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The research network document, 'Information for Researchers to Support Ethics and Funding Applications' is now available for use. Download it at the link below.

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This event arose from a discussion about the interRAI database and how researchers may be looking for topics on health of older people to explore, while others in the sector may have topics but not the resources or expertise to explore them. Follow the link to read more and access the presentations.

More info and presentations

A smaller group of researchers presented their work at the second Knowledge Exchange forum. Time was also given to establishing a collaboration group - the interRAI Research Network.

We're delighted to announce the third interRAI Knowledge Exchange Forum, taking place in Wellington on 16 February 2023.

Our special guests for this event are members of the interRAI Instrument and Systems Development committee (ISD).

Full details

interRAI Research Network members, aren't wasting any time in 2023! Hamish Jamieson and Ulrich Bergler are authors of the following paper:

Jamieson, H., Nishtala, P. S., Bergler, H. U., Weaver, S. K., Pickering, J. W., Ailabouni, N. J., ... & Mangin, D. (2023). Deprescribing anticholinergic and sedative drugs to reduce polypharmacy in frail older adults living in the community: a randomized controlled trial. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, glac249.

Questions about interRAI data

Since reporting first began from interRAI, there has been occasional requests to provide counts of unique clients rather than counts of assessments. We have provided this for some ad hoc requests. Although it sounds like a reasonable and useful request, it does prove to be logically and technically challenging for dynamic (e.g. Power BI) reporting. The main issue is that distinct clients are inconsistently counted by demographic variables. I.e. in subsequent assessments, clients can move between the demographic groups by which we often segment by, e.g. age group, DHB. This would cause clients to be double counted, or inconsistently counted depending on the reporting parameters that are chosen.

interRAI assessments collect ethnicity from clients at Statistics NZ level 4, with up to 6 options possible. This changed in 2018 where previously ethnicity was collected at Statistics NZ level 2, with up to 3 options possible. All of this data is stored in the interRAI data warehouse.

We predominantly report at a single prioritised ethnicity level, usually NZ Māori, Pacific Peoples, Asian, Other. For each assessment, the single prioritised ethnicity is determined using standard Statistics NZ prioritisation rules. e.g., if a client records their ethnicities to be Tongan, New Zealand Māori and Irish. Then the prioritisation algorithm selects NZ Māori as their single prioritised ethnicity. The order of ethnicities that the client records does not matter, the highest prioritised ethnicity is selected in each case. The Level 2 ethnic group priority is shown here:

The Level 2 ethnic group priority is shown here: Ethnicity code tables | Ministry of Health NZ.

More information on Health Ethnicity Data Protocols can be found here: HISO 10001:2017 Ethnicity Data Protocols | Ministry of Health NZ

Presentations and publications

Access the latest presentations and published research from members of the network below.

Presentations

Publications

Aged residential care

International

Cheung, G., Mah, T. M., Barak, Y., & Hirdes, J. P. (2021). Determinants of Non-emergency Use of Control Interventions in Older Canadian Psychiatric Inpatients: Analysizing the InterRAI Mental Health Electronic Health Records. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 1603.

New Zealand

Bloomfield, K., Wu, Z., Broad, J. B., Tatton, A., Calvert, C., Hikaka, J., Boyd, M., Peri, K., Bramley, D., Higgins, A., & Connolly, M. J. (2021). Factors associated with healthcare utilization and trajectories in retirement village residents. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 70(3), 754 - 765. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.17602

Bloomfield, K., Wu, Z., Tatton, A., Calvert, C., Peel, N., Hubbard, R., Jamieson, H., Hikaka, J., Boyd, M., Bramley, D., & Connolly, M. J. (2020). An interrai‐derived frailty index is associated with prior hospitalisations in older adults residing in retirement villages. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 40(1), 66–71. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajag.12863

Boyd, M., Calvert, C., Tatton, A., Wu, Z., Bloomfield, K., Broad, J. B., Hikaka, J., Higgins, A.-M., & Connolly, M. J. (2020). Lonely in a crowd: Loneliness in New Zealand retirement village residents. International Psychogeriatrics, 33(5), 481–493. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1041610220000393

Broad, J. B., Wu, Z., Bloomfield, K., Hikaka, J., Bramley, D., Boyd, M., Tatton, A., Calvert, C., Peri, K., Higgins, A.-M., & Connolly, M. J. (2020). Health profile of residents of retirement villages in Auckland, New Zealand: Findings from a cross-sectional survey with health assessment. BMJ Open, 10(9). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-035876

Cheung, G., Bala, S., Lyndon, M., Ma'u, E., Rivera Rodriguez, C., Waters, D. L., Jamieson, H., Nada‐Raja, S., Chan, A. H. Y., Beyene, K., Meehan, B., & Walker, X. (2021). Impact of the first wave of Covid‐19 on the Health and psychosocial well‐being of Māori, Pacific peoples and New Zealand Europeans living in aged residential care. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 41(2), 293–300. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajag.13025

Holdaway, M., Wiles, J., Kerse, N., Wu, Z., Moyes, S., Connolly, M. J., ... & Broad, J. B. (2021). Predictive factors for entry to long-term residential care in octogenarian Māori and non-Māori in New Zealand, LiLACS NZ cohort. BMC Public Health, 21(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09786-z

Home care

International

Chan, C. Y., Cheung, G., Martinez-Ruiz, A., Chau, P. Y., Wang, K., Yeoh, E. K., & Wong, E. L. (2021). Caregiving burnout of community-dwelling people with dementia in Hong Kong and New Zealand: a cross-sectional study. BMC geriatrics, 21(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-021-02153-6

New Zealand

Gee, S., Croucher, M., & Cheung, G. (2021). Performance of the Cognitive Performance Scale of the Resident Assessment Instrument (interRAI) for Detecting Dementia amongst Older Adults in the Community. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(13), 6708. MDPI AG. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18136708

Palliative care

Cheung, G., Martinez-Ruiz, A., Knell, R., O'Callaghan, A., & Guthrie, D. M. (2020). Factors associated with terminally ill people who want to die. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 60(3), 539-548.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0891988716666376

Robinson, J., Frey, R., Boyd, M., McLeod, H., Meehan, B., & Gott, M. (2021). InterRAI assessments: opportunities to recognise need for and implementation of palliative care interventions in the last year of life?. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 40(1), e22-e28. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajag.12840

Others

Abey-Nesbit, R., Bergler, U., Pickering, J. W., Nishtala, P. S., & Jamieson, H. (2022). Development and validation of a frailty index compatible with three interRAI assessment instruments. Age and Ageing, 51(8), afac178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2019.02.005

Lord, S., Teh, R., Gibson, R. et al. Optimising function and well-being in older adults: protocol for an integrated research programme in Aotearoa/New Zealand. BMC Geriatrics 22, 215 (2022). doi.org/10.1186/s12877-022-02845-7