Racial Disparities in Care Interactions and Clinical Outcomes in Black Versus White Nursing Home Residents With Dementia.
Barbara Resnick, Kimberly Van Haitsma, Ann Kolanowski and 5 others
PMID 34775420WHAT IT FOUND
Nursing home residents with dementia showed mixed racial differences: staff-resident care interactions declined for Black residents while improving for White residents, but Black residents had fewer falls and hospital transfers.
Key findings
01Quality of staff-resident care interactions decreased for Black residents and increased for White residents at 4 months.
02Falls and hospital transfers decreased for Black residents at 12 months while increasing for White residents.
03Depressive symptoms, resistiveness to care, function, pain, and emergency room transfers showed no difference between Black and White residents.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study included residents only from a limited number of states and only residents with moderate to severe dementia. Some facilities had no Black residents, and loss to follow-up occurred due to death. The observed differences were small, and facility characteristics or individual preferences may have influenced outcomes. Staff ethnicity and other unmeasured factors could have affected the results. It is unclear whether the outcome measures work the same way for Black and White residents. The parent implementation study did not show a time by treatment effect for resident outcomes.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that Black residents received better overall care because some outcomes were better. The study also found staff-resident care interactions worsened for Black residents while improving for White residents.