Preface

This edited volume is a collection of reviewed and relevant research chapters concerning the developments within the "Aging - Life Span and Life Expectancy" field of study. The book includes scholarly contributions by various authors and has been edited by an expert in the field. Each contribution comes as a separate chapter complete in itself but directly related to the book's topics and objectives.

The book includes chapters dealing with the following topics: Psychotropic Medication Use and Mortality in Long-Term Care Residents; Evidence for the Effectiveness of Soy in Aging and Improving Quality of Life; Epidemiology and Management of Intracerebral Hemorrhage in Chile; Impact of Chronic Medical and Neuropsychiatric Illnesses on Quality of Life and Life Expectancy among Patients at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH); Crude Birth Rate and Crude Mortality Rate in India: A Case of Application of Regression in Healthcare.

The target audience comprises scholars and specialists in the field.

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**1**

dementia

**1. Introduction**

**Chapter 1**

Residents

*and Peter Brink*

**Abstract**

Psychotropic Medication Use

*Michael J. Stones, Sarah Worobetz, Jason Randle,* 

*Carlina Marchese, Shauna Fossum, Dane Ostrom* 

the latter reduces the deleterious effects of PRN prescribing.

chapter traces the earlier stages of that progression.

**Keywords:** mortality, medication, psychotropic, antipsychotic, analgesic, antidepressant, anxiolytic, hypnotic, aging, elderly, gerontology, long-term care,

This chapter illustrates a truism that pathways pursued in scientific investigation

often deviate from linear trajectories. The research we report here evolved from concerns about ongoing practices in the continuing care of older people, a serendipitous convergence of people with compatible research needs and desires, and totally unanticipated findings in need of further investigation. This section of the

and Mortality in Long-Term Care

This chapter examines associations between psychotropic medications and mortality in long-term care home (LTCH) settings. We report new findings with census-level data from all new admissions to long-term care homes in the province of Ontario, Canada (i.e., 20,414 new residents). The data include three linked sets that indicate mortality during the financial years 2010–2011 and 2011–2012. One dataset, the Resident Assessment Instrument 2.0 (RAI 2.0), provides information on demographics, functional capability, clinical conditions, clinical diagnoses, mortality risk, and psychotropic medications. The latter include antipsychotics, antidepressants, analgesics, anxiolytics, and hypnotics. Administration of the RAI 2.0 occurs at resident intake, at quarterly intervals and annually. New analyses reported here examine predictors of daily and *pro re nata* (i.e., PRN or "as needed") prescriptions of psychotropic medications. However, the most important analyses concern predictors of mortality within intervals of up to 90 days from the final RAI 2.0 assessment. After control for confounding variables, the findings indicate (1) attenuated mortality with daily prescription of frequently prescribed psychotropics (i.e., antipsychotics, antidepressants, and analgesics), (2) augmented mortality with PRN prescriptions for each type of psychotropic medication, and (3) evidence that PRN prescribing overturns beneficial effects of daily prescriptions, whereas
