Part-time students in the workforce - enhancing practice in course provision

This paper describes a recent project on HE delivery to part-time students in the workforce. The main aim has been to investigate and propose effective practice in part-time provision in engineering in order to enhance the experience of part-time students at the same time as giving potential benefits to courses, departments and all students. The project has included interviews with employers and a questionnaire survey for current part-time students. The final guidance has been assembled with the aim of supporting the enhancement of existing courses and the development of new part-time provision. The paper presents the approaches taken in the project as a whole, analyses the results of the student survey, and summarises the overall outcomes.

Factors associated with high anticholinergic burden in aging adults with intellectual disabilities:a cross-sectional study

Background: Anticholinergic (AC) medications are associated with cognitive and functional decline in older people, with risk of adverse outcomes increasing with increasing AC exposure. Older people with intellectual disabilities are at increased risk of high AC exposure owing to higher prevalence of multimorbidity, particularly psychiatric morbidities. Objectives: The aims of this study were to determine individual’s AC exposure using the AC cognitive burden (ACB) scale, identify therapeutic classes contributing to burden and determine clinical and demographic factors associated with two levels of AC exposure (ACB score 1–4, ACB 5+). Methods: Cross-sectional (self-report/proxy report)medication data were drawn from Wave 1 of the Intellectual Disability Supplement to the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, a study on ageing of 753nationally representative people with ID aged over40 randomly selected from the National Intellectual Disability Database. Medication data were available for 736 (98%). Each individual’s cumulative AC exposure was calculated using the ACB. Multinomiallogistic regression was performed identifying clinical and demographic factors associated with ACB score1–4, and ACB 5+. Results: In the eligible population of 736 participants(mean (±SD) age 54.1 (±8.8) years,55% female), 522(70.9%) were exposed to an ACB medicine (ACB 1+); 214 (29%) had an ACB score of 5+; mean total ACB score= 4.5 (±3.0). Antipsychotics accounted for35.6% of the cumulative ACB score. Age over 65yearswas associated with increased likelihood of both levels of AC exposure (ACB 1–4—adjusted OR 3.28; 95%CI 1.49–7.25, ACB 5+—adjusted OR 3.08; 95%CI1.21–7.63) and having a mental health condition(ACB 1–4—adjusted OR 9.79; 95%CI 5.63–17.02, ACB 5+—adjusted OR 23.74; 95%CI 12.29–45.83). Conclusions: Using a simple cumulative measure proved an effective means to capture total burden and established that AC exposure was high and associated with older age and mental health morbidity. This highlights need for comprehensive medication reviews for older people with intellectual disabilities.