Studying the last days of thousands of Medicare patients, a five-person research team found that the more commonly hospice was offered in nursing homes, the more hospitalizations for all residents decreased. For every 10 percent increase in hospice “penetration” of nursing homes, the risk of hospitalizations for all residents—those in hospice care and those in other care—fell by almost 5 percent, the researchers say.

The introduction of the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living Quality Initiative goal of safely reducing the off-label use of antipsychotics caused staff to look at their current practice of responding to behaviors in a unique way.

About 90 percent of flu-related deaths and more than half of flu-related hospitalizations occur in those over the age of 65. New information reveals that more than three-quarters of U.S. flu shots are ineffective, posing a greater risk to the elderly this year.

Data presented at the 2013 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference showed that a diabetes drug may be associated with a reduced risk of dementia. In a study of nearly 15,000 people with type 2 diabetes aged 55 and older, those who started on metformin, an insulin sensitizer, had a much lower risk of developing dementia in comparison with people who started other diabetes therapies.

Clostridium difficile is an anaerobic bacterial spore that may be present in normal bowel flora of about 3 percent of the adult population and over 66 percent of infants, according to Public Health England. When patients are given antibiotics, the normal bowel flora that keeps C. diff in balance is weakened or killed by the antibiotics. That is when C. diff begins to flourish and produce harmful toxins.

Dutch researchers are questioning the notion that more nurses equals better quality of care for long term and post-acute care residents.

Korean researchers believe they may have found a better way to gauge risks for seniors facing surgeries. More than half of all people who go under the doctor’s knife are 65 years or older.

Another of dementia’s horrible, yet hidden, costs has been exposed as researchers in Canada claim to have found a solid link between dementia and hip fractures.

Finnish researchers say they’ve come up with a more intensive, more individualized method to help people recover from broken hips without leaving their homes.

​Researchers have developed a novel gene therapy that reverses the loss of memory in mice models with initial stages of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study published Wednesday in The Journal of Neuroscience.