Lené Levy Storms

Lené Levy-Storms’ core research concerns communication issues between health care providers and patients. Older adults with their increased risk of having chronic care needs and limited social relationships may depend on formal health care providers for technical assistance as well as emotional support. In 2003, Dr. Levy-Storms received career development award from the National Institute on Aging titled, “Therapeutic Communication during Nursing Home Care.” In this five year study, she is focusing on communication issues between nursing home staff and frail, older residents during care.

Dr. Levy-Storms has approached this problem in three ways. First, she has devised a way to code open-ended comments from nursing home residents about their interactions with staff into indicators of perceived emotional and instrumental support. Second, she has adapted audio and video-based measures of communication between providers and patients in medical care settings to that of the nursing home setting. She is in the process of linking the residents’ perceived support to the nursing aides’ communication behaviors. Nursing aides provide the most care to residents of all nursing home staff. Third, she has been piloting a communication training program to improve the way nursing aides communicate with residents during care.

Dr. Levy-Storms has B.S. degree in psychology from UC Davis, a MPH in biostatistics and PhD in public health. From 1998-2000, she was an assistant professor in the Department of Health Promotion and Gerontology and a fellow of the Sealy Center on Aging at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, TX. In 2000, she joined the UCLA Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics as an assistant professor. At that time, she also became an associate director of the UCLA/Borun Center for Gerontological Research, an appointment which she continues to hold. The Borun Center is based at the Jewish Home for the Aging in Reseda, CA and focuses on applied research to improve the quality of life of older adults in long-term care settings. She now holds a joint appointment with Medicine and Social Welfare.

SELECTED BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS

Factors related to Excessive In-Bed Times among Nursing Home Residents
Bates-Jensen BM, Schnelle JF, Alessi CA, Al-Samarra N, Levy-Storms, L. (2004). “Factors related to Excessive In-Bed Times among Nursing Home Residents.” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 52: 931-8

Predictors of Different Levels of Non-adherence to Mammography Screening
Levy-Storms L, Bastani R, Reuben DB. (2004). “Predictors of Different Levels of Non-adherence to Mammography Screening: Implications for Interventions.” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 52: 768-773

Disciplinary Split
Reuben DB, Levy-Storms L, Nitta-Yee M, Lee M, Cole K, Waite M, Nichols L, Frank JC. (2004). “Disciplinary Split: A Threat to Geriatrics Interdisciplinary Team Training” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 52: 1000-6

A Comparison of Methods to Assess Nursing Home Residents’ Unmet Needs
Levy-Storms, Lené, John Schnelle, Sandra F. Simmons. (2002). The Gerontologist, 42, 454-461

Use of mammography screening among older Samoan women in Los Angeles county
Levy-Storms, Lené, Steven P. Wallace. (2003). Social Science and Medicine, 57(6): 987-1000

Patterns of Family Visiting with Institutionalized Elderly
Yamamoto-Mitani, Noriko, Carol Aneshensel, Lené Levy-Storms (2002). Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 57B, (4), S234-S246

The Transition from Home to Nursing Home: Mortality among People with Dementia
Aneshensel, Carol, Leonard Pearlin, Lené Levy-Storms, Roberleigh Schuler. (2000). Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences,55B, (3), S152-S162

Social Relationships, Gender, and Allostatic Load across Two Age Cohorts
Seeman, Teresa E., Burt Singer, Carol Ryff, Gayle Dienberg Love, Lené Levy-Storms. (2002). Psychosomatic Medicine, 64(3), 395-406

Family Caregiver Involvement and Satisfaction with Institutional Care during the First Year after Admission
Levy-Storms L, Miller D. Journal of Applied Gerontology

The Minimum Data Set Depression Quality Indicator
Simmons SF, Cadogan MP, Cabrera GR, Al-Samarrai NR, Jorge JS, Levy-Storms L, Osterweil D, Schnelle JF. The Gerontologist