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Objectives To perform an economic evaluation of a primary care-based physical activity counseling intervention that improved physical activity levels and rapid gait speed in older veterans. Design Secondary objective of randomized trial that assessed the effect of exercise counseling (relative to usual care) on physical performance, physical activity, function, disability, and medical resource use and cost. Setting Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina. Participants Male veterans aged ≥70 years (n = 398). Intervention An experienced health counselor provided baseline in-person exercise counseling, followed by telephone counseling at 2, 4, and 6 weeks, and monthly thereafter through one year. Each participant's primary care physician provided initial endorsement of the intervention, followed by monthly automated telephone messages tailored to the patient. Individualized progress reports were mailed quarterly. Measurements Intervention costs were assessed. Health care resource use and costs were estimated from enrollment through one year follow-up. The incremental cost of achieving clinically significant changes in major trial endpoints was calculated. Results The total direct cost of the intervention per participant was $459, 85% of which was counselor effort. With overhead, program cost totaled $696 per participant. Medical costs during follow-up reached $10,418 with the intervention, versus $12,052 with usual care (difference = −$1,634 (95% confidence interval = −$4,683 to $1,416; P = .29)). Expressed in terms of short-term clinical outcomes, the intervention cost $4,971 per additional patient reaching target exercise levels, or $4,640 per patient achieving a clinically significant change in rapid gait speed. Conclusion Improvements in physical activity and rapid gait speed in the physical activity counseling group were obtained at a cost that represents a small fraction of patients' annual health care costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence and type of suboptimal pharmacotherapy that older veterans discharged from the emergency department (ED) or urgent care clinic (UCC) receive and to examine factors associated with suboptimal pharmacotherapy in this population. DESIGN: Retrospective, cohort study. SETTING: An academically affiliated Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) Medical Center. PARTICIPANTS: Four hundred twenty-one veterans aged 65 and older who were prescribed a new medication at the time of discharge from the ED or UCC. MEASUREMENTS: The primary dependent variable, suboptimal pharmacotherapy, was a composite measure defined as one or more drug-related problems, based on drugs-to-avoid criteria, drug–drug interactions, drug–disease interactions, and failure to satisfy an explicit quality indicator for prescribing or medication monitoring. RESULTS: A total of 757 drugs were prescribed to the 421 patients at the time of discharge from the ED or UCC (mean number±standard deviation per patient 1.65±1.1). The most frequently prescribed medications were nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (n=59), opioid analgesics (n=47), and fluoroquinolone antibiotics (n=46). Overall, 134 (31.8%) subjects were found to have suboptimal pharmacotherapy with regard to their discharge medications; 49 (11.6%) were prescribed a drug to avoid, 53 (12.6%) received a drug that introduced a new drug–drug interaction, 24 (5.7%) were given a drug that introduced a drug–disease interaction, and 74 (17.6%) did not have a quality indicator satisfied (61% of these evaluated prescribing and 39% evaluated medication monitoring). No consistent associations between patient or visit characteristics and suboptimal pharmacotherapy were identified in multivariable models. CONCLUSION: A substantial number of older adults discharged from the ED or UCC may be at risk for adverse events due to suboptimal prescribing and inadequate medication monitoring. Further study is needed to examine the relationship between suboptimal pharmacotherapy and adverse clinical outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To ascertain whether use of mechanical ventilation on admission to the hospital is a proxy indicator of coma (i.e., very severe stroke) among acute stroke patients.Methods: A secondary analysis of data from a medical record review on a nationally representative sample of 2,824 Medicare patients, ages 65 years or older, who were hospitalized for stroke in 1982-1983 or 1985-1986 in 297 acute care hospitals in 30 areas within five geographically dispersed states.Results: Use of mechanical ventilation on the first day of hospitalization was significantly associated with level of consciousness on admission: < 2 percent of noncomatose patients versus 17.5 percent of comatose (p < .001). With a high specificity and high likelihood ratio for a positive test, use of mechanical ventilation on the first day of hospitalization ruled-in coma. It was also significantly associated with severity of illness, prognostic indicators (i.e., admission through the emergency room, admission to intensive care, and having a "do-not-resuscitate" order written during the hospital stay), and with in-hospital death. Adjusting for patient demographics, stroke type, comorbidity, and process of care, early initiation of mechanical ventilation remained significantly associated with both coma and in-hospital death.Conclusions: A stroke patient's use of mechanical ventilation on the first day of hospitalization is a valid proxy indicator of level of consciousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]