Elders force-fed too often, study finds

Article from the San Ramon Valley Times, 6-2-2003, page A20

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One-third of the U.S. nursing home patients in the final stages of Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia are given feeding tubes, despite evidence that the practice serves no benefit and may even cause harm, a study found.

People with advanced dementia are generally incapacitated, have trouble swallowing and are near death. Recent studies have shown that feeding tubes do not prolong their lives and may sometimes cause discomfort and infections.

Many geriatric specialists recommend comfort care for such patients, including attempts at spoon-feeding, unless they indicated while still competent that they would prefer aggressive attempts to keep them alive.

The study, which involved 1999 data from all 15,135 licensed U.S. nursing homes at the time, suggests that some of these patients are given feeding tubes because the practice is seen as less costly and time-consuming than spoon-feeding, said Dr. Susan Mitchell, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School who led the study. It appears in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.

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