Incidence of tube feeding in 7174 newly admitted nursing home residents with and without dementia

Abstract

Background: Tube feeding is a common form of long-term nutritional support, especially for nursing home residents, of whom many have dementia. Objective: Estimating the incidence of feeding tube placement in nursing home residents with and without dementia. Methods: Using claims data, we studied a cohort of newly admitted nursing home residents aged 65 years and older between 2004 and 2009. Analyses were stratified by dementia. We estimated incidence rates and performed multivariate Cox regression analyses. Results: The study cohort included 7174 nursing home residents. Over a mean follow-up of 1.3 years, 273 people received a feeding tube. The incidence per 1000 person-years was 28.4, with higher estimates for patients with dementia. When adjusting for age, sex, and level of care as a time-dependent covariate, influence of dementia decreased to a nonsignificant hazard ratio. Conclusion: It seems that not dementia itself but the overall clinical condition might be a predictor of tube feeding placement.