According to Nurses.com, the CDC issued a new report on ER visits by people 65 and older, stating that 511 people per 1,000 in that age group visited an ER during the two-year period spanning 2009-10. Among people 85 and older, 832 per 1,000 visited an ER during the study period. The numbers of ER visits by nursing home residents…
A PharmaTimes story revealed that the stress associated with providing unpaid care for a sick or disabled adult is leading to a 29 percent greater use of anti-anxiety medicines among such caregivers, compared those who do not provide such care, according to research from pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) Express Scripts.. An estimated 42 million Americans serve as a caregiver to…
According to a report in Reuters, seniors with high blood sugar – but not high enough to be diabetic – face a slightly greater risk of developing dementia, according to a new study of over 2,000 volunteers. The research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that an average glucose reading of 105 to 120 milligrams per deciliter…
One of our primary responsibilities as home aides is to prevent loved ones from requiring hospitalization. Hospitalizations add great stress and discomfort to seniors, and now there is new evidence that the risk of infection rises when a senior requires hospitalization. In fact, roughly 45 percent of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are in patients older than 65, according to Thomas File,…
One-third of caregivers will deal with memory loss of a loved one By Richard Ueberfluss About 1 in 8 Americans at least 60 years old reported confusion or memory loss in the preceding 12 months, according to report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. This puts caregivers on the alert for early signs of dementia or Alzheimer’s…
