Functional Decline among Nursing Home Residents with ADRD during COVID

In nursing homes, long-stay residents with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) receive care and assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs). However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, infection control measures and staff and personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages may have disrupted nursing home resident care and daily routines and, consequently, affected residents’ ADL performance. It is unknown whether facility-level characteristics may be associated with greater functional decline in ADLs among residents with ADRD. This study will use Minimum Data Set (MDS) data to examine functional decline in ADLs among long-stay nursing home residents with and without a diagnosis of ADRD during the COVID-19 pandemic and to determine facility-level factors that are associated with greater functional decline in ADLs. This study will lead to a larger scale national study to evaluate functional decline in ADLs and inform potential interventions that may be implemented for residents with ADRD in nursing homes.