Nursing Home Profit Status and Pain Among Residents Living With Dementia.
Sorah Levy, Barbara Resnick, Elizabeth Galik and 3 others
PMID 41720641WHAT IT FOUND
Nursing home profit status was not shown to be associated with observed pain in residents with dementia.
Higher nursing home quality rating was linked to lower likelihood of observed pain, and lower cognitive scores were linked to lower likelihood of observed pain.
Key findings
01Nursing home ownership profit status was not significantly associated with observed pain among residents living with dementia after controlling for cognition, comorbidities, and nursing home quality rating (p = .08).
02Higher nursing home quality rating was significantly associated with lower odds of observed pain among residents living with dementia (p = .02).
03A one-unit decrease in BIMS score, indicating lower cognitive ability, was associated with approximately 10% decreased odds of observed pain (p ≤ .01).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional and secondary, so it cannot show that profit status causes or prevents pain. The profit-status result was not significant (p = .08), so it cannot be read as proof that there is no difference. Pain was measured with a single observational scale and recoded as any observed symptoms versus none, which may miss pain not expressed through the five observed behaviors. The sample came from nursing homes in Maryland and Pennsylvania only, so it may not apply elsewhere. Profit status was treated only as for-profit versus nonprofit, which may not capture chains, corporations, partnerships, or private equity arrangements. The study did not examine pain assessment documentation or treatment approaches, such as opioid, nonopioid, or nonpharmacological care. 17 residents had missing pain scores.
Declared interests
The authors declared no known competing financial interests or personal interests. No funder is stated.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that nursing home profit status has no effect on pain because the result was not significant (p = .08). This is a cross-sectional secondary analysis from one geographic region, pain was measured with a single observational scale, and treatment or documentation processes were not examined.