RESEARCH

The overall objective of this study is to determine whether having an ambulatory blood pressure that is substantially lower than clinic blood pressure as well has having large fluctuations or labile out-of-clinic blood pressure over 24-hours and with meals is associated with an increased risk of falls among older adults with hypertension and taking antihypertensive medication.

This is a retrospective matched cohort study to evaluate the association between two doses of the recombinant zoster vaccine and dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and mild cognitive impairment among Southern California adults>=65 years.

The aim of this project is to examine cellular and genomic markers of inflammation, telomere erosion, telomere length, and microarray data of 300 breast cancer survivors and comparison women who are enrolled in the KPSC-UCLA collaborative STRIVE1 and STRIVE2 studies.

Healthcare providers must balance the cardiovascular benefits of blood pressure lowering medication with the potential risk for falls among older adults with hypertension. Blood pressure has traditionally been measured in the clinic setting; however, for many people, blood pressure differs when measured inside versus outside of the clinic setting. The proposed study will determine whether self-measured blood pressure by a person in their home, a procedure called home blood pressure monitoring, is useful for identifying older adults taking antihypertensive medication who are at increased risk for falls.

Between 2012 and 2050 the number of individuals aged 65 and older in the U.S. will nearly double to 83.7 million. A growing portion of these individuals will age in place, receiving home healthcare rather than moving into a nursing home or other long-term care facility. These living arrangements promote independence and autonomy but potentially also elevate risk of adverse health outcomes related to power outages. Therefore, we will identify and characterize the population dependent on life-sustaining in-home electric durable medical equipment (DME) from 2008-2018.

Heart failure (HF) is the most common reason for hospitalization in older adults. Over 85% of all patients hospitalized with HF are 65 years of age or older. Multimorbidity, usually defined as the presence of two or more chronic conditions, greatly increases the risk of hospitalization and mortality among older HF patients. In addition, the presence of multiple chronic conditions can greatly complicate the management of HF, especially with regard to pharmacotherapeutic decision-making. The overall goal of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of common treatments for patients with HF and multimorbidity—individuals who have been traditionally excluded from clinical trials.

We currently do not have a coordinated, effective, and scalable strategy to meet the ongoing medical and social needs of persons living with dementia (PLWD) and their families in KPSC. The goals of this project are: 1) better understand the patterns of diagnosis and care for patients with dementia, mild cognitive impairment and memory loss to identify potential improvement opportunities and 2) to generate preliminary data towards testing an integrated home-based care model for PLWD and their family caregivers.

The aim of this study is to use individual-level data from three large, population-based cohorts with radiographically adjudicated atypical femur fractures (AFFs) to determine how the risk of AFFs relates to bisphosphonate treatment duration, drug holidays, and treatment re-initiation while accounting for other potential risk factors. This information will be used to develop models to predict individual AFF risk, combining clinical risk factors, patterns of long-term anti-osteoporosis treatment, and periods of drug holiday.

Our project objective is to examine the effect of wildfires from 2008–2020 on cognitive health of older adults and to identify factors that ameliorate or exacerbate adverse health consequences.

Our project objective is to examine the effect of wildfires from 2008–2020 on cognitive health of older adults and to identify factors that ameliorate or exacerbate adverse health consequences.

The goal of this prospective recruitment study is to evaluate longitudinal differences in the rates of change in inflammation and telomere erosion in breast cancer survivors vs. non-cancer comparison women to determine if such molecular changes are due to cancer biology, or its treatment, or consequences of aging.