Browsing by Author "Callahan, Christopher M."
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Item Adherence and Tolerability of Alzheimer's Disease Medications: A Pragmatic Randomized Trial(Wiley, 2017-07) Campbell, Noll L.; Perkins, Anthony J.; Gao, Sujuan; Skaar, Todd C.; Li, Lang; Hendrie, Hugh C.; Fowler, Nicole; Callahan, Christopher M.; Boustani, Malaz A.; Department of Medicine, IU School of MedicineBACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Post-marketing comparative trials describe medication use patterns in diverse, real-world populations. Our objective was to determine if differences in rates of adherence and tolerability exist among new users to acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEI's). DESIGN: Pragmatic randomized, open label comparative trial of AChEI's currently available in the United States. SETTING: Four memory care practices within four healthcare systems in the greater Indianapolis area. PARTICIPANTS: Eligibility criteria included older adults with a diagnosis of possible or probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) who were initiating treatment with an AChEI. Participants were required to have a caregiver to complete assessments, access to a telephone, and be able to understand English. Exclusion criteria consisted of a prior severe adverse event from AChEIs. INTERVENTION: Participants were randomized to one of three AChEIs in a 1:1:1 ratio and followed for 18 weeks. MEASUREMENTS: Caregiver-reported adherence, defined as taking or not taking study medication, and caregiver-reported adverse events, defined as the presence of an adverse event. RESULTS: 196 participants were included with 74.0% female, 30.6% African Americans, and 72.9% who completed at least twelfth grade. Discontinuation rates after 18 weeks were 38.8% for donepezil, 53.0% for galantamine, and 58.7% for rivastigmine (P = .063) in the intent to treat analysis. Adverse events and cost explained 73.1% and 25.4% of discontinuation. No participants discontinued donepezil due to cost. Adverse events were reported by 81.2% of all participants; no between-group differences in total adverse events were statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: This pragmatic comparative trial showed high rates of adverse events and cost-related non-adherence with AChEIs. Interventions improving adherence and persistence to AChEIs may improve AD management. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT01362686 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01362686).Item Age Differences in the Association Between Body Mass Index Class and Annualized Medicare Expenditures(SAGE, 2016-02) Clark, Daniel O.; Lane, Kathleen A.; Ambuehl, Roberta; Tu, Wanzhu; Liu, Chiung-Ju; Unroe, Kathleen; Callahan, Christopher M.; Department of Medicine, IU School of MedicineOBJECTIVE: The aim of the study is to assess the relationship between body mass index (BMI) class and Medicare claims among young-old (65-69), old (70-74), and old-old (75+) adults over a 10-year period. METHOD: We assessed costs by BMI class and age group among 9,300 respondents to the 1998 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) with linked 1998-2008 Medicare claims data. BMI was classified as normal (18.5-24.9), overweight (25-29.9), mild obesity (30-34.9), or severe obesity (35 or above). RESULTS: Annualized total Medicare claims adjusted for age, gender, ethnicity, education, and smoking history were 109% greater for severely obese young-old adults in comparison with normal weight young-old adults (US$9,751 vs. US$4,663). Total annualized claim differences between the normal weight and severely obese in the old and old-old groups were not statistically significant. DISCUSSION: Excess Medicare expenditures related to obesity may be concentrated among severely obese young-old adults. Preventing severe obesity among middle and older aged adults may have large cost implications for society.Item Antidepressant Use in the Elderly Is Associated With an Increased Risk of Dementia(Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer) - Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2016-04) Wang, Chenkun; Gao, Sujuan; Hendrie, Hugh C.; Kesterson, Joe; Campbell, Noll L.; Shekhar, Anantha; Callahan, Christopher M.; Biostatistics, School of Public HealthA retrospective cohort study was conducted including 3688 patients age 60 years or older without dementia enrolled in a depression screening study in primary care clinics. Information on antidepressant use and incident dementia during follow-up was retrieved from electronic medical records. The Cox proportional hazard models were used to compare the risk for incident dementia among 5 participant groups: selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI) only, non-SSRI only (non-SSRI), mixed group of SSRI and non-SSRI, not on antidepressants but depressed, and not on antidepressants and not depressed. SSRI and non-SSRI users had significantly higher dementia risk than the nondepressed nonusers (hazard ratio [HR]=1.83, P=0.0025 for SSRI users and HR=1.50, P=0.004 for non-SSRI users). In addition, SSRIs users had significantly higher dementia risk than non-users with severe depression (HR=2.26, P=0.0005). Future research is needed to confirm our results in other populations and to explore potential mechanism underlying the observed association.Item Antihypertensive Medication and Dementia Risk in Older Adult African Americans with Hypertension: A Prospective Cohort Study(Springer, 2018-04) Murray, Michael D.; Hendrie, Hugh C.; Lane, Kathleen A.; Zheng, Mengjie; Ambuehl, Roberta; Li, Shanshan; Unverzagt, Frederick W.; Callahan, Christopher M.; Gao, Sujuan; Psychiatry, School of MedicineBACKGROUND: African Americans are especially at risk of hypertension and dementia. Antihypertensive medications reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, but may also reduce the risk of dementia. OBJECTIVE: To assess the longitudinal effects of antihypertensive medications and blood pressure on the onset of incident dementia in a cohort of African Americans. DESIGN: Prospective cohort. PARTICIPANTS: 1236 community-dwelling patients from an inner-city public health care system, aged 65 years and older, with a history of hypertension but no history of dementia, and who had at least three primary care visits and a prescription filled for any medication. MAIN MEASURES: Blood pressure was the average of three seated measurements. Dementia was diagnosed using a two-stage design, with a screening evaluation every 2 to 3 years followed by a comprehensive in-home clinical evaluation for those with a positive screen. Laboratory, inpatient and outpatient encounter data, coded diagnoses and procedures, and medication records were derived from a health information exchange. KEY RESULTS: Of the 1236 hypertensive participants without dementia at baseline, 114 (9%) developed incident dementia during follow-up. Individuals prescribed any antihypertensive medication (n = 816) were found to have a significantly reduced risk of dementia (HR = 0.57, 95% CI 0.37-0.88, p = 0.0114) compared to untreated hypertensive participants (n = 420). When this analysis was repeated including a variable indicating suboptimally treated blood pressure (> 140 mmHg systolic or >90 mmHg diastolic), the effect of antihypertensive medication was no longer statistically significant (HR = 0.65, 95% CI 0.32-1.30, p = 0.2217). CONCLUSIONS: Control of blood pressure in older adult African American patients with hypertension is a key intervention for preventing dementia, with similar benefits from most of the commonly available antihypertensive medications.Item APOE ε4 and the risk for Alzheimer disease and cognitive decline in African Americans and Yoruba(Cambridge University Press, 2014-06) Hendrie, Hugh C.; Murrell, Jill; Baiyewu, Olusegun; Lane, Kathleen A.; Purnell, Christianna; Ogunniyi, Adesola; Unverzagt, Frederick W.; Hall, Kathleen; Callahan, Christopher M.; Saykin, Andrew J.; Gureje, Oye; Hake, Ann; Foroud, Tatiana; Gao, Sujuan; Department of Psychiatry, IU School of MedicineBackground There is little information on the association of the APOEe4 allele and AD risk in African populations. In previous analyses from the Indianapolis-Ibadan dementia project, we have reported that APOE ε4 increased the risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in African Americans but not in Yoruba. This study represents a replication of this earlier work using enriched cohorts and extending the analysis to include cognitive decline. Methods In this longitudinal study of two community dwelling cohorts of elderly Yoruba and African Americans, APOE genotyping was conducted from blood samples taken on or before 2001 (1,871 African Americans & 2,200 Yoruba). Mean follow up time was 8.5 years for African Americans and 8.8 years for Yoruba. The effects of heterozygosity or homozygosity of ε4 and of the possession of e4 on time to incident AD and on cognitive decline were determined using Cox’s proportional hazards regression and mixed effects models. Results After adjusting for covariates, one or two copies of the APOE ε4 allele were significant risk factors for incident AD (p < 0.0001) and cognitive decline in the African-American population (p < 0001). In the Yoruba, only homozygosity for APOE ε4 was a significant risk factor for AD (p = 0.0002) but not for cognitive decline (p = 0.2346), however, possession of an e4 allele was significant for both incident AD (p = 0.0489) and cognitive decline (p = 0.0425). Conclusions In this large longitudinal comparative study, APOE ε4 had a significant, but weaker, effect on incident AD and on cognitive decline in Yoruba than in African Americans. The reasons for these differences remain unclear.Item Communicating with Clinicians: The Experiences of Surrogate Decision‐Makers for Hospitalized Older Adults(2012-08) Torke, Alexia M.; Petronio, Sandra; Purnell, Christianna E.; Sachs, Greg A.; Helft, Paul R.; Callahan, Christopher M.OBJECTIVES: To describe communication experiences of surrogates who had recently made a major medical decision for a hospitalized older adult. DESIGN: Semistructured interviews about a recent hospitalization. SETTING: Two hospitals affiliated with one large medical school: an urban public hospital and a university-affiliated tertiary referral hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Surrogates were eligible if they had recently made a major medical decision for a hospitalized individual aged 65 and older and were available for an interview within 1 month (2-5 months if the patient died). MEASUREMENTS: Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using methods of grounded theory. RESULTS: Thirty-five surrogates were interviewed (80% female, 44% white, 56% African American). Three primary themes emerged. First, it was found that the nature of surrogate-clinician relationships was best characterized as a relationship with a "team" of clinicians rather than individual clinicians because of frequent staff changes and multiple clinicians. Second, surrogates reported their communication needs, including frequent communication, information, and emotional support. Surrogates valued communication from any member of the clinical team, including nurses, social workers, and physicians. Third, surrogates described trust and mistrust, which were formed largely through surrogates' communication experiences. CONCLUSION: In the hospital, surrogates form relationships with a "team" of clinicians rather than with individuals, yet effective communication and expressions of emotional support frequently occur, which surrogates value highly. Future interventions should focus on meeting surrogates' needs for frequent communication and high levels of information and emotional support.Item Comorbidity Profile and Health Care Utilization in Elderly Patients with Serious Mental Illnesses(Elsevier, 2013-12) Hendrie, Hugh C.; Hay, Don; Lane, Kathleen A.; Gao, Sujuan; Purnell, Christianna; Munger, Stephanie; Smith, Faye; Dickens, Jeanne; Boustani, Malaz A.; Callahan, Christopher M.; Department of Psychiatry, IU School of MedicineObjectives Patients with serious mental illness are living longer. Yet there remain few studies that focus on health care utilization and its relationship to comorbidities in these elderly mentally ill patients. Design Comparative study. Information on demographics, comorbidities and health care utilization were taken from an electronic medical record system. Setting Wishard Health Services senior care and community mental health clinics. Participants Patients age 65 years and over-255 patients with serious mental illness (schizophrenia, major recurrent depression and bipolar illness) attending a mental health clinic and a representative sample of 533 non-demented patients without serious mental illness attending primary care clinics. Results Patients having serious mental illness had significantly higher rates of medical emergency room visits (p=0.0027) and significantly longer lengths of medical hospitalizations (p<0.0001) than did the primary care control group. The frequency of medical comorbidities such as diabetes, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, thyroid disease, and cancer were not significantly different between the groups. Hypertension was lower in the mentally ill group (p<0.0001). Reported falls (p<0.0001), diagnoses of substance abuse (p=0.02), and alcoholism (p=0.0016) were higher in the seriously mentally ill. The differences in health care utilization between the groups remained significant after adjusting for comorbidity levels, lifestyle factors, and attending primary care. Conclusions Our findings of higher rates of emergency care, longer hospitalizations, and increased frequency of falls, substance abuse, and alcoholism suggest the elderly seriously mentally ill remain a vulnerable population requiring an integrated model of health care.Item Comparing Crowdsourcing and Friendsourcing: A Social Media-Based Feasibility Study to Support Alzheimer Disease Caregivers(JMIR Publications, 2017-04-10) Bateman, Daniel Robert; Brady, Erin; Wilkerson, David A.; Yi, Eun-Hye; Karanam, Yamini; Callahan, Christopher M.; Psychiatry, School of MedicineBACKGROUND: In the United States, over 15 million informal caregivers provide unpaid care to people with Alzheimer disease (AD). Compared with others in their age group, AD caregivers have higher rates of stress, and medical and psychiatric illnesses. Psychosocial interventions improve the health of caregivers. However, constraints of time, distance, and availability inhibit the use of these services. Newer online technologies, such as social media, online groups, friendsourcing, and crowdsourcing, present alternative methods of delivering support. However, limited work has been done in this area with caregivers. OBJECTIVE: The primary aims of this study were to determine (1) the feasibility of innovating peer support group work delivered through social media with friendsourcing, (2) whether the intervention provides an acceptable method for AD caregivers to obtain support, and (3) whether caregiver outcomes were affected by the intervention. A Facebook app provided support to AD caregivers through collecting friendsourced answers to caregiver questions from participants' social networks. The study's secondary aim was to descriptively compare friendsourced answers versus crowdsourced answers. METHODS: We recruited AD caregivers online to participate in a 6-week-long asynchronous, online, closed group on Facebook, where caregivers received support through moderator prompts, group member interactions, and friendsourced answers to caregiver questions. We surveyed and interviewed participants before and after the online group to assess their needs, views on technology, and experience with the intervention. Caregiver questions were pushed automatically to the participants' Facebook News Feed, allowing participants' Facebook friends to see and post answers to the caregiver questions (Friendsourced answers). Of these caregiver questions, 2 were pushed to crowdsource workers through the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform. We descriptively compared characteristics of these crowdsourced answers with the friendsourced answers. RESULTS: In total, 6 AD caregivers completed the initial online survey and semistructured telephone interview. Of these, 4 AD caregivers agreed to participate in the online Facebook closed group activity portion of the study. Friendsourcing and crowdsourcing answers to caregiver questions had similar rates of acceptability as rated by content experts: 90% (27/30) and 100% (45/45), respectively. Rates of emotional support and informational support for both groups of answers appeared to trend with the type of support emphasized in the caregiver question (emotional vs informational support question). Friendsourced answers included more shared experiences (20/30, 67%) than did crowdsourced answers (4/45, 9%). CONCLUSIONS: We found an asynchronous, online, closed group on Facebook to be generally acceptable as a means to deliver support to caregivers of people with AD. This pilot is too small to make judgments on effectiveness; however, results trended toward an improvement in caregivers' self-efficacy, sense of support, and perceived stress, but these results were not statistically significant. Both friendsourced and crowdsourced answers may be an acceptable way to provide informational and emotional support to caregivers of people with AD.Item Complex Transitions from Skilled Nursing Facility to Home: Patient and Caregiver Perspectives(Springer, 2021) Carnahan, Jennifer L.; Inger, Lev; Rawl, Susan M.; Iloabuchi, Tochukwu C.; Clark, Daniel O.; Callahan, Christopher M.; Torke, Alexia M.; Medicine, School of MedicineBackground: Patients who undergo the complex series of transitions from the hospital to a skilled nursing facility (SNF) back to home represent a unique patient population with multiple comorbidities and impaired functional abilities. The needs and outcomes of patients who are discharged from the hospital to SNF before returning home are understudied in care transitions scholarship. Objective: To study the patient and caregiver challenges and perspectives on transitions from the hospital to the SNF and back to home. Design: Between 48 h and 1 week after discharge from the SNF, semi-structured interviews were performed with a convenience sample of patients and caregivers in their homes. Within 1 to 2 weeks after the baseline interview, follow-up interviews were performed over the phone. Participants: A total of 39 interviewees comprised older adults undergoing the series of transitions from hospital to skilled nursing facility to home and their informal caregivers. Main measures: A constructionist, grounded-theory approach was used to code the interviews, identify major themes and subthemes, and develop a theoretical model explaining the outcomes of the SNF to home transition. Key results: The mean age of the patients was 76.6 years and 64.8 years for the caregivers. Four major themes were identified: comforts of home, information needs, post-SNF care, and independence. Patients noted an extended time away from home and were motivated to return to and remain in the home. Information needs were variably met and affected post-SNF care, including medication management, appointments, and therapy gains and setbacks. Interviewees identified independent function at home as the most important outcome of the transition home. Conclusions: Post-SNF in home support is needed rapidly after discharge from the SNF to prevent adverse outcomes. In-home support needs to be highly individualized based on a patient's and caregiver's unique situation and needs.Item Correlation Between Caregiver Reports of Physical Function and Performance-based Measures in a Cohort of Older Adults With Alzheimer Disease(Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer) - Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2016-04) Bernard, Brittany L.; Bracey, Lauren E.; Lane, Kathleen A.; Ferguson, Denisha Y.; LaMantia, Michael A.; Gao, Sujuan; Miller, Douglas K.; Callahan, Christopher M.; Medicine, School of MedicineThe objectives of this report are to determine the association between performance-based measures of physical function with caregiver reports of physical function in older adults with Alzheimer disease (AD) and to examine whether those associations vary by the level of patients' cognitive functioning. Subjects included 180 patient-caregiver dyads who are enrolled in a clinical trial testing the impact of an occupational therapy intervention plus guideline-level care to delay functional decline among older adults with AD. The primary caregiver-reported measure is the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study Group Activities of Daily Living Inventory (ADCS-ADL). Performance-based measures include the Short Physical Performance Battery and the Short Portable Sarcopenia Measure. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) models were used to determine the associations of each physical performance measure with ADCS-ADL, adjusting for cognition function and other covariates. We found significant correlations between caregiver reports and observed performance-based measures across all levels of cognitive function, with patients in the lowest cognitive group showing the highest correlation. These findings support the use of proxy reports to assess physical function among older adults with AD.