Amantadine withdrawal in a patient with spinocerebellar ataxia.

We report a case of a man with spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) on high-dose amantadine who was admitted for acute on chronic dysphagia secondary to progression of SCA. Four days after oral medications were held due to patient's dysphagia, he developed fever, tachycardia and mild rigidity in extremities and became obtunded. Despite antibiotics treatment, the vitals and mental status changes persisted for 8 days. When amantadine was resumed, the patient's vital signs and encephalopathy improved within 2 days. This is among the first reports of amantadine withdrawal syndrome (AWS) in a patient without Parkinson's disease. Our case reinforces the importance of careful medication review at admission and consideration of pharmacologic side effects with not only medication initiation but also discontinuation.

Home Smoking Bans and Urinary NNAL Levels to Measure Tobacco Smoke Exposure in Chinese American Household Pairs.

Home smoking bans can reduce tobacco smoke exposure, but little is known about the impact for Chinese American household pairs. In this study of 202 household pairs with low acculturation, 53.9% reported a home smoking ban, 31.7% had inconsistent reports, and 14.4% reported no ban. With decreasing home smoking ban enforcement, more nonsmokers had tobacco smoke exposure (66.1%-86.2%) as measured by the tobacco-specific nitrosamine biomarker urine NNAL (4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol). Despite reported bans, about one-quarter of nonsmokers still reported tobacco smoke exposure at home (23.6%-30%) within the past 2 months and three-quarters reported outdoor exposure. In adjusted regression analyses of geometric mean NNAL ratios, nonsmokers in households with no ban had over two times higher levels than nonsmokers in households with a ban: adjusted log NNAL ratio = 2.70 (95% CI 1.21, 6.03). Higher smoker NNAL level and nonsmoker English fluency were also significantly associated with nonsmoker NNAL levels. Nonsmoker levels in households with an inconsistent ban were not significantly different compared to those with a ban. Although home smoking bans were generally associated with lower NNAL levels, tobacco smoke exposure in this immigrant population with low English proficiency was higher than that of the general population. From a health equity standpoint, there is a need for broader implementation and enforcement of comprehensive smoke-free policies.

Differences Between Current and Desired Physician Hypertension Management Roles Among Chinese American Seniors: a Qualitative Study.

BACKGROUND: Though patient-physician racial concordance correlates with better perceived shared decision-making, Chinese immigrants report low quality of care and have undertreated hypertension regardless of concordance. OBJECTIVE: To inform efforts to change physician behavior and improve quality of hypertension care, we used role theory to explore differences between Chinese American seniors' descriptions of current and desired physician roles in hypertension management. DESIGN: Qualitative interviews. PARTICIPANTS: Immigrant Chinese Americans with hypertension age ≥ 65 years in Los Angeles County. APPROACH: We recruited 15 participants from a senior wellness center for language-matched interviews and blood pressure (BP) checks. Participants described current and desired physician activities for hypertension management. Bilingual research assistants translated audio recordings. Using thematic analysis, a three-member team independently reviewed and coded transcripts to identify themes regarding physician roles in hypertension management; discrepancies were discussed to achieve consensus. Themes were checked for validity in four subsequent focus groups. RESULTS: We completed interviews in 2014. Interviewees' mean age was 70.6 years; seven were female and five had a systolic BP over 150 mmHg. All interviewees reported having race- and language-concordant primary care providers, were prescribed at least one BP medication, and had Medicare. Three major themes encompassed current and desired physician roles in hypertension management: technical expert, empathetic health steward, and health educator. Descriptions of current and desired physician roles differed for all themes, most prominently for empathetic health steward and health educator. Participants desired but did not consistently experience interpersonal engagement or receive hypertension lifestyle counseling, citing visit time pressures. CONCLUSIONS: Among these Chinese American seniors, there remains a gap between current and desired physician roles in hypertension management, particularly interpersonal behaviors and education. Seniors deprioritized these roles in response to perceived physician role strain. Increased attention to the impact of perceived physician role strain might improve shared decision-making and hypertension management.

"Worth the Walk": Culturally Tailored Stroke Risk Factor Reduction Intervention in Community Senior Centers.

Background Racial/ethnic minority older adults have worse stroke burden than non-Hispanic white and younger counterparts. Our academic-community partner team tested a culturally tailored 1-month (8-session) intervention to increase walking and stroke knowledge among Latino, Korean, Chinese, and black seniors. Methods and Results We conducted a randomized wait-list controlled trial of 233 adults aged 60 years and older, with a history of hypertension, recruited from senior centers. Outcomes were measured at baseline (T0), immediately after the 1-month intervention (T1), and 2 months later (T2). The primary outcome was pedometer-measured change in steps. Secondary outcomes included stroke knowledge (eg, intention to call 911 for stroke symptoms) and other self-reported and clinical measures of health. Mean age of participants was 74 years; 90% completed T2. Intervention participants had better daily walking change scores than control participants at T1 (489 versus -398 steps; mean difference in change=887; 97.5% CI, 137-1636), but not T2 after adjusting for multiple comparisons (233 versus -714; mean difference in change=947; 97.5% CI, -108 to 2002). The intervention increased the percent of stroke symptoms for which participants would call 911 (from 49% to 68%); the control group did not change (mean difference in change T0-T1=22%; 99.9% CI, 9-34%). This effect persisted at T2. The intervention did not affect measures of health (eg, blood pressure). Conclusions This community-partnered intervention did not succeed in increasing and sustaining meaningful improvements in walking levels among minority seniors, but it caused large, sustained improvements in stroke preparedness. Clinical Trial Registration URL : http://www.clinicaltrials.gov . Unique identifier: NCT 02181062.

Characterizing Beliefs about Stroke and Walking for Exercise among Seniors from Four Racial/Ethnic Minority Communities.

We described and compared seniors' stroke-related health beliefs among four racial/ethnic communities to inform a culturally-tailored stroke prevention walking intervention. Specific attention was paid to how seniors combined pathophysiology-based biomedical beliefs with non-biomedical beliefs. We conducted twelve language-concordant, structured focus groups with African American, Chinese American, Korean American, and Latino seniors aged 60 years and older with a history of hypertension (n = 132) to assess stroke-related health beliefs. Participants were asked their beliefs about stroke mechanism and prevention strategies in addition to questions corresponding to four constructs from the Health Belief Model: perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, and benefits and barriers to walking for exercise. Using thematic analysis, we iteratively reviewed and coded focus group transcripts to identify recurrent themes within and between racial/ethnic groups. Participants across all four racial/ethnic groups believed that blockages in brain arteries caused strokes. Factors believed to increase susceptibility to stroke were often similar to biomedical risk factors across racial/ethnic groups, but participants also endorsed non-biomedical factors such as strong emotions. The majority of participants perceived stroke as a serious condition requiring urgent medical attention, fearing paralysis or death, but few mentioned severe disability as a stroke consequence. Participants largely believed stroke to be preventable through physical activity, dietary changes, and medication adherence. Perceived benefits of walking for exercise included improved physical health, decreased bodily pain, and ease of participation. Perceived barriers to walking included limited mobility due to chronic medical conditions, increased bodily pain, and low motivation. While seniors' stroke-related health beliefs were often similar to biomedical beliefs across racial/ethnic groups, we also identified several non-biomedical beliefs that were shared across groups. These non-biomedical beliefs regarding perceived stroke susceptibility and severity may warrant further discussion in stroke education interventions. Patterns in non-biomedical beliefs that vary between groups may reflect cultural differences. Stroke education could potentially increase cultural relevancy and impact by addressing such differences in health beliefs as well as perceived benefits and barriers to walking for exercise that vary between different racial/ethnic groups.

Racial/Ethnic Differences in Expectations Regarding Aging Among Older Adults.

Purpose of the Study: The study identifies differences in age-expectations between older adults from Korean, Chinese, Latino, and African American backgrounds living in the United States. Design and Methods: This study uses baseline demographic, age-expectation, social, and health data from 229 racial/ethnic minority seniors in a stroke-prevention intervention trial. Unadjusted regression models and pair-wise comparisons tested for racial/ethnic differences in age-expectations, overall, and across domain subscales (e.g., physical-health expectations). Adjusted regression models tested whether age-expectations differed across racial/ethnic groups after controlling for demographic, social, and health variables. Regression and negative binomial models tested whether age-expectations were consistently associated with health and well-being across racial/ethnic groups. Results: Age-expectations differed by race/ethnicity, overall and for each subscale. African American participants expected the least age-related functional decline and Chinese American participants expected the most decline. Although African American participants expected less decline than Latino participants in unadjusted models, they had comparable expectations adjusting for education. Latino and African American participants consistently expected less decline than Korean and Chinese Americans. Acculturation was not consistently related to age-expectations among immigrant participants over and above ethnicity. Although some previously observed links between expectations and health replicated across racial/ethnic groups, in adjusted models age-expectations were only related to depression for Latino participants. Implications: With a growing racial/ethnic minority older population in the United States, it is important to note older adults' age-expectations differ by race/ethnicity. Moreover, expectation-health associations may not always generalize across diverse samples.

Differences in Nursing Home Quality Between Medicare Advantage and Traditional Medicare Patients.

BACKGROUND: Medicare Advantage (MA) enrollment is steadily growing, but little is known about the quality of nursing home (NH) care provided to MA enrollees compared to enrollees in traditional fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare. OBJECTIVES: To compare MA and FFS enrollees' quality of NH care. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: US nursing homes. PARTICIPANTS: 2.17 million Medicare enrollees receiving care at an NH during 2011. MEASUREMENTS: CMS methodology was used to calculate the 18 Nursing Home Compare quality measures as applicable for each enrollee. RESULTS: Among Medicare enrollees using NH in 2011, 17% were in MA plans. Most quality scores were similar between MA and FFS. After adjusting for facility, beneficiary age and gender, CMS Hierarchical Condition Category score, and geographic region, short-stay MA enrollees had statistically significantly lower rates of new or worsening pressure ulcers [relative risk (RR) = 0.76, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.71-0.82] and new antipsychotic use (RR = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.80-0.83) but higher rates of moderate to severe pain (RR = 1.09, 95% CI = 1.07-1.12), compared with short-stay FFS enrollees. MA long-stay enrollees had lower rates of antipsychotic use (RR = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.93-0.96) but had higher rates of incontinence (RR = 1.08, 95% CI = 1.06-1.09) and urinary catheterization (RR = 1.10, 95% CI = 1.06-1.13), compared with long-stay FFS enrollees. CONCLUSION: Overall, we found few differences in NH quality scores between MA and FFS Medicare enrollees. MA enrollment was associated with better scores for pressure ulcers and antipsychotic use but worse scores for pain control, incontinence, and urinary catheterization. Results may be limited by residual case-mix differences between MA and FFS patients or by the small number of short-stay measures reported.

Developing a culturally tailored stroke prevention walking programme for Korean immigrant seniors: a focus group study.

OBJECTIVES: To gain better understanding of (i) beliefs and knowledge about stroke; (ii) attitudes about walking for stroke prevention; and (iii) barriers and facilitators to walking among Korean seniors for the cultural tailoring of a stroke prevention walking programme. BACKGROUND: Physical inactivity is a major risk factor for stroke. Korean immigrant seniors are one of the most sedentary ethnic groups in the United States. DESIGN: An explorative study using focus group data. Twenty-nine Korean immigrant seniors (64-90 years of age) who had been told by a doctor at least once that their blood pressure was elevated participated in 3 focus groups. Each focus group consisted of 8-11 participants. METHODS: Focus group audiotapes were transcribed and analysed using standard content analysis methods. RESULTS: Participants identified physical and psychological imbalances (e.g. too much work and stress) as the primary causes of stroke. Restoring 'balance' was identified as a powerful means of stroke prevention. A subset of participants expressed that prevention may be beyond human control. Overall, participants acknowledged the importance of walking for stroke prevention, but described barriers such as lack of personal motivation and unsafe environment. Many participants believed that providing opportunities for socialisation while walking and combining walking with health information sessions would facilitate participation in and maintenance of a walking programme. CONCLUSIONS: Korean immigrant seniors believe strongly that imbalance is a primary cause of stroke. Restoring balance as a way to prevent stroke is culturally special among Koreans and provides a conceptual base in culturally tailoring our stroke prevention walking intervention for Korean immigrant seniors. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: A stroke prevention walking programme for Korean immigrant seniors may have greater impact by addressing beliefs about stroke causes and prevention such as physical and psychological imbalances and the importance of maintaining emotional well-being.

Offering acupuncture as an adjunct for tobacco cessation: a community clinic experience.

Disparities in smoking rates remain prominent within Asian Americans. Medical pluralism and cultural tailoring may enhance Asian Americans engaging with tobacco cessation assistance. We conducted a retrospective analysis of a community clinic's smoking cessation program targeting a Chinese population that offered acupuncture, nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), and counseling from 2007 to 2010. Most participants used acupuncture, with about half choosing acupuncture and NRT, followed by more than 40% choosing acupuncture only; few chose NRT only. Tobacco cessation rates at 6 months were relatively high for the acupuncture + NRT group and only acupuncture group (37.7% vs. 28.9%). In comparing tobacco reduction >50% from baseline with an expanded only NRT group, the acupuncture + NRT group had a higher odds ratio than the only acupuncture group, which had a lower odds ratio. Our evaluation of this real-world community program offering acupuncture as a cultural adjunct to a tobacco cessation program suggests that acupuncture might help with engagement by Chinese American male smokers into a tobacco cessation program that offers counseling and NRT. Future larger studies should further evaluate the efficacy of offering acupuncture in combination with NRT on the outcomes of cessation and reduction.