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The Effects of Dementia Care Co‐Management on Acute Care, Hospice, and Long‐Term Care Utilization

Posted on by Beth C

The Effects of Dementia Care Co‐Management on Acute Care, Hospice, and Long‐Term Care Utilization

June 23, 2020

This paper seeks to further explain the impact of nurse practitioner dementia care co-management on cost of care for fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare beneficiaries. The authors examine acute care utilization, long‐term care admissions, and hospice use of program enrollees as compared with persons with dementia not in the program using FFS and managed Medicare claims data. Read the full article at this link.

Language barriers can mean life or death in fight against coronavirus

Posted on by Beth C

Language barriers can mean life or death in fight against coronavirus

April 23, 2020

An opinion piece in “The Hill” about how language barriers affect the outcomes of COVID-19 cases, with non-native English speakers with no or limited proficiency in the language disproportionately affected by the pandemic and dying in disproportionate numbers. Read the full article at this link.

Continued bans on nursing home visitors are unhealthy and unethical

Posted on by Beth C

Continued bans on nursing home visitors are unhealthy and unethical

July 13, 2020

An opinion piece in the Washington Post calling for long-term care facilities to reconsider visitor bans. The authors argue that while banning visitors was a sensible early containment strategy, many family members are essential caregivers and care monitors for people living with dementia, making their visits vital for the wellbeing of residents. Read the full article at this link.

Advance Care Planning Video Intervention Among Long-Stay Nursing Home Residents

Posted on by Beth C

Advance Care Planning Video Intervention Among Long-Stay Nursing Home Residents

July 6, 2020

This paper reviews a study to test the effect of an Advance Care Planning video program on hospital transfers, burdensome treatments, and hospice enrollment among long-stay nursing home residents with and without advanced illness. Read the full article at this link.

A tutorial on sample size calculation for cluster randomised multiple-period parallel, cross-over and stepped-wedge trials using the Shiny CRT Calculator.

Posted on by Beth C

A tutorial on sample size calculation for cluster randomised multiple-period parallel, cross-over and stepped-wedge trials using the Shiny CRT Calculator

February 22, 2020

This paper provides a tutorial on sample size calculation for cluster randomized designs–with particular emphasis on designs with multiple periods of measurement–and provides a web-based tool to allow researchers to easily conduct these calculations. Read the full article at this link.

Substantial risks associated with few clusters in cluster randomized and stepped wedge designs

Posted on by Beth C

Substantial risks associated with few clusters in cluster randomized and stepped wedge designs

March 3, 2016

This paper addresses the implications and risks involved in the use of novel cluster randomized trial designs that aim to maximize the informational value from relatively few clusters, including increased probability of chance imbalances and type I and type II error, limited perceived or actual generalizability, and fewer options for statistical analysis. Read the full article at this link.

Reporting of stepped wedge cluster randomised trials: extension of the CONSORT 2010 statement with explanation and elaboration

Posted on by Beth C

Reporting of stepped wedge cluster randomised trials: extension of the CONSORT 2010 statement with explanation and elaboration

November 9, 2018

This report presents the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) extension for the stepped wedge cluster randomised trial (SW-CRT). The statement was developed to allow for the unique characteristics of this increasingly used study design, and the guideline was developed using a Delphi survey and consensus meeting and is informed by the CONSORT statements for individual and cluster randomised trials. Reporting items along with explanations and examples are provided. Read the full article at this link.

IMPACT Members provide resources to a new topic within Pepper Center’s GRASP statistical analysis resource

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

Members of the IMPACT Collaboratory Design and Statistics Core recently contributed to a curated list of statistical analysis programs for biostatisticians engaged in studies of human aging.

Heather Allore, PhD, and Joan Monin, PhD, MS and colleagues authored the Analyzing Dyad Data with Additional Clustering resource in GRASP, an online resource developed by the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Centers at Yale University, Duke University and Wake Forest University. The program provides a brief introduction and overview of approaches to dyadic analysis with references as well as two approaches to performing dyadic analysis when dyads are nested in a higher level of clustering, such as dyads participating in cluster-randomized clinical trials.

See the full list at this link.

Allore joins JAMAevidence podcast to discuss latent class analysis to identify hidden clinical phenotypes

Posted on by Sonya Sutton

Heather Allore, PhD, Core Leader for the IMPACT Design and Statistics Core, recently appeared on the JAMAevidence podcast to discuss latent class analysis to identify hidden clinical phenotypes. A latent variable is an unobserved variable that investigators don’t have a construct or measure for, but believe it exists and could impact outcomes. Dr. Allore uses frailty as an example of latent variables in the discussion.

The podcast was hosted by JAMA Statistical Editor Roger Lewis, MD, PHD and is a supplement to the JAMA Guide to Statistics and Methods.

Listen to the podcast at this link.