Use of opioids and other analgesics by older adults in the United States, 1999-2010.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: There has been concern over rising use of prescription opioids in young and middle-aged adults. Much less is known about opioid prescribing in older adults, for whom clinical recommendations and the balance of risks and benefits differ from younger adults. We evaluated changes in use of opioids and other analgesics in a national sample of clinic visits made by older adults between 1999 and 2010. DESIGN, SETTING, AND SUBJECTS: Observational study of adults aged 65 and older from the 1999-2010 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, serial cross-sectional surveys of outpatient visits in the United States. METHODS: Medication use was assessed at each study visit and included medications in use prior to the visit and medications newly prescribed at the visit. Results were adjusted for survey weights and design factors to provide nationally representative estimates. RESULTS: Mean age was 75 ± 7 years, and 45% of visits occurred in primary care settings. Between 1999-2000 and 2009-2010, the percent of clinic visits at which an opioid was used rose from 4.1% to 9.0% (P < 0.001). Although use of all major opioid classes increased, the largest contributor to increased use was hydrocodone-containing combination opioids, which rose from 1.1% to 3.5% of visits over the study period (P < 0.001). Growth in opioid use was observed across a wide range of patient and clinic characteristics, including in visits for musculoskeletal problems (10.7% of visits in 1999-2000 to 17.0% in 2009-2010, P < 0.001) and in visits for other reasons (2.8% to 7.3%, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Opioid use by older adults visiting clinics more than doubled between 1999 and 2010, and occurred across a wide range of patient characteristics and clinic settings.

Prescribing quality in older veterans: a multifocal approach.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Quality prescribing for older adults involves multiple considerations. We evaluated multiple aspects of prescribing quality in older veterans to develop an integrated view of prescribing problems and to understand how the prevalence of these problems varies across clinically important subgroups of older adults. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: Cross-sectional observational study of veterans age 65 years and older who received medications from Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) pharmacies in 2007. MAIN MEASURES: Using VA pharmacy data linked with encounter, laboratory and other data, we assessed five types of prescribing problems. KEY RESULTS: Among 462,405 patients age 65 and older, mean age was 75 years, 98 % were male, and patients were prescribed a median of five medications. Half of patients (50 %) had one or more prescribing problems, including 12 % taking one or more medications at an inappropriately high dose, 30 % with drug-drug interactions, 3 % with drug-disease interactions, and 26 % taking one or more Beers criteria drugs. In addition, 16 % were taking a high-risk drug (warfarin, insulin, and/or digoxin). On multivariable analysis, age was not strongly associated with four of the five types of prescribing issues assessed (relative risk < 1.3 across age groups), and comorbid burden conferred substantially increased risk only for drug-disease interactions and use of high-risk drugs. In contrast, the number of drugs used was consistently the strongest predictor of prescribing problems. Patients in the highest quartile of medication use had 6.6-fold to12.5-fold greater risk of each type of prescribing problem compared to patients in the lowest quartile (P < 0.001 for each). CONCLUSIONS: The number of medications used is by far the strongest risk factor for each of five types of prescribing problems. Efforts to improve prescribing should especially target patients taking multiple medications.

Bringing functional status into a big data world: Validation of national Veterans Affairs functional status data.

BACKGROUND: The ability to perform basic daily activities ("functional status") is key to older adults' quality of life and strongly predicts health outcomes. However, data on functional status are seldom collected during routine clinical care in a way that makes them available for clinical use and research. OBJECTIVES: To validate functional status data that Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers recently started collecting during routine clinical care, compared to the same data collected in a structured research setting. DESIGN: Prospective validation study. SETTING: Seven VA medical centers that collected complete data on 5 activities of daily living (ADLs) and 8 instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) from older patients attending primary care appointments. PARTICIPANTS: Randomly selected patients aged 75 and older who had new ADL and IADL data collected during a primary care appointment (N = 252). We oversampled patients with ADL dependence and applied these sampling weights to our analyses. MEASUREMENTS: Telephone-based interviews using a validated measure to assess the same 5 ADLs and 8 IADLs. RESULTS: Mean age was 83 years, 96% were male, and 75% were white. Of 85 participants whom VA data identified as dependent in 1 or more ADLs, 74 (87%) reported being dependent by interview; of 167 whom VA data identified as independent in ADLs, 149 (89%) reported being independent. The sample-weighted sensitivity of the VA data for identifying ADL dependence was 45% (95% CI, 29%, 62%) compared to the reference standard, the specificity was 99% (95% CI, 99%, >99%), and the positive predictive value was 87% (95% CI, 79%, 93%). The weighted kappa statistic was 0.55 (95% CI, 0.41, 0.68) for the agreement between VA data and research-collected data in identifying ADL dependence. CONCLUSION: Overall agreement of VA functional status data with a reference standard was moderate, with fair sensitivity but high specificity and positive predictive value.

Beta-Blocker Use in U.S. Nursing Home Residents After Myocardial Infarction: A National Study.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate how often beta-blockers were started after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in nursing home (NH) residents who previously did not use these drugs and to evaluate which factors were associated with post-AMI use of beta-blockers. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort using linked national Minimum Data Set assessments; Online Survey, Certification and Reporting records; and Medicare claims. SETTING: U.S. NHs. PARTICIPANTS: National cohort of 15,720 residents aged 65 and older who were hospitalized for AMI between May 2007 and March 2010, had not taken beta-blockers for at least 4 months before their AMI, and survived 14 days or longer after NH readmission. MEASUREMENTS: The outcome was beta-blocker initiation within 30 days of NH readmission. RESULTS: Fifty-seven percent (n = 8,953) of residents initiated a beta-blocker after AMI. After covariate adjustment, use of beta-blockers was less in older residents (ranging from odds ratio (OR) = 0.89, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.79-1.00 for aged 75-84 to OR = 0.65, 95% CI = 0.54-0.79 for ≥95 vs 65-74) and less in residents with higher levels of functional impairment (dependent or totally dependent vs independent to limited assistance: OR = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.75-0.94) and medication use (≥15 vs ≤10 medications: OR = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.80-0.99). A wide variety of resident and NH characteristics were not associated with beta-blocker use, including sex, cognitive function, comorbidity burden, and NH ownership. CONCLUSION: Almost half of older NH residents in the United States do not initiate a beta-blocker after AMI. The absence of observed factors that strongly predict beta-blocker use may indicate a lack of consensus on how to manage older NH residents, suggesting the need to develop and disseminate thoughtful practice standards.

Association of ß-Blockers With Functional Outcomes, Death, and Rehospitalization in Older Nursing Home Residents After Acute Myocardial Infarction.

Importance: Although ß-blockers are a mainstay of treatment after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), these medications are commonly not prescribed for older nursing home residents after AMI, in part owing to concerns about potential functional harms and uncertainty of benefit. Objective: To study the association of ß-blockers after AMI with functional decline, mortality, and rehospitalization among long-stay nursing home residents 65 years or older. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cohort study of nursing home residents with AMI from May 1, 2007, to March 31, 2010, used national data from the Minimum Data Set, version 2.0, and Medicare Parts A and D. Individuals with ß-blocker use before AMI were excluded. Propensity score-based methods were used to compare outcomes in people who did vs did not initiate ß-blocker therapy after AMI hospitalization. Main Outcomes and Measures: Functional decline, death, and rehospitalization in the first 90 days after AMI. Functional status was measured using the Morris scale of independence in activities of daily living. Results: The initial cohort of 15 720 patients (11 140 women [70.9%] and 4580 men [29.1%]; mean [SD] age, 83 [8] years) included 8953 new ß-blocker users and 6767 nonusers. The propensity-matched cohort included 5496 new users of ß-blockers and an equal number of nonusers for a total cohort of 10 992 participants (7788 women [70.9%]; 3204 men [29.1%]; mean [SD] age, 84 [8] years). Users of ß-blockers were more likely than nonusers to experience functional decline (odds ratio [OR], 1.14; 95% CI, 1.02-1.28), with a number needed to harm of 52 (95% CI, 32-141). Conversely, ß-blocker users were less likely than nonusers to die (hazard ratio [HR], 0.74; 95% CI, 0.67-0.83) and had similar rates of rehospitalization (HR, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.98-1.14). Nursing home residents with moderate or severe cognitive impairment or severe functional dependency were particularly likely to experience functional decline from ß-blockers (OR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.11-1.61 and OR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.10-1.59, respectively). In contrast, little evidence of functional decline due to ß-blockers was found in participants with intact cognition or mild dementia (OR, 1.03; 95% CI, 0.89-1.20; P = .03 for effect modification) or in those in the best (OR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.77-1.26) and intermediate (OR, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.86-1.27) tertiles of functional independence (P = .06 for effect modification). Mortality benefits of ß-blockers were similar across all subgroups. Conclusions and Relevance: Use of ß-blockers after AMI is associated with functional decline in older nursing home residents with substantial cognitive or functional impairment, but not in those with relatively preserved mental and functional abilities. Use of ß-blockers yielded a considerable mortality benefit in all groups.