The impact of COVID-19 in an assisted living community.
Barbara Resnick, Elizabeth Galik, Sarah Holmes and 1 others
PMID 34419867WHAT IT FOUND
Cognition fell one point on a 9-point nurse-assessment scale over 12 months of COVID restrictions in a memory-care assisted living community.
Function and behavioral symptoms stayed about the same.
Key findings
01Cognition scores fell from 8.00 to 7.00 on a 0-to-9 scale over 12 months.
02Physical function scores changed from 9.08 to 8.58 out of 12, but the change was not statistically significant.
03Behavioral symptom scores stayed essentially the same, from 45.17 to 45.75 on a 12-to-48 scale.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only 12 residents had both pre- and post-pandemic assessments, from one 41-bed community, so the results may not apply to other assisted living settings. The outcomes came from a nurse-completed Resident Assessment Tool with no evidence of reliability or validity, and the cognition items may miss mild dementia or frontal lobe problems. There was no data on what change is normal over 12 months in these symptoms, so the one-point cognition decline could be disease progression. The sample was mostly white and non-Hispanic and had mild dementia, limiting generalizability.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the one-point cognition decline as proof that COVID restrictions caused it. The study used a subjective nurse assessment, included only 12 residents at one site, and the authors note it could be normal disease progression.