Columbia Gorge Community College is a public community college in The Dalles, Oregon, which is situated and surrounded by the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area.
Purpose Nursing home residents’ family involvement changed during COVID-19. We sought to understand whether there was an association between resident family involvement and activities of daily living (ADL) levels. This cross-sectional secondary analysis used electronic health record (EHR) data to compare quarterly resident ADL outcomes from the year before COVID-19 and the first year during COVID-19 among residents who had evidence of family involvement prior to COVID-19. Both ADLs and family involvement serve as key indicators of overall resident well-being. Methods Using retrospective secondary cross-sectional analysis of EHR data, we aimed to understand whether resident ADL levels changed, what types of family involvement were present, and whether ADLs were associated with levels of family involvement. Results Our data showed significant ADL differences in mean transfer score and a negative correlation between instrumental support and eating. There was a significant increase in family decision-making support during COVID-19, while intrafamily conflict and emotional support decreased. Implications These findings have policy and practice implications related to understanding family-wide nursing home experiences. An increased focus on family involvement factors may improve the outcomes for nursing home residents and their families.
Epidemiological studies have shown that exposure to airborne particulate matter (PM) can be an important risk factor for some common respiratory diseases. While many studies have shown that PM exposures are associated with inflammatory reactions, the role of specific cellular responses in the manifestation of primary hypersensitivities and the progression of respiratory diseases remains unclear. In order to better understand mechanisms by which PM can exert adverse health effects, more robust approaches to support in vitro studies are warranted. In response to this need, a group of accepted toxicology assays was adapted to create an analytical suite for screening and evaluating the effects of important, ubiquitous atmospheric pollutants on two model human lung cell lines (epithelial and immature macrophage). To demonstrate the utility of this suite, responses to intact diesel exhaust particles (DEP) and mass-based equivalent doses of their organic extracts were examined. Results suggest that extracts have the potential to induce greater biological responses than those associated with their colloidal counterpart. Additionally, macrophage cells appear to be more susceptible to the cytotoxic effects of both intact DEP and their organic extract, than epithelial cells tested in parallel. As designed, the suite provided a more robust basis for characterizing toxicity mechanisms than the analysis of any individual assay. Findings suggest that cellular responses to PM are cell line dependent, and show that the collection and preparation of PM and/or their extracts have the potential to impact cellular responses relevant to screening fundamental elements of respiratory toxicity.Copyright 2015 American Association for Aerosol Research
