Associations between baseline pain, depressive symptoms, and unpaid caregiving needs and 1-year postdischarge outcomes among seriously ill older adults admitted for trauma.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Many older adults with trauma have pre-existing serious illness like dementia, frailty, and organ insufficiency and are candidates for palliative care to improve outcomes and reduce downstream healthcare utilization. We hypothesize that baseline pain, depressive symptoms, and unpaid caregiving needs are associated with increased healthcare utilization in the year after trauma admission in seriously ill older adults.

Methods

Using the Health and Retirement Study (2008-2018) linked to Medicare claims, we identified adults aged ≥66 years admitted for trauma. We assessed pre-admission pain (none/mild vs moderate/severe), depressive symptoms (no-Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) <3 vs yes-CES-D ≥3) and unpaid caregiving needs (none vs any); and

SUBMITTER: Dhanani H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11836806 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature