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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Problem behavior in the last year of life
— prevalence, risks and care receipt in older Americans | | Author(s) | Susan Bedford, David Melzer, Jack Guralnik |
| Journal title | Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, vol 49, no 5, May 2001 |
| Pages | pp 590-595 |
| Keywords | Behaviour disorders ; At risk ; Medical care ; Death ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | A retrospective analysis of data from the 1993 US National Mortality Followback Survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) found that, overall, 20% of decedents were reported as having any of the problem behaviours sometimes or often in the last year of life. Rates differed little by age at death or gender. Risks of having problem behaviours were higher for those with clinically diagnosed dementia, mental illness, alcohol abuse, and bronchitis or emphysema. A diagnosis of dementia had been made in 27% of those with behaviour problems. Nursing home or healthcare facilities were the usual residence of 32% of those with any behaviour problem, sometimes or often during their last year of life. Informants for decedents who had destroyed property or made violent threats were 2.3 times more likely to report that the subject had not received the care they had needed during the last year of life. Thus, problem behaviour is relatively common in the last year of life, and is not confined to nursing home residents or those with dementia. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-020115220 A |
| Classmark | EP: CA3: LK: CW: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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