Effect of medications on physical function and cognition in nursing home residents with dementia.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the effectiveness of medications used in the management of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) on cognition and activity of daily living (ADL) trajectories and to determine whether sex modifies these effects. DESIGN: Two-year (2007-2008) longitudinal study. SETTING: Medicare enrollment and claims data linked to the Minimum Dataset 2.0. PARTICIPANTS: Older nursing home (NH) residents with newly diagnosed ADRD (n = 18,950). MEASUREMENTS: Exposures included four medication classes: antidementia medications (ADMs), antipsychotics, antidepressants, and mood stabilizers. Outcomes included ADLs and cognition (Cognitive Performance Scale (CPS)). Marginal structural models were employed to account for time-dependent confounding. RESULTS: The mean age was 83.6, and 76% of the sample was female. Baseline use of ADMs was 15%, antidepressants was 40%, antipsychotics was 13%, and mood stabilizers was 3%. Mean baseline ADL and CPS scores were 16.6 and 2.1, respectively. ADM use was not associated with change in ADLs over time but was associated with a slower CPS decline (slope difference: -0.09 points/year, 99% confidence interval (CI) = -0.14 to -0.03). Antidepressant use was associated with slower declines in ADL (slope difference: -0.36 points/year, 99% CI = -0.58 to -0.14) and CPS (slope difference: -0.12 points/year, 99% CI = -0.17 to -0.08). Sex modified the effect of both antipsychotic and mood stabilizer use on ADLs; female users declined most quickly. Antipsychotic use was associated with slower CPS decline (slope difference: -0.11 points/year, 99% CI = -0.17 to -0.06), whereas mood stabilizer use had no effect. CONCLUSION: Despite the observed statistically significantly slower declines in cognition with ADMs, antidepressants, and antipsychotics and the slower ADL decline found with antidepressants, it is unlikely that these benefits are of clinical significance.

Pharmacotherapeutic management of dementia across settings of care.

OBJECTIVES: To describe population-based use of cognitive-enhancing and psychopharmacological medications across care settings in Medicare beneficiaries with dementia. DESIGN: One-year (2008) cross-sectional study. SETTING: Medicare administrative claims from a 5% random sample. PARTICIPANTS: Medicare beneficiaries with dementia aged 65 and older with continuous Medicare Parts A, B, and D coverage and alive throughout 2008. To ascertain dementia, one or more medical claims with a dementia International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification code was required before 2008, and an additional claim was required in 2008 to confirm active disease. MEASUREMENTS: Use of medications commonly prescribed in managing dementia (cognitive enhancers, antidepressants, antipsychotics, and mood stabilizers) was assessed using three measures: annual prevalence of use, consistency of use, and count of psychopharmacological medication classes. Care setting was determined using the number of months of nursing home (NH) residency: no NH (0 months), partial NH (1-11 months), and full NH (12 months). RESULTS: Community-dwellers represented 41.3% of the cohort, whereas 42.4% and 16.3% resided partially and fully in a NH, respectively. Annual prevalence of use was 57.1% for cognitive enhancers, 56.4% for antidepressants, 34.0% for antipsychotics, and 8.8% for mood stabilizers. Cognitive enhancer use was significantly lower in those with any NH stay (partial NH vs no NH, adjusted prevalence ratio (APR) = 0.84, 99% confidence interval (CI) = 0.83-0.86; full NH vs no NH, APR = 0.83, 99% CI = 0.81-0.85). In contrast, those with any NH residence had significantly higher use of all psychopharmacological medication classes than community-dwellers. More than half the cohort had consistent medication regimens during 2008 (64.8%). The number of psychopharmacological medication classes used increased with increasing NH stay duration. CONCLUSION: This population-based study documents significant differences in medication use for managing dementia between care settings and substantial use of psychopharmacological medications in older adults with dementia.

Medication reconciliation during the transition to and from long-term care settings: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Medication reconciliation has been recognized as an important process in care transitions to prevent adverse health outcomes. Because older adults have multiple comorbid conditions and use multiple medications, they are more likely to experience complicated transitions between acute and long-term care settings. Hence, it is important to develop effective interventions to protect older adults at transition points of care. OBJECTIVE: To systematically review the literature and evaluate studies performing medication reconciliation interventions in patients transferred to and from long-term care settings. METHODS: The literature search focused on studies that evaluated an intervention involving medication reconciliation in patients transferred to and/or from long-term care settings, such as nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, residential care facilities, assisted living facilities, homes for the aged, and hospice care. A search was conducted on Ovid MEDLINE (1950-August 2010), Ovid HealthSTAR (1966-August 2010), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (1982-August 2010), PubMed (1980-August 2010), The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2005-August 2010), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality website, and reference lists of relevant articles were hand-searched. Two reviewers screened the titles and abstracts for potentially relevant studies. Data abstraction from the included articles was performed independently by 4 reviewers. RESULTS: Seven studies met the inclusion criteria. Four studies were performed in the United States, whereas 3 studies were performed in other countries. A clinical pharmacist proved to be useful in providing medication reconciliation interventions by adopting specialized responsibilities such as serving as a transition pharmacist coordinator or working through a call center. Although improvement in the outcome(s) examined was shown in all of the studies, there were study design flaws. CONCLUSION: There is a need for well-designed studies demonstrating the effectiveness of medication reconciliation interventions in long-term care settings. Future studies should focus on employing appropriate methods so that their interventions can be evaluated more effectively.

The effect of dementia on medication use and adherence among Medicare beneficiaries with chronic heart failure.

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease and related disorders (ADRD) are prevalent in older adults, increase the costs of chronic heart failure (CHF) management, and may be associated with undertreatment of cardiovascular disease. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of our study was to determine the relationship between comorbid ADRD and CHF medication use and adherence among Medicare beneficiaries with CHF. METHODS: This 2-year (1/1/2006-12/31/2007) cross-sectional study used data from the Chronic Condition Data Warehouse of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Medicare beneficiaries with evidence of CHF who had systolic dysfunction and Medicare Parts A, B, and D coverage during the entire study period were included. ADRD was identified based on diagnostic codes using the Chronic Condition Data Warehouse algorithm. CHF evidence-based medications (EBMs) were selected based on published guidelines: angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, selected ß-blockers, aldosterone antagonists, and selected vasodilators. Measures of EBMs included a binary indicator of EBM use and medication possession ratio among users. RESULTS: Of 9827 beneficiaries with CHF and systolic dysfunction, 24.2% had a diagnosis of ADRD. Beneficiaries with ADRD were older (80.8 vs 73.6 years; P < 0.0001) and more likely to be female (69.3% vs 58.1%; P < 0.0001). Overall EBM use was lower in patients with CHF and ADRD compared with patients with CHF but no ADRD (85.3% vs 91.2%; P < 0.0001). Lower use among those with ADRD was consistent across all EBM classes except vasodilators. Among beneficiaries receiving EBM, those with ADRD had a slightly higher mean medication possession ratio for EBM compared with those without ADRD (0.86 vs 0.84; P = 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: EBM medication adherence was high in this population, regardless of ADRD status. However, patients with ADRD had lower EBM use compared with those without ADRD. Low use of specific EBM medications such as ß-blockers was found in both groups. Therefore, interventions targeting increased treatment with specific EBMs for CHF, even among patients with ADRD, may be of benefit and could help reduce CHF-related hospitalizations.