, assisted living facilities and nursing homes. In this study, the team will examine the care transitions of approximately 470 LTSS recipients, describing their care transitions and create “transition maps” for each patient over 2 years. Describing and mapping care transitions among newly enrolled LTSS recipients over time will allow for identification of potentially modifiable risk factors which can be leveraged to improve care for LTSS recipients. With this new knowledge, the team is positioned to help develop tailored health services for older adults.
Incorporating Neighborhood Assessments in Transitional Care
Team: Karen Hirschman (PI), William Satariano, Irene Yen, Marlon Maus, Katy Abbott, Mary Naylor
The goal of this project is to assess the feasibility of generating and incorporating a neighborhood assessment module into an evidence based transitional care intervention for at-risk older adults and family caregivers—the Transitional Care Model. Most environmental assessments following transition from hospital to home focuses on the immediate home environment only. This presents an opportunity to strengthen the community construct for older adults retaining independence in their home and potentially reduce 30-day hospital readmissions. In partnership with UC Berkeley, the study team will examine, identify and define the application of these assessments for older adults served in the community.
Acceptability of Technology by Caregivers of Adults with Heart Failure
PI: Barbara Riegel
Surprisingly, there is little research on informal caregivers of adults with heart failure. However, recent studies have identified high stress as a cause for disrupted sleep, depression, poor health-related quality of life (HRQL) and low self-care in these caregivers. Interventions that improve the ability to deal with the stress of caregiving have been shown to improve sleep, depression, HRQL, and self-care. One challenge of intervening with caregivers is that most are confined to the home because of their caregiving duties.
Quality of Life in Long-Term Care Feasibility Study
Co-PIs: Katherine Abbott and Marylou Guihan
The project focused on identifying post-discharge transitions of care for Veterans, who were discharged home with supportive services or sent to other long-term (LTC) care settings. The goal of obtaining this information was to aid future exploration of LTC patient identification, and to identify the most efficient methods of recruitment, as well as effective means for locating Veterans in the community post-discharge.
Co-Morbidity Patterns of Elders with Cancer Receiving Long Term Services and Supports
PI: Janet Can Cleave
The study team conducted a secondary analysis of data from the “Health Related Quality of Life: Elders in Long Term Care” {R01AG025524, National Institutes of Health} study, a longitudinal, self-report/observational study of elders newly enrolled in long term care. A preliminary analysis of the relationship between health care utilization and number of chronic conditions in the three months prior to enrollment from a subset of 263 study participants living in nursing homes and assisted living facilities demonstrated the complexity of this population as well as the impact of comorbidities on healthcare utilization. This study represents a unique opportunity to generate new knowledge regarding healthcare utilization of older adults with multiple chronic conditions and to identify new strategies to optimize care for this growing population.
Diuretics, Diet and Fluid Adherence in Relation to Hospital Readmission in Heart Failure Patients
PI: Barbara Riegel
The ultimate goal of this study is to describe how patterns of diuretic usage and sodium/fluid intake interact to predict readmission in recently discharged heart failure (HF) patients. Sorting out how diuretic adherence and sodium/fluid intake interact (in the early days following transition from hospital to home) and identifying the characteristics of patients in each of the identified patterns, will clarify a primary mechanism for early readmission and provide direction for future intervention research.
Let Us Join Our Voices: A Qualitative Exploration of Singing in Frail, Urban, Community-Dwelling Older Adults
Team: Darina Petrovsky (PI), Justine Sefcik, Pamela Cacchione
Little is known about the perceived benefits of group singing or what facilitates prolonged group signing participation in frail older adults in the community. The study team will explore the perceived benefits of group singing in frail, urban, community-dwelling older adults. Ultimately, the results from this study will inform the public about the benefits of group singing in older adults with comorbidities, add to our understanding of how older adults with complex health needs perceive music participation as well as contribute to future studies investigating group singing as a potential health maintenance strategy as older adults experience transitions in health status.
Older Adults and Their Perspective on Chronic Conditions
Co-PIs: Gail Towsley and Salimah Meghani
Unfortunately, knowledge in the conceptualization, measurement and research domains of co-morbidity are underdeveloped, confusing, and inefficient in creating informative models for policy and practice. The first purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to describe how patients talk about, understand, and function based on their health status. Thirty semi-structured interviews will be conducted with community based older adults from Penn Nursing’s LIFE program. Findings from this study will inform future research and guide the development of better measurement of chronic conditions. Lastly, it will help inform the policy makers and clinicians, who make decisions for patients on their behalf.
Exploring perceptions of dementia and the culturally appropriate services in Asian communities
PI: Dexia Kong
Certain cultural beliefs in Asian communities prevent older Asian immigrants with dementia and their family caregivers from seeking care. In addition, the strong stigma associated with dementia in the Asian community results in delayed diagnosis and treatment. Since early diagnosis and timely interventions are significant in treatment of dementia, elimination of stigma represents an urgent issue to improve accessing/providing care for persons with dementia in the Asian community. Ultimately, findings of the study will facilitate improved clinical communication and health outcomes for older Asian immigrants with dementia.