Journal of the American Medical Directors Association最新文献

Objective: We aimed to describe the medications prescribed to people aged ≥90 years.

Design: A cohort study was performed using data from the year 2022.

Setting and participants: Using data from the French National Health Data System, people aged ≥90 years affiliated with the general insurance scheme were included.

Methods: Medications dispensed, polypharmacy (≥5 drugs), and hyperpolypharmacy (≥10 drugs) were described in the total population and according to sex, age group (90-94 years, 95-99 years, ≥100 years), and place of residence. All analyses were conducted by quarter because of the high mortality rate in this population.

Results: In total, 696,498 subjects were included in the study. Among them, 73.2% were women, 75.9% were aged 90-94 years, and 2.9% were ≥100 years. Treatment for hypertension was prescribed to 77%, 50.4% had cardiovascular disease, and 17.7% had dementia. During the first quarter, 77.7% experienced polypharmacy. The most prescribed drugs were antihypertensive medications (73.8%), analgesics (58.8%), antithrombotics (55.3%), vitamin D (51.1%), and psychotropics (42%). There was a decrease in preventive drugs and an increase in symptom management drugs with increasing age. Subjects in nursing homes were more likely to take psychotropics and less likely to receive cardiovascular drugs. The results for the other quarters were similar.

Conclusions and implications: Our results suggest a progressive, but probably insufficient decrease in the prescription of certain medications with age and to a lesser extent, in nursing homes. The discontinuation of treatments should be discussed in the context of short life expectancy to avoid the harmful effects of polypharmacy.

Objective: Psychotropic drugs are frequently prescribed for challenging behavior in residents with dementia in nursing homes. Recommendations on psychotropic drug use for challenging behavior are described in the Dutch multidisciplinary guideline "Problem behavior in dementia." This study aimed to gain insight into the adherence to guideline recommendations on drug type and timing of evaluations of different types of psychotropic drugs for challenging behavior in a national sentinel network of Dutch nursing homes.

Design: Prospective observational study.

Setting and participants: Data on psychotropic drug use of residents in a sentinel network of 22 nursing homes across the Netherlands were collected during a 3-month measurement period in 2021.

Methods: Physicians completed registration forms integrated into the electronic health record after reporting on psychotropic drug use in progress notes. Prescribed drug type(s), type of drug intervention (start/stop/change in dosage/evaluation), and drug indications were recorded. Adherence to guideline recommendations on drug type was achieved if prescribed psychotropic drugs were recommended for the specified indication. Adherence to guideline recommendations on timing of evaluations was achieved if evaluations were reported within 7 days after starting.

Results: A total of 1279 forms on psychotropic drug use for specified challenging behaviors in 599 residents were collected. Recommended psychotropic drugs were used in 57% of all forms. The highest rate of recommended psychotropic drugs was for psychotic behavior (80%), followed by agitation (48%). Adherence was lowest for nighttime restlessness (22%). Of all newly started prescriptions, 17% were evaluated within the recommended 7 days after starting.

Conclusions and implications: Adherence to guideline recommendations on drug type was present in just over half of the cases. Frequently, evaluations were not reported or were performed after the recommended time frame. Further research is needed to determine the reasons for non-recommended psychotropic drug use, low evaluation reporting rates, and factors that influence adherence. The use of a sentinel network may increase awareness and adherence.

Objective: To identify quality and safety indicators routinely used to monitor, evaluate, and improve care transitions for older adults globally.

Design: A scoping literature review.

Setting and participants: This review identified indicators used internationally to monitor and evaluate the quality and safety of care transitions by older adults. Care transitions were defined as the transfer of health care at least once between care settings.

Methods: A search of academic and gray literature identified indicators that were publicly available, used routinely at the population level, and reported on since 2012. Indicators were summarized by care domain (ie, hospitalization, consumer experience, access/waiting times, communication, follow-up, and medication-related), type (structure, process, outcome), quality dimension (patient centeredness, timeliness, effectiveness, efficiency, safety, and equity), data collection approach, reporting strategies, and care settings involved.

Results: The review identified 361 quality indicators from 89 programs across 12 countries. Care domains included hospitalization (n = 112; 31.0%), consumer experience (n = 82; 22.7%), access/waiting times (n = 63; 17.5%), communication (n = 40; 11.1%), follow-up (n = 40; 11.1%), and medication-related (n = 24; 6.6%). Indicators measured outcomes (n = 227; 62.9%) or processes (n = 134; 37.1%) and represented the dimensions of patient centeredness (n = 155, 42.9%), timeliness (n = 91; 25.2%), and effectiveness (n = 87; 24.1%), efficiency (n = 18; 5.0%) and safety (n = 10; 2.8%). Most indicators were constructed from survey (n = 160; 44.3%) or administrative data (n = 138; 38.2%); 69% (n = 249) were publicly reported and 80% (n = 287) measured transitions related to acute settings.

Conclusions and implications: Eighty-nine international programs routinely monitor the quality and safety of care transitions, and focus on the domains of hospitalization, access and waiting times, and communication. Considering the vulnerability of older adults as they transition across settings and providers, it is important to ensure holistic measurement of the quality of these care transitions to identify sub-optimal transitions, inform quality improvement, and ultimately improve outcomes for older adults.

Objectives: To investigate the rate of, and factors affecting, acceptance of pharmacists' recommendations by medical prescribers following medication reviews conducted in non-hospitalized older adults.

Design: A systematic review and meta-analysis with meta-regression.

Setting and participants: Older adults (mean aged ≥55 years) residing in the community or in aged care facilities (ie, non-hospitalized) who had received an individualized medication review by a pharmacist.

Methods: We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. We searched 3 databases (MEDLINE, Embase, and Web of Science) from 2000 until May 2024, and included studies that reported the acceptance rates of pharmacists' recommendations by prescribers, either by recommendation type (eg, initiation, cessation, dose change) or the reason for the recommendation (eg, drug-related problem identified). JBI tools were used to assess the methodological quality, and a meta-analysis with meta-regression was performed.

Results: There were 21 studies included in the review: 13 studies in the community setting, and 8 in aged care facilities. The acceptance rates of the pharmacists' recommendations ranged from 42% to 93%, and the implementation rates ranged from 27% to 88%. The setting where the pharmacist conducted the review was found to be a significant determinant in the acceptance of recommendations in the meta-regression model (P = .021), with the highest acceptance and implementation rates reported when pharmacists were integrated into general medical practices (79%; 95% CI, 52%-97%).

Conclusions and implications: The acceptance of pharmacists' recommendations following the conduct of medication reviews was highly variable. Multiple factors appear to influence acceptance rates, particularly the setting where the pharmacist conducted the review and the level of collaboration between the pharmacist and prescriber. Future research should explore targeted strategies to improve collaboration and communication between pharmacists and prescribers, such as the integration of pharmacists into general medical practices and aged care facilities.

Objectives: Multimorbidity poses significant challenges to the well-being of middle-aged and older adults, but its impact on end-of-life experiences remains relatively underexplored and inconsistent. This study aims to investigate the association between the number of chronic conditions and 6 end-of-life outcomes across 28 countries.

Design: Longitudinal analyses.

Setting and participants: Data were drawn from 6625 participants in the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE).

Methods: Information on 12 chronic non-communicable conditions was self-reported by participants in core interviews and categorized into 4 groups: 0, 1, 2, and ≥3 chronic conditions. Six end-of-life outcomes were reported by proxy respondents during end-of-life interviews after participants' deaths. These outcomes included the place of death, duration of hospital stays in the last year of life, hospice or palliative care utilization, and symptoms such as pain, breathlessness, and anxiety or sadness in the last month of life. Mixed-effects logistic regression models were conducted to examine the association between the number of chronic conditions and end-of-life outcomes.

Results: Among the included participants, having 3 or more chronic conditions was positively associated with dying in a hospital [odds ratio (OR), 1.31; 95% CI, 1.15-1.49)], staying in hospitals for 3 months or more during the last year of life (OR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.04-1.78), and experiencing symptoms such as pain (OR, 1.67; 95% CI, 1.34-2.08), breathlessness (OR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.08-1.60), and anxiety or sadness (OR, 1.43; 95% CI, 1.12-1.83) in the last month of life after adjusting for covariates. In addition, each additional chronic condition was associated with 6% to 12% increases in the odds of these end-of-life outcomes, except for hospice or palliative care utilization.

Conclusions and implications: Our findings underscore the significant impact of multimorbidity on end-of-life experiences and highlight the importance of coordinated care strategies to address the complex needs of patients with multimorbidity and alleviate their symptom burden.

Objectives: Early research reported that older adults who stopped walking when they began a conversation were more likely to fall in the future. As a systematic measure of dual-task performance, Verghese and colleagues developed the Walking While Talking (WWT) test, in which a person walks at a normal pace while reciting alternate letters of the alphabet. The present paper highlights key findings from the 2 decades of research using the WWT test.

Design: Narrative review.

Settings and participants: People who completed the WWT test in clinical and research settings.

Methods: A literature review was conducted for studies using the WWT test from 2002 until April 2024.

Results: Several studies reported that the WWT test is an easy-to-administer assessment with high face and concurrent validity and good reliability in different populations. Most studies were conducted in older adults; however, the WWT test has also been used in other clinical groups, such as adults with multiple sclerosis. Many studies investigated the cognitive and motor correlates of WWT, finding that performance on the WWT test is consistently associated with balance, executive function, and memory. Several studies have linked the neural underpinnings of WWT performance to the prefrontal cortex and motor regions. Further, the WWT test has been used to predict important outcomes such as dementia or future falls and a limited number of studies have used WWT performance as an outcome of clinical interventions, with mixed results.

Conclusions and implications: Several important directions for future research concerning the WWT test remain, such as an expansion of its clinical applications and a better understanding of the longitudinal trajectory of WWT performance. However, the WWT test is an easy-to-administer, reliable, and sensitive measure of dual-task performance and is useful in many clinical and research settings.

Objectives: For older adults, spending time out of bed is important for preventing functional decline, but its relationship to mortality is not clear. In this study, we aimed to investigate the association between mortality and time spent out of bed in Japanese older-adult nursing home residents.

Design: We conducted a cohort study using data from the Long-term Care Information System for Evidence database.

Setting and participants: We used data collected between April 2022 and March 2024 from older-adult nursing home residents who required assistance with the activities of daily living.

Methods: We compared outcome data between residents who spent 6 or more hours per day out of bed (group L) and those who spent less than 6 hours per day out of bed (group S). The outcome was all-cause mortality. Data were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression models.

Results: Data from 185 older-adult nursing home residents (median age: 89 years; 141 women) were analyzed. Group L included 144 residents (77.8% of all participants). Of the 185 participants, 40 died during the observation period. Mortality in group L was significantly lower than in group S (16.7% vs 39.0%, P = .002). Kaplan-Meier curve analysis after the log-rank test revealed a significantly higher mortality in group S than group L. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses with robust (Huber-White) standard errors identified the factor of time spent out of bed (≥6 h) as a significant and independent risk factor for mortality.

Conclusion and implications: More time spent out of bed is associated with lower mortality in older-adult nursing home residents who require assistance with the activities of daily living.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the utility of electronic health record (EHR) diagnosis codes for monitoring SARS-CoV-2 infections among nursing home residents.

Design: A retrospective cohort study design was used to analyze data collected from nursing homes operating under the tradename Signature Healthcare between January 2022 and June 2023.

Setting and participants: Data from 31,136 nursing home residents across 76 facilities in Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Virginia were included.

Methods: Resident demographics, diagnosis codes associated with clinical diagnoses (including COVID-19), and SARS-CoV-2 testing information were collected from the EHR and supplemental testing data sources. We described the rates of infection and the clinical characteristics of residents with incident-positive SARS-CoV-2 tests and new-onset COVID-19 diagnoses. Positive predictive values (PPVs) of COVID-19 diagnosis codes were calculated for residents stratified by whether a resident was continuously present in a facility for ±3 days from the diagnosis onset date listed in EHRs, using positive SARS-CoV-2 tests to confirm infection.

Results: A total of 4876 incident-positive SARS-CoV-2 tests and 6346 new-onset COVID-19 diagnoses were recorded during the study period. Weekly rates of new-onset diagnoses were significantly higher than positive test rates, although trends followed similar trajectories. Among residents continuously present in the nursing home ±3 days from the diagnosis onset date, the PPV of COVID-19 diagnosis codes was high (3395 of 3685 = 92%; 95% CI, 91%-93%). The PPV among this group significantly varied by study quarter (P < .001). The PPV was substantially lower for 2661 diagnoses among residents not continuously present in the nursing home (24%; 95% CI, 22%-26%).

Conclusions and implications: This study demonstrates the utility of diagnosis codes for assessment of COVID-19 epidemiology and trends when testing data are unavailable for residents during their stay in a nursing home. Future research should explore strategies to evaluate the utility of diagnosis codes at admission and discharge to nursing homes to enhance surveillance efforts.