In recent years, more nursing homes have been cited for deficiencies in handwashing, according to a study from The Journal of Applied Gerontology. In fact, inspectors found handwashing deficiencies in fewer than 7.4 percent of nursing homes from 2000 to 2002, but by 2009 found them in close to 12 percent. Some states were getting better, such as ...

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently updated its 1996 recommendation statement on counseling to prevent falls. The update, published Aug. 7 in Annals of Internal Medicine, recommends exercise or physical therapy and vitamin D supplementation to prevent falls in community-dwelling adults aged 65 years or older who are at increased ...

Cataract surgery significantly reduces the risk of hip fracture in the elderly, according to a study from The Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers found that people in their early 80s experienced almost 30 percent fewer hip fractures in the first year after cataract surgery, compared to similar patients who did not have ...

It takes a daily dose of at least 800 international units of vitamin D to consistently prevent broken bones in older adults. That dose can reduce the risk of hip fracture by 30 percent and other breaks by 14 percent. Lower doses didn't have any effect, according to a report published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The report, which ...

Reviewing medications regularly is important for people of all ages, but especially for nursing home residents, who take multiple medications, and are at heightened risk for adverse drug reactions. This article, from The Washington Post and Consumers Union of United States Inc., suggests everyone should review their medications every four to six ...

Need a primer on medication management in the elderly? If so, The American Geriatrics Society Updated Beers Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Adults was released March 1 in the online edition of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The criteria, last revised in 2003, identify medications that are ...

A new study suggests that surgery can be very dangerous for the frail elderly, and even more so for nursing home residents, Paula Span reports in an article on the ''New Old Age'' section of The New York Times.   In fact, even ''routine'' operations, like appendectomies, become high-risk for nursing home residents, according to a study ...

Are vitamins good for us or not? Two new studies add to the research that taking extra doses of vitamins may not be good, according to a blog post from The New York Times. A study of vitamin E and selenium use among 35,000 men found that the vitamin users had a slightly higher risk of developing prostate cancer, according to a report published ...

The American Geriatrics Society's newest clinical tool, the AGS Guide to the Management of Psychotic Disorders and Neuropsychiatric Symptoms of Dementia in Older Adults, is now available on the AGS Web site, according to an AGS news release.  The guide gives health care professionals an overview of the risk factors, evaluation and ...

Some recent research has revealed that walking may be associated with slower cognitive decline and even possibly forestall or prevent diseases such as Alzheimer's.  Dr. Cyrus A. Raji, Ph.D., who led this study, found that walking just 5 miles each week resulted in greater preservation of the tissue volume of the brain. Often, a reduction ...