Our study points to a significant deficit in pain treatment in German NHR, including NHR with or without cognitive impairment.

Purpose:To explore different institutional barriers to and facilitators of physical activity (PA) in nursing homes.Methods:Cross-sectional survey of 40 German nursing homes and 217 nursing-home residents (NHRs; M ± SD age 80 ± 10.2 yr, 55% women, MMSE ≥20). Quantitative data were collected on the structural characteristics of nursing homes and the PA services available.Results:Forms of exercise available were not adequately communicated to residents. Overall participation was below 50%. Awareness was significantly higher in residents with informed relatives (p = .003). A broad range of forms of exercise was generally available (M ± SD 5 ± 2.22, range 0–10), but they were rarely tailored to NHRs’ needs and their effectiveness remains questionable.Conclusion:Multidimensional opportunities to promote PA in NHRs are identified.

The present analysis demonstrates that about one out of five elderly NHRs received at least one inappropriate drug prescription. Additional studies may aim to establish a list of frequently prescribed inappropriate drugs for Germany.

Rehabilitation benefits provided under the German Pension Insurance scheme are of central importance to insureds, in terms of protection in cases of loss or reduction of their earning capacity. Due to this safeguarding effect for the gainfully employed population, rehabilitation benefits at the same time are important to the insured community and to society as a whole. In 2003, some 846 000 insured persons had received medical and other benefits for rehabilitation. Designing these benefits to be as effective as possible is among the pre-eminent goals of the statutory pension insurance scheme. To this end, the statutory pension insurance institutes have initiated a quality assurance programme designed to enable utmost quality of the benefits provided. This programme in the first line covers inpatient medical rehabilitation of, as a rule, three weeks duration. An issue hardly investigated so far is sustainability of the effects achieved by these rehabilitation measures. Among the possibilities for ensuring lasting success are follow-up measures or benefits arranged for already during the in-patient stay, a service field which until recently had hardly been known in Germany. A stock-taking carried out in 2004 by the author and supported by LVA Schleswig-Holstein, a regional pension insurance institute, has for the first time realized an overview of this kind. Its essential findings are presented in this article, supplemented by a partial update vis-à-vis completion of the initial investigation.

Recognizing the ageing of populations and expected increase in prevalence of dementia, the necessity of research involving persons with dementia is widely agreed upon. Autonomy is key to nursing home residents' well-being and quality of life, but this phenomenon has not been thoroughly assessed from the residents' perspective. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate perceived autonomy of nursing home residents. Data on 560 randomly selected residents in 40 nursing homes in two German federal states were generated by face-to-face interviews, psychological and physical assessments, analysis of nursing records, and acquisition of institutional parameters. This paper reports on a subsample (n = 179) that met screening requirements, including subjects with and without mild cognitive impairment (Mini Mental Status Examination score 30-18), who completed the Hertz Perceived Enactment of Autonomy Scale (HPEAS). The mean score of HPEAS was 101.1 ± 14.5 (range 54-122). In our population, Cronbach's alpha was 0.89. Scores in HPEAS were not related to demographical factors but positively associated with increasing self-efficacy and absence of pain. The novel findings contribute to an understanding of autonomy from the residents' perspective.