Older people living in a care home have a limited life expectancy and care homes are an important setting for end of life care provision. This research aimed to explore the views, experiences and expectations of end of life care among care home residents to understand if key events or living in a residential environment influenced their views. The research used a prospective design. The paper draws on the data of 121 care home residents (a sub-sample of 63 were interviewed three times over a year) recruited from six care homes (without on-site nursing) in the UK. Four main themes were identified; Living in the Past, Living in the Present, Thinking about the Future and ActivelyEngaged with planning the future. Many residents said they had not spoken to the care staff about end of life care; many assumed their family or General Practitioner would take responsibility. Core to the older person's ability to discuss end of life care is their acceptance of being in a care home, the involvement of family members in making decisions and the extent to which they believed they could influence decision making within their everyday lives.

AcknowledgementsWith thanks to the residents, care home staff and NHS staff who gave up their time to be involved in the study. With thanks to Jayne Wright (Researcher) who conducted some of the interviews and the PIR members for their support. AbstractThe aim of the study was to describe the expectations and experiences of end of life care of older people resident in care homes, and how care home staff and the health care practitioners that visited the care home interpreted their role. A mixed method design was used. The everyday experience of 121 residents from six care homes in the East of England were tracked, 63 residents, 30 care home staff with assorted roles and 19 NHS staff from different disciplines were interviewed.The review of care home notes demonstrated that residents had a wide range of health care problems. Length of time in the care homes, functional ability or episodes of ill health were not necessarily meaningful indicators to staff that a resident was about to die. GP and district nursing services provided a frequent but episodic service to individual residents. There were two recurring themes that affected how staff engaged with the process of advance care planning with residents; "talking about dying" and "integrating living and dying" . All participants stated that they were committed to providing end of life care and supporting residents to die in the care home, if wanted. However, the process was complicated by an on-going lack of clarity about roles and responsibilities in providing end of life care, doubts from care home and primary health care staff about their capacity to work together when residents" trajectories to death were unclear. The findings suggest that to support this population there is a need for a pattern of working between health and care staff that can encourage review and discussion between multiple participants over sustained periods of time.

BackgroundThe role of clothing in the management of eczema (also called atopic dermatitis or atopic eczema) is poorly understood. This trial evaluated the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of silk garments (in addition to standard care) for the management of eczema in children with moderate to severe disease.Methods and findingsThis was a parallel-group, randomised, controlled, observer-blind trial. Children aged 1 to 15 y with moderate to severe eczema were recruited from secondary care and the community at five UK medical centres. Participants were allocated using online randomisation (1:1) to standard care or to standard care plus silk garments, stratified by age and recruiting centre. Silk garments were worn for 6 mo. Primary outcome (eczema severity) was assessed at baseline, 2, 4, and 6 mo, by nurses blinded to treatment allocation, using the Eczema Area and Severity Index (EASI), which was log-transformed for analysis (intention-to-treat analysis). A safety outcome was number of skin infections.Three hundred children were randomised (26 November 2013 to 5 May 2015): 42% girls, 79% white, mean age 5 y. Primary analysis included 282/300 (94%) children (n = 141 in each group). The garments were worn more often at night than in the day (median of 81% of nights [25th to 75th centile 57% to 96%] and 34% of days [25th to 75th centile 10% to 76%]). Geometric mean EASI scores at baseline, 2, 4, and 6 mo were, respectively, 9.2, 6.4, 5.8, and 5.4 for silk clothing and 8.4, 6.6, 6.0, and 5.4 for standard care. There was no evidence of any difference between the groups in EASI score averaged over all follow-up visits adjusted for baseline EASI score, age, and centre: adjusted ratio of geometric means 0.95, 95% CI 0.85 to 1.07, (p = 0.43). This confidence interval is equivalent to a difference of −1.5 to 0.5 in the original EASI units, which is not clinically important. Skin infections occurred in 36/142 (25%) and 39/141 (28%) of children in the silk clothing and standard care groups, respectively. Even if the small observed treatment effect was genuine, the incremental cost per quality-adjusted life year was £56,811 in the base case analysis from a National Health Service perspective, suggesting that silk garments are unlikely to be cost-effective using currently accepted thresholds. The main limitation of the study is that use of an objective primary outcome, whilst minimising detection bias, may have underestimated treatment effects.ConclusionsSilk clothing is unlikely to provide additional benefit over standard care in children with moderate to severe eczema.Trial registrationCurrent Controlled Trials ISRCTN77261365

Background: Atopic eczema (AE) is a chronic, itchy, inflammatory skin condition that affects the quality of life of children and their families. The role of specialist clothing in the management of AE is poorly understood.Objectives: To assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of silk garments for the management of AE in children with moderate to severe disease.Design: Parallel-group, observer-blind, randomised controlled trial of 6 months’ duration, followed by a 2-month observational period. A nested qualitative study evaluated the beliefs of trial participants, health-care professionals and health-care commissioners about the use of silk garments for AE.Setting: Secondary care and the community in five UK centres.Participants: Children aged 1–15 years with moderate or severe AE.Interventions: Participants were randomised (1 : 1 using online randomisation) to standard care or standard care plus 100% silk garments made from antimicrobially protected knitted sericin-free silk [DermaSilkTM (AlPreTec Srl, San Donà di Piave, Italy) or DreamSkinTM (DreamSkin Health Ltd, Hatfield, UK)]. Three sets of garments were supplied per participant, to be worn for up to 6 months (day and night). At 6 months the standard care group received the garments to use for the remaining 2-month observational period.Main outcome measures: Primary outcome – AE severity using the Eczema Area and Severity Index (EASI) assessed at 2, 4 and 6 months, by nurses blinded to treatment allocation. EASI scores were log-transformed for analysis. Secondary outcomes – patient-reported eczema symptoms (Patient Oriented Eczema Measure); global assessment of severity (Investigator Global Assessment); quality of life of the child (Atopic Dermatitis Quality of Life, Child Health Utility – 9 Dimensions), family (Dermatitis Family Impact Questionnaire) and main carer (EuroQoL-5 Dimensions-3 Levels); use of standard eczema treatments (e.g. emollients, topical corticosteroids); and cost-effectiveness. The acceptability and durability of the clothing, and adherence to wearing the garments, were assessed by parental/carer self-report. Safety outcomes – number of skin infections and hospitalisations for AE.Results: A total of 300 children were randomised (26 November 2013 to 5 May 2015): 42% female, 79% white, mean age 5 years. The primary analysis included 282 out of 300 (94%) children (n = 141 in each group). Garments were worn for at least 50% of the time by 82% of participants. Geometric mean EASI scores at baseline, 2, 4 and 6 months were 8.4, 6.6, 6.0, 5.4 for standard care and 9.2, 6.4, 5.8, 5.4 for silk clothing, respectively. There was no evidence of difference between the groups in EASI score averaged over all follow-up visits adjusted for baseline EASI score, age and centre (ratio of geometric means 0.95, 95% confidence interval 0.85 to 1.07; p = 0.43). This confidence interval is equivalent to a difference of –1.5 to 0.5 in the original EASI scale units. Skin infections occurred in 39 out of 141 (28%) and 36 out of 142 (25%) participants for sta...