Journal of the American Geriatrics Society最新文献

Background: Deprescribing antihypertensives is of growing interest in geriatric medicine, yet the impact on functional status is unknown. We emulated a target trial of deprescribing antihypertensive medications compared with continued use on functional status measured by activities of daily living (ADL) in a long-term care population.

Methods: We included 12,238 Veteran Affairs long-term care residents age 65+ who had a stay ≥ 12 weeks between 2006 and 2019. After 4+ weeks of stable antihypertensive medication use, residents were classified as either deprescribed antihypertensives (reduced ≥ 1 medication or ≥ 30% dose) or continued users. Residents were followed up for 2 years, or censored at discharge, admission to hospice, protocol deviation (per-protocol analysis only), or Sept 30, 2019. The outcome was ADL dependencies (scored 0-28; higher score = worse functionality), assessed approximately every 3 months. Our primary approach was to estimate per-protocol effects using linear mixed-effects regressions with inverse probability of treatment and censoring weighting, overall and stratified by dementia status. We estimated intention-to-treat effects as a secondary analysis.

Results: In long-term care residents, ADL scores worsened by a mean of 0.29 points (95%CI = 0.27, 0.31) per 3 months and antihypertensive deprescribing did not impact this worsening (difference between groups -0.04 points every 3 months, 95%CI = -0.15, 0.06). In the non-dementia subgroup, ADL worsened by 0.15 points (95%CI = 0.11, 0.19) every 3 months. However, residents who were deprescribed showed a slightly improved ADL score over time while the continued users showed ADL decline (difference between groups -0.23 points every 3 months, 95%CI = -0.43, -0.03). Deprescribing was not associated with ADL change in the dementia subgroup. The intention-to-treat results were not meaningfully different.

Conclusions: Antihypertensive deprescribing did not have a deleterious effect on functional status in long-term care residents with or without dementia. This may be reassuring to residents and clinicians who are considering antihypertensive medication reduction or discontinuation in long-term care settings.

Background: In older people, medications with anticholinergic or sedative properties are associated with falls, frailty, and functional and cognitive impairment. These medications are often described as a subset of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs). We examined the prevalence of anticholinergic or sedative medications to avoid in older people in France in 2023.

Methods: This cross-sectional study used anonymized data from a large electronic healthcare database, the French National Health Data System (Système National des Données de Santé, SNDS). All people aged 65 years or older from January 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023, were included in this study. Dispensations of anticholinergic and sedative medications were identified according to PIM criteria (2023 American Geriatrics Society Beers Criteria and REMEDI[e]S tool). The prevalence of anticholinergic or sedative medications was assessed for the study population and by age (65-84 and 85 or older) and living place (home and institutionalized patients) subgroups in terms of number and percentage of patients.

Results: This study included 16,938,152 patients aged 65 years or older (55% women). Among all patients, 79.8% were aged between 65 and 84 years and 20.2% were aged 85 years or older. Most patients lived at home (97.0%), and 3.0% were institutionalized. The prevalence of anticholinergic or sedative medications was 32.8% among all patients, 32.3% among 65-84 patients, and 34.8% among 85 or older patients, 32.1% among home patients, and 54.5% among institutionalized patients. The most commonly dispensed anticholinergic or sedative medications were oxazepam (5.27%), alprazolam (5.27%), zopiclone (4.85%), bromazepam (4.23%), metopimazine (2.88%), paroxetine (2.70%), nefopam (2.57%), and hydroxyzine (2.17%).

Conclusions: This study highlighted that anticholinergic and sedative medications to avoid in older people are still frequently prescribed despite the development and regular updating of PIM criteria. Future studies are needed to assess whether this has led to worsened outcomes among older adults who utilized these medications, and new initiatives should be developed to further promote deprescribing by prescribers and pharmacists.

Background: Life-space mobility can be a behavioral indicator of loneliness. This study examined the association between life-space mobility measured with motion sensors and weekly vs. annually reported loneliness.

Methods: Participants were older adults who lived alone. Passive infrared motion sensors were placed in the bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, and living room. Time spent in each room and out-of-home across the day was derived and used as the measure of life-space mobility. Participants reported via weekly questionnaires whether they felt lonely. In annual visits, the UCLA loneliness scale was administered to a subsample (n = 71), and the scores were categorized into high, moderate, and low groups. We used generalized estimating equations (GEE) to correlate life-space mobility with weekly and yearly loneliness. Repeated observations from each individual were bootstrapped for 1000 rounds to associate annual and weekly loneliness measures.

Results: We analyzed 4995 weeks of data from 139 participants (age = 78.1 ± 8.6, 74% female, 23% African Americans, 14% with MCI diagnosis). An additional hour in the bedroom in the afternoon was associated with a 21.4% increased odds (OR = 1.214, p = 0.049) of experiencing loneliness in the week. An additional hour out-of-home in the morning and in the afternoon was associated with 18.2% (OR = 0.818, p = 0.040) and 15.3% (OR = 0.847, p = 0.018) fewer odds of experiencing weekly loneliness. In the subsample with annual loneliness assessments, an additional hour out-of-home was associated with 38.1% (OR = 0.619, p = 0.006) fewer odds of being in the high UCLA loneliness group. Compared with the low UCLA group, those with high UCLA scores were five times more likely to report loneliness weekly (OR = 5.260, p = 0.0004).

Conclusions: Frequent and objective measurements of mobility combined with self-reported social wellbeing information can offer new insights into the experience of loneliness and provide opportunities for timely interventions.

Cancer and aging are inextricably linked, and older adults are a significant proportion of those diagnosed, treated, and living with and beyond a cancer diagnosis. Several large prospective studies have enhanced our understanding of how to improve the assessment, treatment, and outcomes of older adults with cancer starting therapy. This article summarizes three recent high-impact trials that produced practice-changing implications for the management of older adults with cancer that led to guideline updates. The key findings from these trials highlight that geriatric assessment-guided interventions in older adults with cancer: (1) facilitated higher rates of chemotherapy completion at planned doses with less modification among patients, (2) reduced grade 3 hematologic and non-hematologic toxicity during treatment delivery among patients of all stages of cancer receiving chemotherapy, and (3) influenced treatment decisions among advanced cancer patients receiving supportive care leading to reduced toxicity through reduced intensity of therapy without compromise of survival.

Background: Falls are a leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries for older adults in the United States with significant consequences for health, mobility, and independence. Understanding what barriers influence older adult engagement is essential to facilitating uptake of evidence-based interventions to prevent falls and fall-related injuries.

Methods: Semi-structured focus groups were held with 59 participants in three stakeholder groups: (1) community-dwelling older adults, (2) caregivers of older adults, and (3) healthcare providers who engage with older adults. Themes that emerged were categorized by the stakeholder group that identified them and evaluated using the social-ecological model and assigned to a level within that framework (individual, interpersonal, community, or societal).

Results: Barriers identified to older adult participation in fall prevention activities had the most themes emerge at the individual-level, which included denial; discomfort avoidance; fear of being a burden; pride; and self-perception. Interpersonal-level themes were the normalization of falls; healthcare provider attitude, behavior, and practices; social support; and well-intentioned family. Finally, the themes observed at the community level included cost; lack of education and awareness; limited healthcare resources; lack of transportation; and healthcare system timing and weaknesses. Some themes were identified across all stakeholder types, while others were recognized by only one or two. The only theme at the societal level was age-related stigma.

Conclusions: These findings demonstrate a variety of barriers across stakeholder types and provide valuable insights for developing strategies to effectively promote older adult participation in fall prevention activities to reduce falls and enhance healthy aging.

Importance: The incidence of potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) prescribing among older adults is not as well studied as its prevalence. Estimates of factors associated with PIM incidence, such as patient age, sex, race-ethnicity, medication subsidy support, and comorbidity, are also limited.

Objective: To estimate the incidence of PIM prescribing in older adult outpatients, as well as the incidence and predictors for each PIM class, in a large outpatient electronic health records (EHR) cohort.

Design: Retrospective study of PIM prescribing among outpatients with encounters leading to prescription orders, 2015-2018, excluding prevalent cases.

Setting: Outpatients receiving care from a multi-site health system in western Pennsylvania.

Participants: 342,405 patients, contributing 893,754 person-years of follow-up.

Main outcomes and measures: The incidence of PIM prescribing based on automated coding of 2019 Beers criteria. A multivariable Poisson regression model was estimated to assess the impact of age, sex, race-ethnicity, comorbidity, and medication subsidy (PACE/PACENET) on PIM risk. For each PIM class, the association between predictors and time to PIM prescribing was evaluated using proportional hazard models.

Results: The incidence rate (IR) for 1 or more PIM was 193.5 per 1000 person-years, led by short- and intermediate-acting benzodiazepines (37.6), first-generation antihistamines (32.8), and skeletal muscle relaxants (22.0). The incidence of PIM prescribing was 15% higher among white patients and 35% lower among males. High comorbidity (Charlson score ≥ 3) was associated with a 59% higher risk. Participation in the PACE/PACENET program, a medication subsidy program, was associated with an 83% increase in incidence. Each additional year of age was associated with a 1.2% reduction in incidence.

Conclusions and relevance: This study establishes benchmarks for the incidence of PIM prescribing in outpatients and identifies important disparities in PIM risk, which vary by PIM class.