Biomedical subjects

Bei Wu

Publications and source records attributed to Bei Wu.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2003

Cognitive function and acute care utilization.

OBJECTIVES: Little is known about variation in cognitive function across the aged population, or how use and costs of health care vary with cognitive impairment. This study was designed to create a typology of cognitive function in a nationally representative sample, and evaluate acute care use in relation to cognitive function, holding constant confounding factors. By including proxy assessments of cognitive function, this is the first study to include individuals unable to respond themselves. METHODS: We analyzed the baseline year of the Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (AHEAD) survey, sponsored by the National Institute on Aging, to create three levels of cognitive function, using direct measures for self-respondents (n = 6,651) and proxy evaluations for the others (n = 792). We used a two-part model to predict the likelihood of using various health services and to evaluate intensity of care among users. RESULTS: Sixteen percent, 64%, and 20% of the sample fell into the low, moderate, and high cognitive function groups, respectively, that differed significantly on almost all demographic and health status measures, and some utilization measures. Controlling for other health and functional status measures, lower cognitive function had a significant and negative effect on outpatient services, but did not affect hospital use directly. DISCUSSION: Lower cognitive function may be a barrier to outpatient care, but these analyses should be repeated using administrative use and cost data.

Aged↗

PubMed2002

Chinese Dementia Specialist Education Program: training Chinese American health care professionals as dementia experts.

A Chinese Dementia Specialist Education Program (CDSEP) was launched in the Greater Boston Area to educate Chinese American health care providers who lacked adequate dementia education and services. This program trained bilingual health care providers to identify, assess and serve people with dementia and their families, and raised dementia awareness in Chinese American communities. The ten-month follow-up survey documented that the sixteen graduates helped over 70 families and held 76 workshops and formal and informal discussions, reaching over 400 people. The CDSEP demonstrates that a "Train the Trainer" model is an effective approach for building dementia care capacity in community-based agencies, increasing outreach to people with dementia and their families, and for raising dementia awareness in bilingual and minority communities.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Left ventricular ejection fraction test rates for Medicare beneficiaries with heart failure.

The left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) test rate is increasingly used as a quality of care indicator for patients with heart failure. Our study produced benchmark LVEF test rates in a Medicare fee-for-service population for consideration by a clinical panel assembled by the Health Care Financing Administration. Our sample consisted of 46,583 beneficiaries admitted to the hospital for heart failure and with a complete set of Medicare fee-for-service bills dated 1996 or 1997. The national 2-year LVEF test rate was 79% for Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries hospitalized for heart failure. Except for 1 state, the test rate ranged from 61% to 89% across states. Our analysis demonstrates the feasibility of using billing data to compute LVEF test rates. Using a 2-year time window and measuring tests performed in outpatient as well as inpatient settings, we find a higher LVEF test rate than has been reported by most previous studies.

Aged↗