A Remote Diet and Exercise Intervention for Surgical Patients With Prefrailty and Frailty During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objectives: To facilitate the success of surgical patients with prefrailty and frailty in meeting diet and exercise goals in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to encourage patient satisfaction with remote care. Methods: In the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic, surgical patients with prefrailty and frailty were offered remote visits with a geriatrician and a remote diet and exercise coaching program. Results: The coaching participants set a mean of 37 (±15) individualized dietary goals and 17 (±11) individualized exercise goals. 75% of the coaching participants met at least 65% of their dietary goals and 75% met at least 50% of their exercise goals. All patients met at least one diet goal and at least one exercise goal. Patients endorsed high levels of satisfaction with the program. Discussion: Diet and exercise interventions for surgical patients with prefrailty and frailty have potential for adaptation to remote formats. Such interventions may facilitate patients' meeting of individualized diet and exercise goals and may also encourage patient satisfaction.

Addressing Barriers to COVID-19 Vaccination Among Older U.S. Veterans.

Efforts are being made to ensure that COVID-19 vaccination among older adults is as complete as possible. Dialogue-based interventions tailored to patients' specific concerns have shown potential for effectiveness in promoting vaccination. We implemented a quality improvement project intended to help patients in an outpatient geriatrics clinic overcome barriers to COVID-19 vaccination. We offered tailored conversations by telephone in which we discussed the barriers to vaccination that the patients were facing and offered to provide relevant information and/or logistical assistance. Of the 184 patients reached by phone, 125 (68%) endorsed having already been vaccinated and 59 (32%) did not. About one third of the unvaccinated patients were willing to participate in tailored conversations (20 patients = 34% of the unvaccinated). In follow-up calls 30 days after the intervention we found that four of these 20 patients had received COVID-19 vaccination, one patient was scheduled for vaccination, 10 continued to be deciding about vaccination, four had decided against it and one could not be reached. Dialogue-based interventions that are conducted by telephone and are tailored to the specific barriers to vaccination being faced by older adults may have some effectiveness in encouraging vaccination against COVID-19. The effectiveness of such interventions may be decreased in populations that already have high vaccination rates and in which many patients have already formed strong opinions regarding vaccination against COVID-19. Completion of Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles is a feasible way to design, implement and work to optimize quality improvement efforts related to COVID-19 vaccination.

Recognizing the Needs of High-Need High-Risk Veterans.

Introduction: Understanding the needs of higher-risk older adult patients can support the delivery of high quality and patient-centered healthcare. We sought to characterize the physical, functional, social and psychological needs of High-Need High-Risk (HNHR) Veterans. We hypothesized that the concept of frailty could be useful in identifying the highest-risk HNHR patients and characterizing their needs. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of Veterans in the Miami Veterans Affairs Healthcare System who were identified as High-Need High-Risk by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) using data analytic techniques. We analyzed data of 634 Veterans who completed questionnaires by mail, telephone or in person. We assessed the Veterans' frailty status and needs in the physical, functional, psychological and social domains. Beyond descriptive statistics, we used Chi-square (χ 2) test, one-way ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis to analyze whether there were differences in Veterans' needs in relation to frailty status. Results: The HNHR Veterans who participated in the questionnaire had complex needs that spanned the physical, functional, psychological, and social domains. We observed a potential mismatch between functional needs and social support; over two-thirds of respondents endorsed having dependence in at least one ADL but only about a third of respondents reported having a caregiver. Patients with frailty had higher levels of functional dependence and were more likely than the other HNHR respondents to report recent falls, recent hospitalizations, depression, and transportation issues. Conclusion: High-Need High-Risk Veterans have complex needs related to the physical, functional, psychological and social domains. Within the HNHR population, HNHR Veterans with frailty appear to have particularly high levels of risk and multidomain needs. Increased attention to identifying members of these groups and aligning them with biopsychosocial interventions that are targeted to their specific needs may support development of appropriate strategies and care-models to support HNHR Veterans.

The association of health literacy domains with hospitalizations and mortality.

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether health literacy, numeracy, and graph literacy are associated with all-cause hospitalizations or mortality in community-dwelling veterans. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. METHODS: A total of 470 community-dwelling veterans underwent evaluations of health literacy, numeracy, and graph literacy with validated instruments in 2012 and were followed until 2018. At the end of follow-up, the associations with all-cause hospitalizations and mortality were determined with the Andersen-Gill model and Cox regression multivariate analysis, respectively. RESULTS: There were no associations of health literacy, numeracy, or graph literacy with all-cause hospitalization or mortality after multivariate adjustment. In subgroup analysis, subjective numeracy was associated with hospitalizations in African Americans. Higher objective and subjective numeracy were associated with future hospitalizations only for those with a history of hospitalization. Higher graph literacy was associated with lower mortality in those with a history of hospitalization. CONCLUSIONS: This study did not show associations of health literacy, numeracy, or graph literacy scores with lower risk of all-cause hospitalization or mortality. Further research is needed with random sampling in a broader spectrum of healthcare settings to better understand what roles health literacy, numeracy, and graph literacy might play in healthcare utilization and clinical outcomes.

The association of health literacy, numeracy and graph literacy with frailty.

BACKGROUND: Frailty is a state of vulnerability to stressors which may result in high mortality, morbidity, and health-care utilization in older adults. Whether health literacy, graph literacy and numeracy are associated with frailty is unknown. AIM: To assess the association of health literacy, numeracy and graph literacy with frailty in male veterans. METHODS: This is a retrospective study of 470 cognitively intact, non-depressed veterans who completed evaluations of health literacy, numeracy and graph literacy at Miami VA facility in 2012. A 43-item frailty index was created as a proportion of all potential variables (demographics, comorbidities, number of medications, laboratory tests, and activities of daily life). Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated by multinomial logistic regression models with frailty status (robust, prefrail and frail) as the outcome variable, and with health literacy, numeracy, and graph literacy scores as independent variables. Age, race, ethnicity, education, socio-economic status, and comorbidities were considered as covariates. RESULTS: Patients were 100% male, 40% White, 82% non-Hispanic, mean age was 56.8 years. The proportion of robust, pre-frail and frail was 10.0%, 61.3% and 28.7%, respectively. Neither health literacy nor objective nor subjective numeracy was associated with frailty after adjustment for covariates. In contrast, higher graph literacy scores were associated with a lower risk for frailty (p = .015) even after adjusting known risk factors for frailty. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Neither health literacy nor numeracy is associated with frailty. Higher graph literacy score is associated with a lower risk for frailty even after adjusting for known risk factors for frailty.