5122.0: Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - Board 3

Abstract #5622

Restraint use in nursing homes: Using MEPS data to assess the impact of the NHRA

Selcuk Sirin, MS, School of Education--Developmental & Educational Psychology, Boston College, Campion Hall, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3813, 617-552-8611, sirin@bc.edu and Mick Smyer, PhD, Grdauate School of Arts and Sciences, Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3837, 617-5528401, smyer@bc.edu.

The Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987 (NHRA) sought to improve the quality of nursing home care through regulatory reform. While the NHRA targeted several aspects of resident care (e.g., residents' rights, staff training, etc.), this poster focuses on one element of the NHRA and subsequent regulations: Reduction in restraint use among nursing home residents.

This poster extends the work of Castle, Fogel, and Mor (1997) to provide an initial evaluation of restraint use in a nationally representative sample of nursing home residents. The current analyses apply Castle et al.'s analytic framework to data drawn from the nursing home component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) (http://www/meps.ahcpr.gov/). The MEPS nursing home component sampled more than 5,000 nursing home residents in 800 nursing homes to provide a weighted sample of 1,563,858 nursing home residents.

Restraint use is compared across three times of measurement-1990 (prior to the implementation of the NHRA), 1993, and 1996. Preliminary analyses indicate that restraint use declined across the three times of measurement:

1990 1993 1996 36% 26% 17%

The associations among resident characteristics (e.g., age, gender, race, continence, mobility problems) and facility characteristics (e.g., size, ownership, specialty unit) and restraint use are explored. Implications for clinical practice and long term care policy reform are discussed.

Learning Objectives: Conference participants who attend to this poster presentation will be able to: 1.Asses the impact of the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987 (NHRA) on restrain use among nursing home residents. 2-Identify resident characteristics that are associated with resteaint use. 3-Identify facility characteristics that are associated with restraint use

Keywords: Nursing Homes, Aging

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Department of Health and Human Services--Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

The 128th Annual Meeting of APHA