Search

Purpose: Personal assistance care is a Medicaid benefit in New York, but few data are available on its prevalence and contribution to home care. We examined these issues in a New York City sample by assessing older adults' reports of weekly home care hours and Medicaid billing records. Design and Methods: With help from New York City's Human Resources Administration, we identified all respondents in an ongoing population-based survey of Medicare enrollees who were receiving Medicaid-reimbursed personal assistance care in 1996. Results: Of respondents in the sample, 10.3% (185 of 1,902 alive through 1996) had Medicaid claims for personal assistance care. The mean was 46.1 hr/ week for reported hours and 40.1 hr/week for administrative claims. Accuracy of reported hours was evident in a high correlation (r = .91; p < .001) between respondent reports and authorized claims, and a consistently high and mostly constant ratio of billed to reported hours across all categories of activities of daily living disability. Implications: In this urban, low income, and mostly minority sample, older adults' reports of weekly formal care hours were valid when matched against administrative records. Respondent reports of formal care hours were valid even in complex care situations.Key Words: Home care, Long-term care, Concordance, Administrative records, Epidemiology

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal). This article has been retracted at the request of Biological Psychiatry Editor John H. Krystal, M.D., with agreement from all authors except Chen Chen and Emily Valente. These two co-authors moved and, with no forwarding information that was available or could be found, they were therefore unable to be contacted. The authors have uncovered irregularities and deviations from the approved protocol related to the work reported in this article. Treatment with antidepressant medications within the past 28 days was an exclusion criterion: “Subjects were excluded for… current treatment or treatment within the past 4 weeks with psychotropic or other medications known to affect dopamine.” Individuals taking an ineffective antidepressant medication who otherwise met study criteria were to undergo a study-supervised medication taper to discontinue their medication for the required period prior to study participation. The published article does not describe that a subgroup of participants (15 out of the 47 consented subjects) enrolled in the study while taking an ineffective antidepressant medication. Of this subgroup, 10 individuals were successfully tapered off their medication and were among the 36 subjects contributing data to the analyses described. In addition, the authors have found that 8 participants did not complete the required 28-day washout prior to beginning the study. For these 8 participants, the medication-free period ranged from 1 to 21 days, with a mean of 10.1 days. Separately, an inclusion criterion was that eligible subjects “had Center for Epidemiologic Studies—Depression Rating scale score ≤ 10.” However, the authors have found that 3 ineligible participants were included, each of whom had depressive symptom scores 1 point out of range for eligibility. Lastly, the CONSORT diagram in Figure S1 states that 11 participants were lost to follow-up. However, this is incorrect. Instead, 9 participants were lost to follow up and 2 participants were screen failures. The authors voluntarily informed the Journal of these honest errors upon discovery. Because of the extent of these issues, the editors and authors concluded that the only course of action was to retract this paper. However, the authors are revising the paper, which the Journal will consider further for publication., (Copyright © 2019 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: While individuals live with dementia for many years, utilization and expenditures from disease onset through the end-of-life period have not been examined in ethnically diverse samples., Methods: We used a multiethnic, population-based, prospective study of cognitive aging (Washington Heights-Inwood Columbia Aging Project) linked to Medicare claims to examine total Medicare expenditures and health care utilization among individuals with clinically diagnosed incident dementia from disease onset to death., Results: High-intensity treatment (hospitalizations, life-sustaining procedures) was common and mean Medicare expenditures per year after diagnosis was $69,000. Non-Hispanic blacks exhibited higher spending relative to Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites 1 year after diagnosis. Non-Hispanic blacks had higher total (mean=$205,000) Medicare expenditures from diagnosis to death compared with non-Hispanic whites (mean=$118,000). Hispanics' total expenditures and utilization after diagnosis was similar to non-Hispanic whites despite living longer with dementia., Discussion: Health care spending for patients with dementia after diagnosis through the end-of-life is high and varies by ethnicity.

Objectives: To examine the association between physical activity (PA) and Alzheimer disease (AD) course., Background: PA has been related to lower risk for AD. Whether PA is associated with subsequent AD course has not been investigated., Methods: In a population-based study of individuals aged 65 years and older in New York who were prospectively followed up with standard neurologic and neuropsychological evaluations (every ~1.5 years), 357 participants i) were nondemented at baseline and ii) were diagnosed with AD during follow-up (incident AD). PA (sum of participation in a variety of physical activities, weighted by the type of activity [light, moderate, and severe]) obtained 2.4 (standard deviation [SD], 1.9) years before incidence was the main predictor of mortality in Cox models and of cognitive decline in generalized estimating equation models that were adjusted for age, gender, ethnicity, education, comorbidities, and duration between PA evaluation and dementia onset., Results: One hundred fifty incident AD cases (54%) died during the course of 5.2 (SD, 4.4) years of follow-up. When compared with incident AD cases who were physically inactive, those with some PA had lower mortality risk, whereas incident AD participants with much PA had an even lower risk. Additional adjustments for apolipoprotein genotype, smoking, comorbidity index, and cognitive performance did not change the associations. PA did not affect rates of cognitive or functional decline., Conclusion: Exercise may affect not only risk for AD but also subsequent disease duration: more PA is associated with prolonged survival in AD.

Objective: Cerebrovascular disease is 1 of the possible mechanisms of the previously reported relationship between Mediterranean-type diet (MeDi) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). We sought to investigate the association between MeDi and MRI infarcts., Methods: High-resolution structural MRI was collected on 707 elderly 65 years or older community residents of New York with available dietary assessments administered an average of 5.8 years (3.22 standard deviations [SDs]) before the MRI. Participants were divided into 3 groups of adherence to MeDi (low, middle, and high tertiles). We examined the association of increasing adherence to MeDi with presence of infarcts on MRI. Models were run without adjustment, adjusted for basic demographic and clinical factors, and adjusted for vascular risk factors., Results: A total of 222 participants had at least 1 infarct. In the unadjusted model, compared to the low adherence group, those in the moderate MeDi adherence group had a 22% reduced odds of having an infarct (odds ratio [OR], 0.78; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.55-1.14), while participants in the highest MeDi adherence group had a 36% reduced odds (OR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.42-0.97; p for trend = 0.04). In adjusted models, the association between MeDi adherence and MRI infarcts remained essentially unchanged. The association of high MeDi adherence with infarcts was comparable to that of hypertension (40% reduced probability), did not vary by infarct size or after excluding patients with dementia (n = 46) or clinical strokes (n = 86). There was no association between MeDi and white matter hyperintensities., Interpretation: Higher adherence to the MeDi is associated with reduced cerebrovascular disease burden., (Copyright © 2011 American Neurological Association.)

Objective: To assess the association between food combination and Alzheimer disease (AD) risk. Because foods are not consumed in isolation, dietary pattern (DP) analysis of food combination, taking into account the interactions among food components, may offer methodological advantages., Design: Prospective cohort study., Setting: Northern Manhattan, New York, New York., Patients or Other Participants: Two thousand one hundred forty-eight community-based elderly subjects (aged > or = 65 years) without dementia in New York provided dietary information and were prospectively evaluated with the same standardized neurological and neuropsychological measures approximately every 1.5 years. Using reduced rank regression, we calculated DPs based on their ability to explain variation in 7 potentially AD-related nutrients: saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids, omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, vitamin E, vitamin B(12), and folate. The associations of reduced rank regression-derived DPs with AD risk were then examined using a Cox proportional hazards model. Main Outcome Measure Incident AD risk., Results: Two hundred fifty-three subjects developed AD during a follow-up of 3.9 years. We identified a DP strongly associated with lower AD risk: compared with subjects in the lowest tertile of adherence to this pattern, the AD hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) for subjects in the highest DP tertile was 0.62 (0.43-0.89) after multivariable adjustment (P for trend = .01). This DP was characterized by higher intakes of salad dressing, nuts, fish, tomatoes, poultry, cruciferous vegetables, fruits, and dark and green leafy vegetables and a lower intake of high-fat dairy products, red meat, organ meat, and butter., Conclusion: Simultaneous consideration of previous knowledge regarding potentially AD-related nutrients and multiple food groups can aid in identifying food combinations that are associated with AD risk.

Background: We previously reported that the Mediterranean diet (MeDi) is related to lower risk for Alzheimer disease (AD). Whether MeDi is associated with subsequent AD course and outcomes has not been investigated., Objectives: To examine the association between MeDi and mortality in patients with AD., Methods: A total of 192 community-based individuals in New York who were diagnosed with AD were prospectively followed every 1.5 years. Adherence to the MeDi (0- to 9-point scale with higher scores indicating higher adherence) was the main predictor of mortality in Cox models that were adjusted for period of recruitment, age, gender, ethnicity, education, APOE genotype, caloric intake, smoking, and body mass index., Results: Eighty-five patients with AD (44%) died during the course of 4.4 (+/-3.6, 0.2 to 13.6) years of follow-up. In unadjusted models, higher adherence to MeDi was associated with lower mortality risk (for each additional MeDi point hazard ratio 0.79; 95% CI 0.69 to 0.91; p = 0.001). This result remained significant after controlling for all covariates (0.76; 0.65 to 0.89; p = 0.001). In adjusted models, as compared with AD patients at the lowest MeDi adherence tertile, those at the middle tertile had lower mortality risk (0.65; 0.38 to 1.09; 1.33 years' longer survival), whereas subjects at the highest tertile had an even lower risk (0.27; 0.10 to 0.69; 3.91 years' longer survival; p for trend = 0.003)., Conclusion: Adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MeDi) may affect not only risk for Alzheimer disease (AD) but also subsequent disease course: Higher adherence to the MeDi is associated with lower mortality in AD. The gradual reduction in mortality risk for higher MeDi adherence tertiles suggests a possible dose-response effect.

Objective: To investigate the association between Alzheimer disease (AD) and variant alleles in SORL1 using a series of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in an urban, multiethnic, community-based population., Design: We used a nested case-control analysis in a population-based, prospective study of aging and dementia in Medicare recipients, 65 years and older., Setting: Northern Manhattan, NY., Participants: There were 296 patients with probable AD and 428 healthy, elderly controls. The participants were African American (34%), Caribbean Hispanic (51%), or non-Hispanic white (15%)., Main Outcome Measures: We genotyped all 29 SNPs in SORL1 that were examined in the earlier report. We assessed allelic association with AD using standard case-control methods, which included apolipoprotein E genotype as a covariate., Results: Several individual SNPs and SNP haplotypes were significantly associated with AD in this prospectively collected community-based cohort, confirming the previously reported positive association of SORL1 with AD. Single nucleotide polymorphism 12, near the 5' region, was associated with AD in African American and Hispanic individuals. Two SNPs in the 3' region were also associated with AD in African American (SNP 26) and non-Hispanic white (SNP 20) individuals. A single haplotype in the 3' region was associated with AD in Hispanic individuals. However, several different haplotypes were associated with AD in African American and white individuals, including the TTC haplotypes at SNPs 23 through 25 (P = .035), which was significantly associated with AD in the North European white individuals in our previous report., Conclusions: This study confirms the association between genetic variants in SORL1 and AD. While the associations observed in these data sets overlap with those previously reported, the finding of novel SNP and haplotype associations suggests that there may be extensive allelic heterogeneity in SORL1. Broad regions of the SORL1 gene will therefore need to be scrutinized for functional pathogenic variants.

Background and Purpose: A number of cross-sectional epidemiological studies have reported that one fourth of elderly patients meet criteria for dementia 3 months after ischemic stroke, but few longitudinal studies of the incidence of dementia after stroke have been performed. We conducted the present study to investigate the incidence and clinical predictors of dementia after ischemic stroke., Methods: We administered neurological, neuropsychological, and functional assessments annually to 334 ischemic stroke patients (age, 70.4+/-7.5 years) and 241 stroke-free control subjects (age, 70.6+/-6.5 years), all of whom were nondemented in baseline examinations. We diagnosed incident dementia using modified Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Revised Third Edition criteria requiring deficits in memory and > or =2 additional cognitive domains, as well as functional impairment., Results: The crude incidence rate of dementia was 8.49 cases per 100 person-years in the stroke cohort and 1.37 cases per 100 person-years in the control cohort. A Cox proportional-hazards analysis found that the relative risk (RR) of incident dementia associated with stroke was 3.83 (95% CI, 2.14 to 6.84), adjusting for demographic variables and baseline Mini-Mental State Examination score. Within the stroke cohort, intercurrent medical illnesses associated with cerebral hypoxia or ischemia were independently related to incident dementia (RR, 4.40; 95% CI, 2.20 to 8.85), adjusting for recurrent stroke, demographic variables, and baseline Mini-Mental State Examination score., Conclusions: The risk of incident dementia is high among patients with ischemic stroke, particularly in association with intercurrent medical illnesses that might cause cerebral hypoxia or ischemia, suggesting that cerebral hypoperfusion may serve as a basis for some cases of dementia after stroke.

Objective: Although dementia is typically considered to be a consequence of a variety of neurologic diseases, it can also serve as a risk factor for other adverse outcomes. The authors investigated dementia as a predictor of long-term survival among patients with ischemic stroke., Methods: Neurologic, neuropsychological, and functional assessments were administered to 453 patients (mean age +/- SD, 72.0 +/- 8.3 years) 3 months after ischemic stroke. The authors diagnosed dementia in 119 (26.3%) of the patients using modified Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Revised 3rd Edition, criteria requiring deficits in memory and two or more additional cognitive domains as well as functional impairment. Dementia as a predictor of long-term survival during up to 10 years of follow-up was then investigated., Results: The mortality rate was 15.90 deaths per 100 person-years among patients with dementia and 5.37 deaths per 100 person-years among nondemented patients. A Cox proportional hazards analysis found that the relative risk (RR) of death was increased in association with dementia (RR = 2.4; 95% CI = 1.6 to 3.4), adjusting for the following: a major hemispheral stroke syndrome (RR = 1.4); a middle cerebral artery territory index stroke (RR = 1.7); a Stroke Severity Scale score of > or = 4, representing more severe stroke (RR = 1.8); atrial fibrillation (RR = 1.8); congestive heart failure (RR = 2.2); recurrent stroke occurring during follow-up (RR = 3.9); and demographic variables. The risk of death increased in association with the severity of dementia, but it did not differ by dementia subtype., Conclusions: Dementia is a significant independent risk factor for reduced survival after ischemic stroke, adjusting for other recognized predictors of mortality. The authors hypothesize that patients with dementia are at an elevated risk of mortality because of their increased burden of cerebrovascular disease, a tendency toward undertreatment for stroke prophylaxis among clinicians, or patient noncompliance with treatment regimens.

Objectives: To reexamine the association between the apolipoprotein E epsilon4 allele (APOE epsilon4) and familial Alzheimer disease (AD), and to search for novel genes that may be associated with susceptibility in Caribbean Hispanic families with a history of AD., Methods: Families were identified in Caribbean Hispanic communities in the greater New York City area, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. Each family in the study cohort included at least 2 living relatives with a history of dementia. All family members underwent neuropsychological testing and medical and neurological examinations to establish the presence or absence of dementia and to specify the type of dementia., Results: Over a 2(1/2)-year period, 203 families were identified. Of these, 19 families had at least 1 family member with onset of dementia before age 55 years, with 8 of the 19 families showing an association with a previously unreported presenilin mutation. Multiple cases of AD were identified in 29 families. Overall, there were 236 affected sibling pairs with AD available for analysis. The average age at onset was 74 years. The presence of APOE epsilon4 was strongly associated with AD., Conclusions: Both early-onset and late-onset familial AD occur in Caribbean Hispanics. In contrast to sporadic AD, late-onset familial AD among Caribbean Hispanics is strongly associated with APOE epsilon4. Future attempts to identify additional susceptibility genes should consider the effects of APOE epsilon4.