News Briefs – JANUARY 2024
Visiting Older Adults Increases Life Expectancy
A United Kingdom study published in BMC Medicine reviewed data from over 450,000 profiles in the UK Biobank cohort linked to mortality registers. The participants had been recruited between 2006 and 2010 and had a mean age of 56.5 years; 13 years later, 33,135 of them had died. The study examined social connections and mortality, looking at one’s frequency of ability to confide in someone close, feelings of loneliness, frequency of visits from loved ones, weekly group activities, and living alone. El Pais reporting on the study states that older people who received frequent visits from family and friends had a 39% lower chance of dying within the study’s time frame. Outcomes from the study suggest that interventions can be developed to target isolated populations with policies that address social interactions.
AI Scores for Palliative Care
According to a recent article in Bloomberg and a piece in Becker’s Health It, New Jersey’s largest health care system, Hackensack Meridian, is using artificial intelligence in palliative care decision-making. The program created an “AI-powered model that can give patients a score and help clinicians intervene during palliative care.” According to the hospital CIO, Kash Patel, this scoring system allows end-of-life conversations and early interventions to take place sooner. According to the Becker’s article, the health system is also creating algorithms for safety events, early delirium intervention, and capacity planning based on what clinicians see from the bedside.
Long COVID Mortality Rates Tracked
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last month that 3,544 deaths occurred from symptoms related to long COVID from January 2020 through the end of June 2022, and a KFF article states that 4,600 people have died from long COVID since the start of the pandemic. These deaths are affecting primarily older adults who had a history of severe COVID-19 illness. The CDC study findings show that 28.8% of adults between the ages of 75 and 84 years accounted for the highest percentage of long COVID deaths, followed by adults 85 years and older (28.1%) and adults 65 to 74 years old (21.5%). The highest number of deaths with long COVID occurred in February 2022. The majority of long COVID deaths (78.5%) occurred among non-Hispanic White people.
