Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine are scoring well in a study of the use of physical restraints in nursing homes.
A national study says the use of physical restraints on nursing home patients declined nearly 40 percent nationally in recent years.
The federal government, states and the nursing home industry has placed a greater emphasis on eliminating what was once a common practice.
A federal study found that just under 6 percent of long-term patients were physically restrained repeatedly in 2006, down from just under 10 percent in 2002.
Between 2002 and 2006, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine cut their rates at least in half to about 2 percent.
Physical restraints were once regarded as necessary to keep nursing home patients from falling or wandering off.