For Dementia Patients, Feeding Tubes May Increase Bed Sores

HealthDay – 1 hr 38 mins ago MONDAY, May 14 (HealthDay News) -- Feeding tubes increase the risk of bed sores in bedridden dementia patients, according to a new study.

The finding challenges the long-held belief that providing nutrition through feeding tubes helps prevent bed sores or helps promote their healing in this group of patients, the authors of the Brown University-led study said.

The researchers did not look at how feeding tubes could cause bed sores (also called pressure ulcers), but they noted that feeding tubes can cause agitation in patients, who then have to be restrained and sedated. Feeding tubes also may increase the risk of diarrhea.

Together, these factors may cause and worsen bed sores, the researchers said.

The researchers examined data from nursing homes and Medicare claims in order to compare thousands of dementia patients. Among patients who did not initially have a bed sore, 35.6 percent with a feeding tube ended up with at least a stage 2 bed sore, compared with 19.8 percent of patients without a feeding tube.

A stage 2 bed sore is an open sore in the upper layer of the skin. A stage 4 bed sore is the most serious type.

After making statistical adjustments, the researchers concluded that patients with a feeding tube were 2.27 times more likely to develop a bed sore than those without a feeding tube. The risk of developing a stage 4 bed sore was 3.21 times higher for those with a feeding tube.

Among patients who already had a bed sore, short-term improvement in the sore occurred in 27.1 percent of patients with a feeding tube and in 34.6 percent of those without. Patients without a feeding tube were 0.7 times more likely to have an improvement in a sore than those with one, the researchers determined.

The study was published May 14 in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

"This study provides new information about the risks of feeding tube insertion in people with advanced

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WHO: Dementia cases worldwide will triple by 2050

are set to soar in the coming decades as life expectancy and medical care improve in poorer countries, the World Health Organization says.

Some 35.6 million people were living with dementia in 2010, but that figure is set to double to 65.7 million by 2030, the U.N. health agency said Wednesday. In 2050, it expects dementia cases to triple to 115.4 million.

"The numbers are already large and are increasing rather rapidly," said Dr. Shekhar Saxena, the head of WHO's mental health division.

Most dementia patients are cared for by relatives who shoulder the bulk of the current estimated annual cost of $604 billion. And the financial burden is expected to rise even faster than the number of cases, WHO said in its first substantial report on the issue.

"The catastrophic cost drives millions of households below the poverty line," warned the agency's director-general, Margaret Chan.

Dementia, a brain illness that affects memory, behavior and the ability to perform even common tasks, affects mostly older people. About 70 percent of cases are believed to be caused by Alzheimer's.

In the last few decades, dementia has become a major public health issue in rich countries. But with populations in poor and middle-income countries projected to grow and age rapidly over the coming decades, WHO appealed for greater public awareness and better support programs everywhere.

The share of cases in poor and middle-income countries is expected to rise from just under 60 percent today, to over 70 percent by 2050.

So far, only eight countries

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Dementia cases 'to double by 2030': WHO

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