Changes in End-of-Life Symptom Management Prescribing among Long-Term Care Residents during COVID-19.

OBJECTIVE: To examine changes in the prescribing of end-of-life symptom management medications in long-term care (LTC) homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study using routinely collected health administrative data in Ontario, Canada. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: We included all individuals who died in LTC homes between January 1, 2017, and March 31, 2021. We separated the study into 2 periods: before COVID-19 (January 1, 2017, to March 17, 2020) and during COVID-19 (March 18, 2020, to March 31, 2021). METHODS: For each LTC home, we measured the percentage of residents who died before and during COVID-19 who had a subcutaneous symptom management medication prescription in their last 14 days of life. We grouped LTC homes into quintiles based on their mean prescribing rates before COVID-19, and examined changes in prescribing during COVID-19 and COVID-19 outcomes across quintiles. RESULTS: We captured 75,438 LTC residents who died in Ontario's 626 LTC homes during the entire study period, with 19,522 (25.9%) dying during COVID-19. The mean prescribing rate during COVID-19 ranged from 46.9% to 79.4% between the lowest and highest prescribing quintiles. During COVID-19, the mean prescribing rate in the lowest prescribing quintile increased by 9.6% compared to before COVID-19. Compared to LTC homes in the highest prescribing quintile, homes in the lowest prescribing quintile experienced the highest proportion of COVID-19 outbreaks (73.4% vs 50.0%), the largest mean outbreak intensity (0.27 vs 0.09 cases/bed), the highest mean total days with a COVID-19 outbreak (72.7 vs 24.2 days), and the greatest proportion of decedents who were transferred and died outside of LTC (22.1% vs 8.6%). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: LTC homes in Ontario had wide variations in the prescribing rates of end-of-life symptom management medications before and during COVID-19. Homes in the lower prescribing quintiles had more COVID-19 cases per bed and days spent in an outbreak.

Palliative End-of-Life Medication Prescribing Rates in Long-Term Care: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: Medications are often needed to manage distressing end-of-life symptoms (eg, pain, agitation). OBJECTIVES: In this study, we describe the variation in prescribing rates of symptom relief medications at the end of life among long-term care (LTC) decedents. We evaluate the extent these medications are prescribed in LTC homes and whether prescribing rates of end-of-life symptom management can be used as an indicator of quality end-of-life care. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study using administrative health data. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: LTC decedents in all 626 publicly funded LTC homes in Ontario, Canada, between January 1, 2017, and March 17, 2020. METHODS: For each LTC home, we measured the percent of decedents who received 1+ prescription(s) for a subcutaneous end-of-life symptom management medication ("end-of-life medication") in their last 14 days of life. We then ranked LTC homes into quintiles based on prescribing rates. RESULTS: We identified 55,916 LTC residents who died in LTC. On average, two-thirds of decedents (64.7%) in LTC homes were prescribed at least 1 subcutaneous end-of-life medication in the last 2 weeks of life. Opioids were the most common prescribed medication (overall average prescribing rate of 62.7%). LTC homes in the lowest prescribing quintile had a mean of 37.3% of decedents prescribed an end-of-life medication, and the highest quintile mean was 82.5%. In addition, across these quintiles, the lowest prescribing quintile had a high average (30.3%) of LTC residents transferred out of LTC in the 14 days compared with the highest prescribing quintile (12.7%). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Across Ontario's LTC homes, there are large differences in prescribing rates for subcutaneous end-of-life symptom relief medications. Although future work may elucidate why the variability exists, this study provides evidence that administrative data can provide valuable insight into the systemic delivery of end-of-life care.

Functional Decline in Long-Term Care Homes in the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Population-based Longitudinal Study in Five Canadian Provinces.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to examine whether functional decline accelerated during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (March to June 2020) for persons in long-term care facilities (LTCs) in Canada compared with the pre-pandemic period. DESIGN: We conducted a population-based longitudinal study of persons receiving care in LTC homes in 5 Canadian provinces before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Residents in 1326 LTC homes within the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland & Labrador, and Ontario between January 31, 2019, and June 30, 2020, with activities of daily living Hierarchy scale less than 6 and so, who still have potential for decline (6 being the worst of the 0-6 scale). METHODS: We fit a generalized estimating equation model with adjustment for repeated measures to obtain the adjusted odds of functional decline between COVID period exposed and unexposed pre-pandemic residents. RESULTS: LTC residents experienced slightly higher rates of functional decline during the first wave of the COVD-19 pandemic compared with the pre-pandemic period (23.3% vs 22.3%; P < .0001). The adjusted odds of functional decline were slightly greater during the pandemic (odds ratio [OR], 1.17; 95% CI, 1.15-1.20). Likewise, residents receiving care in large homes (OR, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.17-1.24) and urban-located LTC homes (OR, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.17-1.23), were more likely to experience functional decline during the COVID-19 pandemic. The odds of functional decline were also only significantly higher during the pandemic for LTC home residents in British Columbia (OR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.11-1.23) and Ontario (OR, 1.25; 95% CI, 1.21-1.29). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: This study provides evidence that the odds of experiencing functional decline were somewhat greater during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights the need to maintain physical activity and improve nutrition among older adults during periods of stress. The information would be helpful to health administrators and decision-makers seeking to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health measures affected LTC residents' health outcomes.

The Community Rehabilitation Assessment: patient and clinician-reported outcomes in ambulatory rehabilitation.

Objectives: The interRAI Community Rehabilitation Assessment (CRA) is a comprehensive health assessment designed to collect essential health and function information for rehabilitation care planning, benchmarking, and evaluation of clinic and home-based programs. A portion of the CRA is completed through patient self-report. The objective of this study was to demonstrate how the CRA can be used to describe the baseline clinical characteristics of patients participating in ambulatory rehabilitation programs and measure change across numerous domains of function, health, and wellbeing over time. Design: Cohort study. Setting and participants: In total, 709 patients were assessed with the CRA across 25 ambulatory clinics in Ontario, Canada between January 1st, 2018, to December 31st, 2018. We examined sub-groups of patients receiving rehabilitation following stroke (n = 82) and hip or knee total joint replacement (n = 210). Methods: Frequency responses and means were compared between admission and discharge from the ambulatory rehabilitation programs. Measures of interest included self-reported difficulty in completing instrumental activities of daily living, locomotion, fear of falling, and pain. Results: Significant improvement relative to at admission was detected for the overall cohort and both sub-samples on individual instrumental activities of daily living, stair difficulty, use of mobility aides, distance walked, fear of falling, and pain. Conclusions and implications: The standardized and comparable information collected by the CRA is expected to provide clinicians, clinic, and health system administrators with essential health and function information that can be used for care planning, benchmarking, and evaluation.

Long-Term Care Resident Health and Quality of Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Synthesis Analysis of Canadian Institute for Health Information Data Tables.

Objective: Long-term care (LTC) homes ("nursing homes") were challenged during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. The objective of this study was to measure the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on resident admission and discharge rates, resident health attributes, treatments, and quality of care. Design: Synthesis analysis of "Quick Stats" standardized data table reports published yearly by the Canadian Institute for Health Information. These reports are a pan-Canadian scorecard of LTC services rendered, resident health characteristics, and quality indicator performance. Setting and participants: LTC home residents in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Ontario, Canada that were assessed with the interRAI Minimum Data Set 2.0 comprehensive health assessment in fiscal years 2018/2019, 2019/2020 (pre-pandemic period), and 2020/2021 (pandemic period). Methods: Risk ratio statistics were calculated to compare admission and discharge rates, validated interRAI clinical summary scale scores, medication, therapy and treatment provision, and seventeen risk-adjusted quality indicator rates from the pandemic period relative to prior fiscal years. Results: Risk of dying in the LTC home was greater in all provinces (risk ratio [RR] range 1.06-1.18) during the pandemic. Quality of care worsened substantially on 6 of 17 quality indicators in British Columbia and Ontario, and 2 quality indicators in Manitoba and Alberta. The only quality indicator where performance worsened during the pandemic in all provinces was the percentage of residents that received antipsychotic medications without a diagnosis of psychosis (RR range 1.01-1.09). Conclusions and implications: The COVID-19 pandemic has unveiled numerous areas to strengthen LTC and ensure that resident's physical, social, and psychological needs are addressed during public health emergencies. Except an increase in potentially inappropriate antipsychotic use, this provincial-level analysis indicates that most aspects of resident care were maintained during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prognostic Association Between Frailty and Post-Arrest Health Outcomes in Patients Receiving Home Care: A Population-Based Retrospective Cohort Study.

AIM: To evaluate the association between frailty and post-cardiac arrest survival, functional decline, and cognitive decline, among patients receiving home care. METHODS: Frailty was measured using the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) and a valid frailty index. We used multivariable logistic regression to measure the association between frailty and post-arrest outcomes after adjusting for age, sex, and arrest setting. Functional independence and cognitive performance were measured using the interRAI ADL Long-Form and Cognitive Performance Scale, respectively. We conducted sub-group analytics of in-hospital and out-of-hospital arrests. RESULTS: Our cohort consisted of 7,901 home care clients; most patients arrested out-of-hospital (55.4%) and were 75 years or older (66.3%). Most were classified as frail (94.2%) with a CFS score of 5 or greater. The 30-day survival rate was higher for in-hospital (26.6%) than out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (5.2%). Most patients who survived to discharge had declines in post-arrest functional independence (65.8%) and cognitive performance (46.5%). A one-point increase in the CFS decreased the odds of 30-day survival by 8% (aOR = 0.92; 95%CI = 0.87-0.97). A 0.1 unit increase in the frailty index reduced the odds of 30-day survival by 9% (aOR = 0.91; 95%CI = 0.86-0.96). The frailty index was associated with declines in functional independence (OR = 1.16; 95%CI = 1.02-1.31) and cognitive performance (OR = 1.24; 95%CI = 1.09-1.42), while the CFS was not. CONCLUSION: Frailty is associated with cardiac arrest survival and post-arrest cognitive and functional status in patients receiving home care. Post-cardiac arrest cognitive and functional status are best predicted using more comprehensive frailty indices.

External validation of the hospital frailty risk score among hospitalised home care clients in Canada: a retrospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: The Hospital Frailty Risk Score (HFRS) is scored using ICD-10 diagnostic codes in administrative hospital records. Home care clients in Canada are routinely assessed with Resident Assessment Instrument-Home Care (RAI-HC) which can calculate the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) and the Frailty Index (FI). OBJECTIVE: Measure the correlation between the HFRS, CFS and FI and compare prognostic utility for frailty-related outcomes. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, Canada. SUBJECTS: Home care clients aged 65+ admitted to hospital within 180 days (median 65 days) of a RAI-HC assessment (n = 167,316). METHODS: Correlation between the HFRS, CFS and FI was measured using the Spearman correlation coefficient. Prognostic utility of each measure was assessed by comparing measures of association, discrimination and calibration for mortality (30 days), prolonged hospital stay (10+ days), unplanned hospital readmission (30 days) and long-term care admission (1 year). RESULTS: The HFRS was weakly correlated with the FI (ρ 0.21) and CFS (ρ 0.28). Unlike the FI and CFS, the HFRS was unable to discriminate for 30-day mortality (area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUC) 0.506; confidence interval (CI) 0.502-0.511). It was the only measure that could discriminate for prolonged hospital stay (AUC 0.666; CI 0.661-0.673). The HFRS operated like the FI and CFI when predicting unplanned readmission (AUC 0.530 CI 0.526-0.536) and long-term care admission (AUC 0.600; CI 0.593-0.606). CONCLUSIONS: The HFRS identifies a different subset of older adult home care clients as frail than the CFS and FI. It has prognostic utility for several frailty-related outcomes in this population, except short-term mortality.

Postsurgery paths and outcomes for hip fracture patients (POST-OP HIP PATHS): a population-based retrospective cohort study protocol.

INTRODUCTION: Hip fracture patients receive varying levels of support posthip fracture surgery and often experience significant disability and increased risk of mortality. Best practice guidelines recommend that all hip fracture patients receive active rehabilitation following their acute care stay, with rehabilitation beginning no later than 6 days following surgery. Nevertheless, patients frequently experience gaps in care including delays and variation in rehabilitation services they receive. We aim to understand the factors that drive these practice variations for older adults following hip fracture surgery, and their impact on patient outcomes. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will conduct a retrospective population-based cohort study using routinely collected health administrative data housed at ICES. The study population will include all individuals with a unilateral hip fracture aged 50 and older who underwent surgical repair in Ontario, Canada between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2018. We will use unadjusted and multilevel, multivariable adjusted regression models to identify predictors of rehabilitation setting, time to rehabilitation and length of rehabilitation, with predictors prespecified including patient sociodemographics, baseline health and characteristics of the acute (surgical) episode. We will examine outcomes after rehabilitation, including place of care/residence at 6 and 12 months postrehabilitation, as well as other short-term and long-term outcomes. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The use of the data in this project is authorised under section 45 of Ontario's Personal Health Information Protection Act and does not require review by a Research Ethics Board. Results will be disseminated through conference presentations and in peer-reviewed journals.

Qualité des soins dans les établissements de soins de longue durée canadiens accueillant différents groupes linguistiques.

OBJECTIVES: Canada has two official languages (English and French) that vary in usage by province/territory and other smaller geographic units. The objective of this study was to compare the characteristics of persons receiving care in long-term care homes serving different language groups and to examine the extent to which data quality and distributional properties of indicators vary between homes. METHODS: We used routinely collected interRAI Minimum Data Set (MDS) 2.0 assessment data from nine Canadian provinces and territories to classify 1,333 long-term care homes into predominately English, French, and mixed language groups. We compared resident characteristics, risk-adjusted quality indicator performance, and assessment data quality by facility language group. RESULTS: In these data, eighteen (1.35%) long-term care homes served predominately French-speaking residents. An additional 274 (20.54%) homes were classified as mixed language homes, where 20% or more residents spoke a language other than English or French. The remaining homes (1,042; 78.11%) were classified as English homes. We did not observe substantial differences between facility language groups in terms of resident characteristics, quality indicator performance, and data quality. CONCLUSIONS: Despite linguistic differences, long-term care homes in Canada serving residents that speak predominately French and other languages can be compared directly with homes serving predominantly English-speaking residents. These findings support language-agnostic benchmarking of quality of care among long-term care homes situated across Canada, particularly in officially bilingual provinces.

Prognosis of cardiac arrest in home care clients and nursing home residents: A population-level retrospective cohort study.

Aim: To evaluate the prognosis of 30-day survival post-cardiac arrest among patients receiving home care and nursing home residents. Methods: We conducted a population-level retrospective cohort study of community-dwelling adults (≥18 years) who received cardiac arrest care at a hospital in Ontario, Canada, between 2006 to 2018. We linked population-based health datasets using the Home Care Dataset to identify patients receiving home care and the Continuing Care Reporting System to identify nursing home residents. We included both out-of-hospital and in-hospital cardiac arrests. We determined unadjusted and adjusted associations using logistic regression after adjusting for age and sex. We converted relative measures to absolute risks. Results: Our cohort contained 86,836 individuals. Most arrests (55.5 %) occurred out-of-hospital, with 9,316 patients enrolled in home care and 2,394 residing in a nursing home. When compared to those receiving no support services, the likelihood of survival to 30-days was lower for those receiving home care (RD = -6.5; 95 %CI = -7.5 - -5.0), with similar results found within sub-groups of out-of-hospital (RD = -6.7; 95 %CI = -7.6 - -5.7) and in-hospital arrests (RD = -8.7; 95 %CI = -10.6 - -7.3). The likelihood of 30-day survival was lower for nursing home residents (RD = -7.2; 95 %CI = -9.3 - -5.3) with similar results found within sub-groups of out-of-hospital (RD = -8.6; 95 %CI = -10.6 - -5.7) and in-hospital arrests (RD = -5.0; 95 %CI = -7.8 - -2.1). Conclusion: Patients receiving home care and nursing home residents had worse overall prognoses of survival post-cardiac arrest compared to those receiving no pre-arrest support, highlighting two medically-complex groups likely to benefit from advance care planning.

Cognitive Decline in Long-term Care Residents Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Ontario, Canada.

This study examines the incidence of cognitive decline among long-term care residents in Ontario before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Predictors of improvement in urinary incontinence in the postacute setting: A Canadian cohort study.

PURPOSE: To determine factors associated with improvement in urinary incontinence (UI) for long-stay postacute, complex continuing care (CCC) patients. DESIGN: A retrospective cohort investigation of patients in a CCC setting using data obtained from the Canadian Institute for Health Information's Continuing Care Reporting System collected with interRAI Minimum Data Set 2.0. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Individuals aged 18 years and older, were admitted to CCC hospitals in Ontario, Canada, between 2010 and 2018. METHODS: Multivariable logistic regression was used to determine the independent effects of predictors on UI improvement, for patients who were somewhat or completely incontinent on admission and therefore had the potential for improvement. RESULTS: The study cohort consisted of 18 584 patients, 74% (13 779) of which were somewhat or completely incontinent upon admission. Among those patients with potential for improvement, receiving bladder training, starting a new medication 90 days prior (odds ratio, OR: 1.54 [95% confidence interval, CI: 1.36-1.75]), and triggering the interRAI Urinary Incontinence Clinical Assessment Protocol to facilitate improvement (OR: 1.36 [95% CI: 1.08-1.71]) or to prevent decline (OR: 1.32 [95% CI: 1.13-1.53]) were the strongest predictors of improvement. Conversely, being totally dependent on others for transfer (OR: 0.62 [95% CI: 0.42-0.92]), is rarely or never understood (OR: 0.65 [95% CI: 0.50-0.85]), having a major comorbidity count of ≥3 (OR: 0.72 [95% CI: 0.59-0.88]), Parkinson's disease, OR: 0.77 (95% CI: 0.62-0.95), Alzheimer/other dementia, OR: 0.83 (95% CI: 0.74-0.93), and respiratory infections, OR: 0.57 (95% CI: 0.39-0.85) independently predicted less likelihood of improvement in UI. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Findings of this study suggest that improving physical function, including bed mobility, and providing bladder retraining have strong positive impacts on improvement in UI for postacute care patients. Evidence generated from this study provides useful care planning information for care providers in identifying patients and targeting the care that may lead to better success with the management of UI.

Changes in Urinary Continence After Admission to a Complex Care Setting: A Multistate Transition Model.

OBJECTIVES: To examine changes in urinary continence for post-acute, Complex Continuing Care hospital patients from time of admission to short-term follow-up, either in hospital or after discharge to long-term care or home with services. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study of patients in Complex Continuing Care hospitals using clinical data collected with interRAI Minimum Data Set 2.0 and interRAI Resident Assessment Instrument Home Care. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Adults aged 18 years and older, admitted to Complex Continuing Care hospitals in Ontario, Canada, between 2009 and 2015 (n = 78,913). METHODS: A multistate transition model was used to characterize the association between patient characteristics measured at admission and changes in urinary continence state transitions (continent, sometimes continent, and incontinent) between admission and follow-up. RESULTS: The cohort included 27,896 patients. At admission, 9583 (34.3%) patients belonged to the continent state, 6441 (23.09%) patients belonged to the sometimes incontinent state, and the remaining 11,872 (42.6%) patients belonged to the incontinent state. For patients who were continent at admission, the majority (62.7%) remained continent at follow-up. However, nearly a quarter (23.9%) transitioned to the sometimes continent state, and an additional 13.4% became incontinent at follow-up. Several factors were associated with continence state transitions, including cognitive impairment, rehabilitation potential, stroke, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, and hip fracture. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: This study suggests that urinary incontinence is a prevalent problem for Complex Continuing Care hospital patients and multiple factors are associated with continence state transitions. Standardized assessment of urinary incontinence is helpful in this setting to identify patients in need of further assessment and patient-centered intervention and as a quality improvement metric to examine changes in continence from admission to discharge.

Examining the Effect of the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Home Care Recipients' Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Capacity.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of the pandemic on, and factors associated with, change in home care (HC) recipients' capacity for instrumental activities of daily living. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: HC recipients in Ontario, Canada, between September 1, 2018, and August 31, 2020, who were not totally dependent on others and not severely cognitively impaired at baseline. METHODS: Data were collected with the interRAI Home Care assessment. Outcomes of interest were declines in instrumental activities of daily living. Factors hypothesized to be associated with declining function were entered as independent variables into multivariable generalized estimating equations, and results were expressed as odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Those significant at P < .01 were retained in the final models. RESULTS: There were 6786 and 5019 HC recipients in the comparison and pandemic samples, respectively. Between baseline and follow-up for the 2 groups, 34.1% and 42.1% of HC recipients declined in shopping, whereas 25.2% and 30.5% declined in transportation capacity in the comparison and pandemic sample, respectively. For shopping, those with cognitive impairment (OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.76-0.89) and receiving formal care (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.62-0.85) were less likely to decline, whereas those who were older (OR 1.91, 95% CI 1.69-2.16) and had unstable health (OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.16-1.48) were more likely. For transportation, those receiving informal (OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.61-0.81) or formal care (OR 0.56, 95% CI 0.47-0.67) were less likely to decline, whereas those who were older (OR 1.81, 95% CI 1.58-2.07) and had unstable health (OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.119-1.54) were more likely. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The pandemic was associated with a decline in HC recipients' capacity for shopping and transportation. HC recipients who are older and have unstable health may benefit from preventive strategies.

Social Engagement and Distress Among Home Care Recipients During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Ontario, Canada: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

OBJECTIVES: To examine factors associated with distressing social decline and withdrawal during the COVID-19 pandemic for home care recipients. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Home care recipients age 18 years or older in Ontario, Canada without severe cognitive impairment with an assessment and follow-up between September 1, 2018 and August 31, 2020. METHODS: Data were collected using the interRAI home care. Outcomes of interest were distressing decline in social participation and social withdrawal. Independent variables were entered into multivariable longitudinal generalized estimating equations. Interaction terms with the pandemic were tested. Those significant at P < .01 were retained in final models and reported as odds ratios (ORs), 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: We compared 26,492 and 19,126 home care recipients before and during the pandemic, respectively. The pandemic was associated with greater odds of experiencing distressing social decline (OR 1.28, 95% CI 1.22‒1.34) and withdrawal (OR 1.09, 95% CI 1.04‒1.15). Living alone (OR 1.13, 95% CI 1.05‒1.22), frailty (OR 3.21, 95% CI 2.76‒3.73), health instability (OR 2.22, 95% CI 2.02‒2.44), and depression (OR 2.14, 95% CI 2.01‒2.29) increased the odds of distressing social decline. Older age (OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.65‒0.77), functional impairment (OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.51‒0.67), and receiving caregiving (OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.67‒0.79) decreased the odds. Home care recipients with mild/moderate dementia were less likely to experience distressing social decline during the pandemic. Those who lived alone were more likely. Frailty (OR 9.49, 95% CI 7.69‒11.71) and depression (OR 2.76, 95% CI 2.55‒3.00) increased the odds of social withdrawal. Functional impairment (OR 0.32, 95% CI 0.27‒0.39), congestive heart failure (OR 0.77, 95% CI 0.70‒0.84), and receiving caregiving (OR 0.50, 95% CI 0.46‒0.55) decreased the odds. Home care recipients age 18‒64 years and older than 75 years were less likely to experience social withdrawal during the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Social support interventions should focus on supporting those living alone, with frailty, health instability, or depression.

Prevalence and predictors of influenza vaccination in long-term care homes: a cross-national retrospective observational study.

OBJECTIVE: To compare facility-level influenza vaccination rates in long-term care (LTC) homes from four countries and to identify factors associated with influenza vaccination among residents. DESIGN AND SETTING: Retrospective cross-sectional study of individuals residing in LTC homes in New Brunswick (Canada), New Zealand, Switzerland, and the Netherlands between 2017 and 2020. PARTICIPANTS: LTC home residents assessed with interRAI assessment system instruments as part of routine practice in New Brunswick (n=7006) and New Zealand (n=34 518), and national pilot studies in Switzerland (n=2760) and the Netherlands (n=1508). End-of-life residents were excluded from all country cohorts. OUTCOMES: Influenza vaccination within the past year. RESULTS: Influenza vaccination rates among LTC home residents were highest in New Brunswick (84.9%) and lowest in Switzerland (63.5%). For all jurisdictions where facility-level data were available, substantial interfacility variance was observed. There was approximately a fourfold difference in the coefficient of variation for facility-level vaccination rates with the highest in Switzerland at 37.8 and lowest in New Brunswick at 9.7. Resident-level factors associated with vaccine receipt included older age, severe cognitive impairment, medical instability, health conditions affecting a greater number of organ systems and social engagement. Residents who displayed aggressive behaviours and smoke tobacco were less likely to be vaccinated. CONCLUSION: There are opportunities to increase influenza vaccine uptake at both overall country and individual facility levels. Enhanced vaccine administration monitoring programmes in LTC homes that leverage interRAI assessment systems should be widely adopted.

Patterns of home care assessment and service provision before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Canada.

OBJECTIVE: The objective was to compare home care episode, standardised assessment, and service patterns in Ontario's publicly funded home care system during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., March to September 2020) using the previous year as reference. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: We plotted monthly time series data from March 2019 to September 2020 for home care recipients in Ontario, Canada. Home care episodes were linked to interRAI Home Care assessments, interRAI Contact Assessments, and home care services. Health status measures from the patient's most recent interRAI assessment were used to stratify the receipt of personal support, nursing, and occupational or physical therapy services. Significant level and slope changes were detected using Poisson, beta, and linear regression models. RESULTS: The March to September 2020 period was associated with significantly fewer home care admissions, discharges, and standardised assessments. Among those assessed with the interRAI Home Care assessment, significantly fewer patients received any personal support services. Among those assessed with either interRAI assessment and identified to have rehabilitation needs, significantly fewer patients received any therapy services. Among patients receiving services, patients received significantly fewer hours of personal support and fewer therapy visits per month. By September 2020, the rate of admissions and services had mostly returned to pre-pandemic levels, but completion of standardised assessments lagged behind. CONCLUSION: The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with substantial changes in Ontario's publicly funded home care system. Although it may have been necessary to prioritise service delivery during a crisis situation, standardised assessments are needed to support individualised patient care and system-level monitoring. Given the potential disruptions to home care services, future studies should examine the impact of the pandemic on the health and well-being of home care recipients and their caregiving networks.

Interactive Visualization Applications in Population Health and Health Services Research: Systematic Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: Simple visualizations in health research data, such as scatter plots, heat maps, and bar charts, typically present relationships between 2 variables. Interactive visualization methods allow for multiple related facets such as numerous risk factors to be studied simultaneously, leading to data insights through exploring trends and patterns from complex big health care data. The technique presents a powerful tool that can be used in combination with statistical analysis for knowledge discovery, hypothesis generation and testing, and decision support. OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of this scoping review is to describe and summarize the evidence of interactive visualization applications, methods, and tools being used in population health and health services research (HSR) and their subdomains in the last 15 years, from January 1, 2005, to March 30, 2019. Our secondary objective is to describe the use cases, metrics, frameworks used, settings, target audience, goals, and co-design of applications. METHODS: We adapted standard scoping review guidelines with a peer-reviewed search strategy: 2 independent researchers at each stage of screening and abstraction, with a third independent researcher to arbitrate conflicts and validate findings. A comprehensive abstraction platform was built to capture the data from diverse bodies of literature, primarily from the computer science and health care sectors. After screening 11,310 articles, we present findings from 56 applications from interrelated areas of population health and HSR, as well as their subdomains such as epidemiologic surveillance, health resource planning, access, and use and costs among diverse clinical and demographic populations. RESULTS: In this companion review to our earlier systematic synthesis of the literature on visual analytics applications, we present findings in 6 major themes of interactive visualization applications developed for 8 major problem categories. We found a wide application of interactive visualization methods, the major ones being epidemiologic surveillance for infectious disease, resource planning, health service monitoring and quality, and studying medication use patterns. The data sources included mostly secondary administrative and electronic medical record data. In addition, at least two-thirds of the applications involved participatory co-design approaches while introducing a distinct category, embedded research, within co-design initiatives. These applications were in response to an identified need for data-driven insights into knowledge generation and decision support. We further discuss the opportunities stemming from the use of interactive visualization methods in studying global health; inequities, including social determinants of health; and other related areas. We also allude to the challenges in the uptake of these methods. CONCLUSIONS: Visualization in health has strong historical roots, with an upward trend in the use of these methods in population health and HSR. Such applications are being fast used by academic and health care agencies for knowledge discovery, hypotheses generation, and decision support. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR2-10.2196/14019.