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Existing evidence on long-term psychotropic polypharmacy in older people is scarce despite serious safety concerns regarding this issue. This study aims to identify distinct trajectories of longitudinal psychotropic agent use and to examine the association with the risk of mortality and unplanned hospitalization according to distinct trajectories. A retrospective longitudinal cohort study based on data from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). A population-based study including 39,803 eligible participants aged 65 years or older who were newly prescribed oral psychotropic agents in 2004. We assessed 5 years of monthly consumption of psychotropic agents among eligible participants and used group-based trajectory modeling to identify distinct groups of longitudinal psychotropic use. Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine the association between distinct trajectories of longitudinal psychotropic agent use and subsequent 1- and 3-year unplanned hospitalization and all-cause mortality. Among 39,803 eligible participants, we identified 5 trajectories of longitudinal psychotropic agent use over a 5-year follow-up period: sustained intense (7.1%), moderate increasing (12.1%), decreasing (13.4%), slowly increasing (15.7%), and infrequent users (51.6%). Moderate increasing and sustained intense use were associated with significantly higher risks of unplanned hospitalization [moderate increasing use: hazard ratio [HR] 1.30, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.18-1.44; sustained intense use: HR 1.40, 95% CI 1.24-1.58] and all-cause mortality (moderate increasing use: HR 1.25, 95% CI 1.09-1.44; sustained intense use: HR 1.32, 95% CI 1.12-1.56) than infrequent use. Similar results were observed at 3 years of follow-up. Older people with moderately increasing and sustained intense use of psychotropic agents over time had higher risks of unplanned hospitalization and mortality. Tracking older people's use of psychotropic agents over time may help to identify individuals at greatest risk of unplanned hospitalization and mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objective: To evaluate the role of allostatic load (AL), either static or dynamic measurements, in predicting all-cause and cause-specific mortality of older people in Taiwan. Design: A prospective cohort study. Setting: Population-based community study. Participants: One thousand twenty-three community-dwelling older people. Measurements: Allostatic load (calculated by systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglyceride, glycosylated hemoglobin, fasting glucose, waist-to-hip ratio, body mass index, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, insulin-like growth factor-1, 12-hour urine cortisol, 12-hour urine epinephrine, 12-hour urine norepinephrine, 12-hour urine dopamine, white blood cell count, neutrophils, interleukin-6, albumin, creatinine) and all-cause and cause-specific mortality from national death registry. Intervention: None. Results: Adjusted for age and sex, each 1-point increase in AL score was associated with 20% incremental risk of mortality [hazard ratio 1.20, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.09–1.31]. This association can be extended to cause-specific mortality in both sexes in general. In addition, the higher AL score quintile was significantly associated with higher risk of 10-year all-cause mortality (P < .0001). This association was consistent across different cause-specific mortality (ie, malignant neoplasm (P = .008), cardiometabolic diseases (P < .0001), infectious diseases (P < .0001), respiratory diseases (P < .0001), and others (P = .0002), respectively. Compared with AL score decliners, adjusted for age, sex, and baseline AL score in 2000, participants with fast increase had significantly higher mortality (HR 2.68, 95% CI 1.23–5.84, P = .01). The effect was stronger in men (HR 2.83, 95% CI 1.1–7.29, P = .03 in slow increase; HR 4.06, 95% CI 1.56–10.6, P = .001 in fast increase group), but it was insignificant in female participants. Conclusions: Higher AL score or rapid increase of AL score significantly increased subsequent mortality risk in older adults, either measured statically or dynamically. AL is predictive of 10-year mortality regardless of cause of death, and rapid increase in AL score is associated with higher subsequent mortality. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Objective: To evaluate the outcome of vertebroplasty or kyphoplasty (VK), in comparison with non-VK treatment, among patients hospitalized for first-ever vertebral compression fractures (VCFs). Design: A population-based retrospective cohort study. Setting: Taiwan’ s National Health Insurance claims data. Participants: All individuals aged ≥60 years who were newly discharged after hospitalization for a primary VCF diagnosis. Intervention: Percutaneous vertebroplasty or kyphoplasty. Measurements: Study outcomes were discharge outcome (re-hospitalization within 1 week, 1 month or 6 months, categorized by diagnosis) and the prescription of anti-osteoporosis medication for secondary fracture prevention. Potential selection bias was adjusted by using propensity score matching to select one conservatively treated patient (e.g. lumbar brace, analgesics, or physical therapy) matched to one patient receiving VK. Results: The study cohort consisted of 9238 patients who had been discharged after hospitalization for a first-ever VCF between 2004 and 2007. During the index hospitalization, 1018 patients received VK, compared with 8,220 patients who did not receive VK. Patients receiving percutaneous procedure group had a consistently lower incidence of 7-day re-hospitalization for any of the three outcomes (OR = 0.48; 95% CI: 0.32–0.72). Considering the cause of re-hospitalization separately, the vertebroplasty/kyphoplasty group had a significantly lower risk of 7-day re-hospitalization for fracture-related diagnosis (OR = 0.28, 95% CI: 0.12–0.68) and musculoskeletal diagnosis (OR = 0.08, 95% CI: 0.01–0.88) as well as a significantly lower risk of 1-month re-hospitalization (OR = 0.74; 95% CI: 0.59–0.93). Conclusions: VK may protect patients with VCFs from short-term re-hospitalization and a greater need exists for anti-osteoporosis medication as secondary prevention for this at-risk patient group. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Existing studies cannot evaluate the time-varying properties of frailty and polypharmacy despite raising concerns about their combined effects in older individuals. This study investigated the longitudinal association between different combined statuses of frailty and polypharmacy on risks of adverse outcomes. Retrospective cohort study. Subjects aged between 65 and 100 years (n = 100,000) were identified from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database. Frailty was categorized into fit, mild, moderate, and severe frailty based on the multimorbidity frailty index. Concomitant use of 5 to 9 and ≥10 chronic medications was considered polypharmacy and excessive polypharmacy. We used generalized estimating equation models to examine the association among 12 groups of combined effects of frailty and polypharmacy and risks of all-cause mortality, all-cause hospitalization, and unplanned hospitalization. Age-stratified analyses were conducted for those aged 65 to 74, 75 to 84, and 85+ years. Compared with fit without polypharmacy, severe frailty with excess polypharmacy was associated with increased risks of adverse outcomes, particularly unplanned hospitalization (adjusted relative risk (aRR): 20.01 [95% confidence interval (CI)] 19.30–20.75). However, the combined effects varied in distinct groups. Within each polypharmacy category, there were dose-response associations between frailty category and adverse outcomes. For instance, within the polypharmacy group, the aRRs of mortality were 1.58 (1.52–1.64), 2.70 (2.60–2.80), 4.62 (4.44–4.82), and 6.81 (6.50–7.13) for the fit and mild, moderate, and severe frailty groups, respectively. By contrast, within each frailty category, the dose-response association between polypharmacy and adverse outcomes was limited to fit and mildly frail people. Age-stratified analyses yielded similar results. Both frailty and polypharmacy modified the risks of mortality and hospital admissions in older people, but the combined effects varied in distinct groups. This study thus highlights the potential to optimize care of older people by capturing the dynamic and combined changes related to frailty and polypharmacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before launching large clinical trials to confirm the effects of statins in improving outcomes among men with prostate cancer (PC), the most appropriate target patient population and the type of statins need to be clearly identified. A retrospective cohort study was conducted using the Taiwan Cancer Registry of 2008–2014. This study included 5749 men with locally advanced and metastatic PC who received only androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in the first year after their cancer diagnosis. Statin users were defined as anyone who was prescribed statins for >28 days. An inverse probability of treatment-weighted Cox model was used to estimate the effects of statin use on all-cause mortality and PC-specific mortality (PCSM) while treating the statin status as a time-dependent variable. Overall, 2259 patients died, and 1495 of them died of PC during a median follow-up of 3.6 years from 1 year after their diagnosis. Statin use was associated with significant reductions in all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.78, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.70–0.86) and PCSM (HR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.68–0.86) for metastatic disease and all-cause mortality (HR = 0.66, 95% CI: 0.54–0.81) for locally advanced disease. Patients who received atorvastatin, pravastatin, rosuvastatin or pitavastatin showed a stronger reduction in mortality than those who received other statins. Benefits of statins were consistently observed in men who received post-diagnostic statins, even in those with high comorbidities or an old age. Our results suggest that only atorvastatin, pravastatin and rosuvastatin were associated with improved survival in advanced PC patients receiving ADT. • Statins are potential candidates for secondary prevention in metastatic prostate cancer. • Atorvastatin, pravastatin, and rosuvastatin demonstrated greater survival benefits than other types of statins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The benefit of therapeutic hypothermia (TH) to patients suffering out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) has been well established. However, the effect of prehospital cooling remains unclear. We aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of prehospital TH for OHCA patients by conducting a systematic review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs).Methods: The MEDLINE, EMbase and CENTRAL databases were searched for publications from inception to April 2015. RCTs that compared cooling with no cooling in a prehospital setting among adults with OHCA were eligible for inclusion. Random- and fixed-effect models were used depending on inter-study heterogeneity.Results: Eight trials that recruited 2379 participants met the inclusion criteria. Prehospital TH was significantly associated with a lower temperature at admission (mean difference (MD) -0.94; 95% confidence interval (CI) -1.06 to -0.82). However, survival upon admission (Risk ratio (RR) 1.01, 95%CI 0.98-1.04), survival at discharge (RR 1.02, 95%CI 0.91-1.14), in-hospital survival (RR 1.05, 95%CI 0.92-1.19) and good neurological function recovery (RR 1.06, 95% CI 0.91-1.23) did not differ between the TH-treated and non-treated groups. Prehospital cooling increased the incidence of recurrent arrest (RR 1.23, 95%CI 1.02-1.48) and decreased the PH at admission (MD -0.04, 95%CI -0.07 to -0.02). Pulmonary oedema did not differ between the arms (RR 1.02, 95%CI 0.67-1.57). None of the potentially controversial issues (cooling methods, time of inducing TH, the proportion of continuing cooling in hospital, actual prehospital infusion volume and primary cardiac rhythms) affected the efficacy.Conclusion: Evidence does not support the administration of prehospital TH to patients with OHCA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To establish and validate a nomogram that predicts the risk of sarcopenia for community-dwelling older residents. Retrospective study. A total of 1050 community-dwelling older adults. Data from a survey of community-dwelling older residents (≥60 years old) in Hunan, China, from June to September 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. The survey included general demographic information, diet, and exercise habits. Sarcopenia diagnosis was according to 2019 Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia criteria. Participants were randomly divided into the development group and validation groups. Independent risk factors were screened by multivariate logistic regression analysis. Based on the independent risk factors, a nomogram model was developed to predict the risk of sarcopenia for community-dwelling older adults. Both in the development and validation sets, the discrimination, calibration, and clinical practicability of the nomogram were verified using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, Hosmer-Lemeshow test, and decision curve analysis, respectively. Sarcopenia was identified in 263 (25.0%) participants. Age, body mass index, marital status, regular physical activity habit, uninterrupted sedentary time, and dietary diversity score were significant contributors to sarcopenia risk. A nomogram for predicting sarcopenia in community-dwelling older adults was developed using these factors. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that the area under the curve was 0.827 (95% CI 0.792-0.860) and 0.755 (95% CI 0.680-0.837) in the development and validation sets, respectively. The Hosmer-Lemeshow test yielded P values of.609 and.565, respectively, for the 2 sets. The nomogram demonstrated a high net benefit in the clinical decision curve in both sets. This study developed and validated a risk prediction nomogram for sarcopenia among community-dwelling older adults. Sarcopenia risk was classified as low (<11%), moderate (11%-70%), and high (>70%). This nomogram provides an accurate visual tool to medical staff, caregivers, and older adults for prediction, early intervention, and graded management of sarcopenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: A link between the use of alendronate and atypical diaphyseal femoral fracture has been suggested. Objective: The goal of this study was to evaluate the benefits of alendronate in preventing rehospitalization due to hip fractures and whether its use increases risk of hospitalization for atypical diaphyseal femoral fractures in Taiwan. Methods: Using Taiwan''s National Health Insurance database, we identified women with osteoporosis with a first-ever hospitalization for vertebral or hip fractures between 2001 and 2007, which consisted of all patients receiving alendronate, raloxifene, calcitonin salmon, or teriparatide after the index fracture hospitalization. Data of untreated women were obtained as the untreated cohort. Study outcomes were defined as a rehospitalization due to hip fracture or a new hospitalization for subtrochanteric or diaphyseal femoral fracture. Results: Among 11,278 women identified (mean age, 77 years), 2425 (21.5%) received alendronate, 2694 (23.9%) received other antiosteoporosis drugs, and 6159 (54.6%) were untreated. Patients in each group were comparable in fracture history and major comorbidities; untreated patients were more likely to have stroke (11.2%; P = 0.01) and those treated with alendronate were more likely to have a history of hyperlipidemia (16.2%; P = 0.03). Compared with the untreated patient cohort, our analysis suggested that patients prescribed alendronate were associated with decreased risk of rehospitalization due to hip fracture (hazard ratio = 0.67 [95% CI, 0.54–0.82]). Neither patients prescribed alendronate, nor those prescribed other antiosteoporosis drugs, differed significantly from the untreated patient cohort in terms of risk of hospitalization for atypical femoral fracture (adjusted hazard ratios = 0.77 and 0.49 [95% CI, 0.40–1.47 and 0.22–1.12], respectively). Consistent with these data, short- or long-term alendronate use was not found to be significantly associated with higher risk of atypical femoral fractures. Conclusions: This study in Taiwanese patients suggests that alendronate use was associated with a reduction in risk of rehospitalization due to hip fracture. We did not find a significant association between alendronate use and risk of hospitalization for atypical femoral fracture. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The 2019 Asian Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (AWGS 2019) recommends using either calf circumference or the strength, assistance in walking, rising from a chair, climbing stairs, and falls (SARC-F) or SARC-F combined with calf circumference (SARC-CalF) questionnaires for sarcopenia screening. The aim of this study was to compare the ability and applicability of calf circumference, SARC-F, and SARC-CalF for screening sarcopenia among community-dwelling older adults. Cross-sectional study. A total of 1050 community-dwelling older people were enrolled. Sarcopenia was diagnosed according to the AWGS 2019 criteria: bioimpedance analysis for appendicular skeletal muscle index, hand grip, and 6-m gait speed test. Participants also completed the SARC-F questionnaire and calf circumference measurement. The screening tools' performances were evaluated through receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, area under the ROC curves (AUC), and sensitivity/specificity analyses. Sarcopenia was identified in 263 (25.0%) participants by the AWGS 2019 criteria. Calf circumference had a sensitivity of 81.4% and a specificity of 77.0%. Sensitivity and specificity of SARC-F for screening sarcopenia were 17.9% and 93.7%, respectively. SARC-CalF improved the sensitivity of SARC-F (47.5%) while keeping similar specificity (92.0%). The AUCs of calf circumference, SARC-F, and SARC-CalF were 0.79 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.77–0.82], 0.56 (95% CI, 0.52–0.59), and 0.70 (95% CI, 0.67–0.73), respectively. The differences across ROC curves were statistically significant among 3 screening tools (P <.001). The overall screening ability of calf circumference was better than that of SARC-F and SARC-CalF for sarcopenia in community-dwelling older persons despite gender, age, and cognitive function. SARC-F and SARC-CalF have high specificity but are susceptible to the preceding factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]