Association of volunteer-administered home care with reduced emergency room visits and hospitalization among older adults with chronic conditions: A propensity-score-matched cohort study.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to examine the association of receiving care from a volunteer-administered outreach program with emergency room utilization and hospitalization among older people with chronic conditions in Hong Kong. METHODS: Volunteers consisting of retired healthcare professionals, university students, and openly recruited citizens received training to provide home care services to hospital-discharged older Chinese adults aged 65+ with chronic conditions who were identified as high-risk patients of hospital admission and referred by public healthcare providers. Several home visits were made to enhance the patients' self-care capacity. For comparison, a 4:1-propensity score matching based on age, sex, the month of discharge, length of stay for the index episode, and 14 common chronic conditions was conducted to select a comparison group from a territory-wide inpatient database. Poisson regression was used to compare emergency room utilization and the number of hospitalized days. RESULTS: In total, 775 patients were analyzed, including 155 home care recipients and 620 extracted from the inpatient database as a matched comparison with similar baseline characteristics. Regression analysis showed that home care recipients had 21% fewer overall emergency room visits [95% confidence interval (CI): 3%-35%], 22% fewer such visits which led to hospitalization (95% CI: 1%-39%) and 22% fewer overall hospitalized days (95% CI: 16%-28%). Nevertheless, the number of hospitalized days admitted through the emergency room was 10% higher among home care recipients (95% CI: 0%-20%). CONCLUSIONS: Volunteer-administered home care might be effective in reducing emergency room visits and non-acute hospitalization, as well as early detection of acute problems warranting tertiary care. Further randomized studies are needed to substantiate this finding.

Prevalence and determinants of potentially inappropriate medication use in Hong Kong older patients: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the prevalence of potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) use in Hong Kong older patients visiting general outpatient clinics (GOPCs) between 2006 and 2014 and to identify factors associated with PIM use among older adults visiting GOPCs in 2014. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: GOPC. PARTICIPANTS: Two study samples were constructed including a total of 844 910 patients aged 65 and above from 2006 to 2014 and a cohort of 489 301 older patients in 2014. MEASUREMENTS: Two subsets of the 2015 American Geriatrics Society Beers criteria-PIMs independent of diagnosis and PIMs due to drug-disease interactions-were used to estimate the prevalence of PIM use over 12 months. PIMs that were not included in the Hospital Authority drug formulary or with any specific restriction or exception in terms of indication, dose or therapy duration were excluded. Characteristics of PIM users and non-PIM users visiting GOPCs in 2014 were compared. Independent associations between patient variables and PIM use were assessed by stepwise multivariable logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: The 12-month period prevalence of PIM use decreased from 55.56% (95% CI 55.39% to 55.72%) in 2006 to 47.51% (95% CI 47.37% to 47.65%) in 2014. In the multivariable regression analysis, the strongest factor associated with PIM use was the number of different drugs prescribed (adjusted OR, AOR 23.01, 95% CI 22.36 to 23.67). Being female (AOR 0.89, 95% CI 0.85 to 0.87 for males vs females) and having a greater number of GOPC visits (AOR 1.83, 95% CI 1.78 to 1.88) as well as more than six diagnoses (AOR 1.43, 95% CI 1.36 to 1.52) were associated with PIM use. CONCLUSIONS: The overall prevalence of PIM use in older adults visiting GOPCs decreased from 2006 to 2014 in Hong Kong although the prevalence of PIM use was still high in 2014. Patients with female gender, a larger number of medications prescribed, more frequent visits to GOPCs, and more than six diagnoses were at higher risk for PIM use.

Effectiveness of nurse-led peri-discharge interventions for reducing 30-day hospital readmissions: Network meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Existing systematic reviews have compared the effectiveness of nurse-led peri-discharge interventions comprising different components with usual care on reducing all-cause 30-day hospital readmissions. However, conflicting results were reported. OBJECTIVE: We conducted a network meta-analysis to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of different nurse-led peri-discharge interventions, compared with usual care, for reducing all-cause 30-day hospital readmissions. DESIGN: Network meta-analysis. METHODS: A total of five international databases were searched for systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials. Additional searches for most updated randomized controlled trials published between 2014 to 2019 were conducted. Data from included randomized controlled trials were extracted for random-effect pairwise meta-analyses. Pooled risk ratios with 95% confidence interval were used to quantify impact of nurse-led peri-discharge interventions on all-cause 30-day hospital readmissions. Network meta-analysis was used to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of different interventions. RESULTS: From two systematic reviews and additional randomized controlled trial searches, 12 eligible randomized controlled trials (n=150,840) assessing 15 different nurse-led peri-discharge interventions were included. For reducing all-cause 30-day hospital readmissions, pairwise meta-analysis showed that there was no significant difference between nurse-led peri-discharge interventions and usual care (pooled risk ratios = 0.86, 95% confidence interval: 0.71-1.04, moderate quality of evidence). Network meta-analysis indicated no significant difference across different interventions despite variation in complexity. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicated that nurse-led peri-discharge interventions were not significantly different from usual care for reducing all-cause 30-day hospital readmissions. Simpler nurse-led peri-discharge interventions are on par with more complex interventions in terms of effectiveness. Benefits of nurse-led peri-discharge interventions may vary across health system context. Therefore, careful consideration is required prior to implementation. REGISTRATION DETAILS: The protocol for this study has been registered in PROSPERO (Registration No. CRD42020186938). Tweetable abstract: This study suggested that nurse-led peri-discharge interventions do not differ from usual care for reducing all-cause 30-day hospital readmissions.

Electroacupuncture plus on-demand gastrocaine for refractory functional dyspepsia: Pragmatic randomized trial.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Treatment options for functional dyspepsia (FD) refractory to pharmacological treatments are limited but the effectiveness of electroacupuncture (EA) is uncertain. We assessed the effectiveness of EA combined with on-demand gastrocaine. METHODS: We conducted a single-center, assessor-blind, randomized parallel-group 2-arm trial on Helicobacter pylori negative FD patients of the postprandial distress syndrome subtype refractory to proton pump inhibitor, prokinetics, or H2 antagonists. Enrolled participants were block randomized in a 1:1 ratio, with concealed random sequence. The treatment and control groups both received on-demand gastrocaine for 12 weeks, but only those in treatment group were offered 20 sessions of EA over 10 weeks. The primary endpoint was the between-group difference in proportion of patients achieving adequate relief of symptoms at week 12. RESULTS: Of 132 participants randomly assigned to EA plus on-demand gastrocaine (n = 66) or on-demand gastrocaine alone (n = 66), 125 (94.7%) completed all follow-up at 12 weeks. The EA group had a compliance rate 97.7%. They had a significantly higher likelihood in achieving adequate symptom relief at 12 weeks, with a clinically relevant number needed to treat (NNT) value of 2.36 (95% CI: 1.74, 3.64). Among secondary outcomes, statistically and clinically significant improvements were observed among global symptom (NNT = 3.85 [95% CI: 2.63, 7.69]); postprandial fullness and early satiation (NNT = 5.00 [95% CI: 2.86, 25.00]); as well as epigastric pain, epigastric burning, and postprandial nausea (NNT = 4.17 [95% CI: 2.56, 11.11]). Adverse events were minimal and nonsignificant. CONCLUSION: For refractory FD, EA provides significant, clinically relevant symptom relief when added to on-demand gastrocaine (ChiCTR-IPC-15007109).

Normative Standards for HRpQCT Parameters in Chinese Men and Women.

Assessing bone architecture using high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HRpQCT) has the potential to improve fracture risk assessment. The Normal Reference Study aimed to establish sex-specific reference centile curves for HRpQCT parameters. This was an age-stratified cross-sectional study and 1072 ambulatory Chinese men (n = 544) and women (n = 528) aged 20 to 79 years, who were free from conditions and medications that could affect bone metabolism and had no history of fragility fracture. They were recruited from local communities of Hong Kong. Reference centile curves for each HRpQCT parameter were constructed using generalized additive models for location, scale, and shape with age as the only explanatory variable. Patterns of reference centile curves reflected age-related changes of bone density, microarchitecture, and estimated bone strength. In both sexes, loss of cortical bone was only evident in mid-adulthood, particularly in women with a more rapid fashion probably concurrent with the onset of menopause. In contrast, loss of trabecular bone was subtle or gradual or occurred at an earlier age. Expected values of HRpQCT parameters for a defined sex and age and a defined percentile or Z-score were obtained from these curves. T-scores were calculated using the population with the peak values as the reference and reflected age- or menopause-related bone loss in an older individual or the room to reach the peak potential in a younger individual. These reference centile curves produced a standard describing a norm or desirable target that enables value clinical judgements. Percentiles, Z-scores, and T-scores would be helpful in detecting abnormalities in bone density and microarchitecture arising from various conditions and establishing entry criteria for clinical trials. They also hold the potential to refine the diagnosis of osteoporosis and assessment of fracture risk. © 2018 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

Patients' experience of Chinese Medicine Primary Care Services: Implications on Improving Coordination and Continuity of Care.

Chinese medicine (CM) is major form of traditional and complementary medicine used by Chinese populations. Evaluation on patients' experience on CM service is essential for improving service quality. This cross sectional study aims (i) to assess how CM clinics with different administrative model differ in terms of quality from patients' perspective; and (ii) to investigate how quality varies with patients' demographic and health characteristics. Five hundred and sixteen patients were sampled from charity and semi-public CM clinics in Hong Kong, and were invited to assess their experience using the Primary Care Assessment Tool (PCAT). Results indicated that overall mean PCAT scoring is satisfactory, achieving 70.7% (91.26/129) of total score. Ratings were lower in areas of "coordination of patient information", "continuity of care", and "range of service provided". Impact of administrative models, including involvement of tax-funded healthcare system and outreach delivery, were minimal after adjusting for patient characteristics. Demographic and health characteristics of patients did not contribute to substantial variations in scoring. To improve patient experience, policy makers should consider strengthening care coordination, continuity and comprehensiveness in CM primary care services. Sharing of electronic records and establishing referral system are potential solutions for linking CM and conventional healthcare services.