Individualized Medication Review in Older People: Differences Due To Place of Residence Being Their Own Home or A Nursing Home

Background: Ageing is associated with complex and dynamic changes leading to multimorbidity and, therefore, polypharmacy. A periodic medication review in frail older people lead to optimize medication use. The aims of the study were to identify inappropriate prescription and to assess the results of a medication review in older people, according to their place of residence. Methods: This was a study with paired pre- and post-medication review data based on person-centered prescription, with a follow-up assessment at three months. We recruited patients who lived in the community, either in their own home or in a nursing home. We select patients of 65 years or more with multimorbidity whom his General Practitioner identified difficulties with the prescription management and the need of a medication review. Finally, a medication review was carried out through the application of the Patient-Centered Prescription model. Data collected were: age, sex, place of residence, morbidities, functional and cognitive status, frailty index, number of medications, therapeutical complexity, anticholinergic and/or sedative burden and monthly medication expenditure. The Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test were used to evaluate the relationship between qualitative variables and the patients’ place of residence. Student’s t-test was used to analyze the relationship between quantitative variables and the patients’ place of residence.Results: 428 patients. 90% of people presented at least one inappropriate prescription in both settings. In nursing homes, a higher number of implemented optimization proposals was detected (81.6% versus 65.7% (p<0.001)). Post-medication review, nursing-home patients had a greater decrease in their mean number of medications, polypharmacy prevalence, therapeutic complexity and in monthly medication expenditure (p<0.001). Conclusions: Patient-Centered Prescription model detected a high number of inappropriate prescriptions in both settings. However, once medication was reviewed and optimization proposals implemented, nursing-home patients presented

The longitudinal association between the use of antihypertensive medications and 24-hour sleep in nursing homes: results from the randomized controlled COSMOS trial

Background Antihypertensive medication use and sleep problems are highly prevalent in nursing home patients. While it is hypothesized that blood pressure and antihypertensive medication use can affect sleep, this has not been investigated in depth in this population. Alongside a multicomponent intervention including a systematic medication review, we aimed to investigate the longitudinal association between antihypertensive medication use, blood pressure and day- and night-time sleep over 4 months. Methods This study was based on secondary analyses from the multicomponent cluster randomized controlled COSMOS trial, in which the acronym denotes the intervention: COmmuncation, Systematic pain assessment and treatment, Medication review, Organization of activities and Safety. We included baseline and 4-month follow-up data from a subgroup of nursing home patients who wore actigraphs (n = 107). The subgroup had different levels of blood pressure, from low (< 120) to high (≥ 141). Assessments included blood pressure, antihypertensive medication use, and sleep parameters as assessed by actigraphy. Results We found a significant reduction in total sleep time at month four in the intervention group compared to the control group. When analysing the control group alone, we found a significant association between antihypertensive medication use and increased daytime sleep. We also found negative associations between blood pressure, antihypertensive medication use and sleep onset latency in the control group. Conclusions Our results suggest a correlation between excessive daytime sleep and antihypertensive medication use. These findings should be followed up with further research, and with clinical caution, as antihypertensive medications are frequently used in nursing homes, and sleep problems may be especially detrimental for this population. Trial registration The trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02238652).

Seasonal Patterns in Incidence and Antimicrobial Resistance of Common Bacterial Pathogens in Nursing Home Patients and Their Rooms

Background: Colonization is the main precursor to infection, which may lead to adverse clinical outcomes among older adults in nursing homes (NHs). Understanding seasonal changes in the local burden of common bacterial pathogens is key to implementing appropriate and cost-effective infection prevention measures in this resource-constrained healthcare environment. It is thus surprising that seasonal trends in patient and environmental colonization with major bacterial pathogens are presently unknown in the expanding NH setting.Methods: We examined the seasonal incidence of four major pathogens among 640 nursing home patients and high-touch surfaces within their rooms over 2 years. In cases where a significant number of antimicrobial-resistant strains was found, incidence in antimicrobial-susceptible and antimicrobial-resistant isolates was compared, along with antibiotic use trends.Results: We observed spring peaks in the incidence of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (1.70 peak to trough ratio for both patient and environmental isolates) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (1.95 peak to trough ratio for patient isolates, 1.50 for environmental isolates). We also observed summer peaks in Klebsiella pneumoniae (1.83 and 1.82 peak to trough ratio for patient and environmental isolates, respectively), and ciprofloxacin-resistant Escherichia coli. Susceptible S. aureus and E. coli did not follow seasonal patterns.Conclusions: A meaningful seasonal pattern may be present in the NH setting for several significant pathogens, and especially antimicrobial-resistant ones. Whether such patterns are consistent across geographic areas and over longer periods of time should be a key focus of investigation, in order to better inform timing of surveillance and infection prevention efforts in this setting.

Use of the Barthel Index to Assess Activities of Daily Living before and after SARS-COVID 19 Infection of Institutionalized Nursing Home Patients

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the activities of daily living (ADLs) using the Barthel Index before and after infection with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and also to determine whether or not the results varied according to gender. The ADLs of 68 cohabiting geriatric patients, 34 men and 34 women, in two nursing homes were measured before and after SARS-CoV-2 (Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19)) infection. COVID-19 infection was found to affect the performance of ADLs in institutionalized elderly in nursing homes, especially in the more elderly subjects, regardless of sex. The COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to having claimed many victims, especially in the elderly population, has led to a reduction in the abilities of these people to perform their ADLs and caused considerable worsening of their quality of life even after recovering from the disease.

Risk Factors for In-Hospital Mortality from COVID-19 Among Nursing Home Patients—An Urban Center Experience

Background: As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, special attention is focused on high-risk patients. In this study, we assessed the risk factors for COVID-19 mortality in nursing home patients. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we reviewed the electronic medical records of SARS-COV-2 PCR–positive nursing-home patients between March 8 and June 14, 2020. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. Risk factors were compared between those who were discharged or died using the Student t test, the Mann-Whitney U test, χ2 analysis, and logistic regression. Results: Among 169 hospitalized nursing-home patients, the case fatality rate was 43.2%. The mean age was 72.3 ± 13.8 years; 92 patients (54.4%) were male; and 112 patients (66.3%) were black. Within the first day of hospitalization, 83 (49%) patients developed fever. On admission, 24 (14.2%) patients were hypotensive. Leukopenia, lymphopenia, and thrombocytopenia were present in 20 (12%), 91 (53%), and 40 (23.7%) patients, respectively. Among the inflammatory markers, elevations in CRP and ferritin levels occurred in 79% and 24%, respectively. Intensive care admission was needed for 40 patients (23.7%). Septic shock occurred in 25 patients (14.8%). Patients over the age of 70 were more likely to die than younger patients (OR, 2.2; 95% CI, 1.2– 4.1; P = .20). Patients with a fever on admission were more likely to die than those who were afebrile (OR, 2.03; 95% CI, 1.08–3.8; P = .03). Also, 66.7% hypotensive patients died compared to 39.3% normotensive patients (OR, 3.1; 95% CI, 1.2–7.7 P = .01). Intubated patients died more often than those not intubated, 78.4% versus 33.3%, respectively (OR=7.3, p < 0.001, CI 3.1, 17.2) Factors significantly associated with death included higher mean qSofa (p < 0.001), higher median Charlson scores (0.02), thrombocytopenia (p = 0.04) and lymphocytopenia (0.04). From multivariable logistic regression, independent factors associated with death were Charlson score (OR=1.2, p=0.05), qSofa (OR=2.0, p=0.004), thrombocytopenia (OR = 3.0, p = 0.01) and BMI less than 25 (OR = 3.5, p=0.002). Conclusions: Our multivariable analysis revealed that patients with a greater burden of comorbidities, lower BMI, higher qSOFA sepsis score, and thrombocytopenia had a higher risk of death, perhaps because of severe infection despite a robust immune response.Funding: NoDisclosures: None