Decisions to treat or not to treat pneumonia in demented psychogeriatric nursing home patients: evaluation of a guideline

Antibiotic Stewardship in Nursing Facilities

Misuse and overuse of antibiotic therapy is a frequent cause of resident harm in nursing facilities. As a result, newly released policy and regulatory initiatives will require antibiotic stewardship programs (ASPs) in nursing facilities. Although implementing ASPs can be challenging, improving the quality of antibiotic prescribing is achievable in this setting. The authors review the determinants of antibiotic prescribing in nursing facilities, strategies to improve antibiotic prescribing in this setting, current status of ASPs in nursing facilities, and steps that facilities can take to enhance existing ASP structure and process.

Antimicrobial Use in Patients with Dementia: Current Concerns and Future Recommendations

Infections are common in people with dementia, and antibiotic use is widespread, albeit highly variable, across healthcare settings and countries. The few studies conducted to date that consider the appropriateness of antibiotic prescribing specifically for people with dementia focus on people with advanced dementia and suggest that much of the prescribing of antibiotics for these patients may be potentially inappropriate. We suggest that clinicians must consider a number of factors to determine appropriateness of antimicrobial prescribing for people with dementia, including the risks and benefits of assessing and treating infections, the uncertainty regarding the effects of antibiotics on patient comfort, goals of care and treatment preferences, hydration status, dementia severity and patient prognosis. Future research should examine antibiotic prescribing and its appropriateness across the spectrum of common infections, dementia severities, care settings and countries, and should consider how antibiotic therapy should be considered in discussions regarding treatment preferences, goals of care and/or advance care planning between clinicians, patients and families.

Polypharmacy and inappropriate medication use in patients with dementia: an underresearched problem

Multimorbidity and polypharmacy are increasingly prevalent across healthcare systems and settings as global demographic trends shift towards increased proportions of older people in populations. Numerous studies have demonstrated an association between polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate prescribing (PIP), and have reported high prevalence of PIP across settings of care in Europe and North America and, as a consequence, increased risk of adverse drug reactions, healthcare utilization, morbidity and mortality. These studies have not focused specifically on people with dementia, despite the high risk of adverse drug reactions and PIP in this patient cohort. This narrative review considers the evidence currently available in the area, including studies examining prevalence of PIP in older people with dementia, how appropriateness of prescribing is assessed, the medications most commonly implicated, the clinical consequences, and research priorities to optimize prescribing for this vulnerable patient group. Although there has been a considerable research effort to develop criteria to assess medication appropriateness in older people in recent years, the majority of tools do not focus on people with dementia. Of the limited number of tools available, most focus on the advanced stages of dementia in which life expectancy is limited. The development of tools to assess medication appropriateness in people with mild to moderate dementia or across the full spectrum of disease severity represents an important gap in the research literature and is beginning to attract research interest, with recent studies considering the medication regimen as a whole, or misprescribing, overprescribing or underprescribing of certain medications/medication classes, including anticholinergics, psychotropics, antibiotics and analgesics. Further work is required in development and validation of criteria to assess prescribing appropriateness in this vulnerable patient population, to determine prevalence of PIP in large cohorts of people with the full spectrum of dementia variants and severities, and to examine the impact of PIP on health outcomes.

Antibiotic use and associated factors in patients with dementia: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Infections frequently occur in patients with dementia and antibiotics are often prescribed, but may also be withheld.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this systematic review is to provide a systematic overview of the prevalence of antibiotic use, and factors associated with prescribing antibiotics in patients with dementia.

DATA SOURCES

A systematic search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, PSYCINFO, CINAHL, and the Cochrane library databases until February 13, 2014 was performed, using both controlled terms and free-text terms.

RESULTS

Thirty-seven articles were included. The point prevalence of antibiotic use in patients with dementia ranged from 3.3 to 16.6%. The period prevalence ranged from 4.4 to 88% overall, and from 23.5 to 94% in variable time frames before death; the median use was 52% (median period 14 days) and 48% (median period 22 days), respectively. Most patients with lower respiratory tract infections or urinary tract infections (77-91%) received antibiotic treatment. Factors associated with antibiotic use related to patients, families, physicians, and the healthcare context. More severe dementia and a poor prognosis were associated with less antibiotic use in various countries. Associations with aspiration and illness severity differed by country.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

Antibiotic use in patients with dementia is substantial, and probably highly associated with the particular healthcare context. Future studies may report antibiotic use by infection type and stage of dementia, and compare cross-nationally.

[Pneumonia mortality risk in patients with dementia: nursing home physicians' use and evaluation of a prognostic score]

A validated prognostic score for mortality risk 14 days after antibiotics treatment of nursing home residents with dementia and pneumonia is available. Of the nursing homes contacted, 96% was prepared to participate in a clinical impact analysis to examine usefulness of the score in practice. After randomising nursing homes, physicians of 27 homes in the intervention group were asked to complete a questionnaire and use the score for the next case of pneumonia; the control group comprised physicians of the 27 other homes who only completed the questionnaire. The 38 respondents from the control group who all reported about a single patient did not differ from the respondents of the intervention group (31 physicians enrolled 34 patients). Only in 24 cases did physicians calculate the score. For 79% of those patients, the score was (at least somewhat) useful, but mostly to train prognostication competencies and for better documentation of prognosis; frequently treatment decisions had already been made. Of the total group of respondents, the majority was positive about the use of prognostic scores in general, but no-one in the participating homes had any experience with it. The prognostic score is potentially useful for an important group of patients with pneumonia, but further implementation research and inclusion of prognostic instruments in training curricula is needed.

Pneumonia: the demented patient's best friend? Discomfort after starting or withholding antibiotic treatment

OBJECTIVES

To assess suffering in demented nursing home patients with pneumonia treated with antibiotics or without antibiotics. This study should provide the first empirical data on whether pneumonia is a "friend" or an "enemy" of demented patients and promote a debate on appropriate palliative care.

DESIGN

Prospective cohort study.

SETTING

Psychogeriatric wards of 61 nursing homes in the Netherlands.

PARTICIPANTS

Six hundred sixty-two demented patients with pneumonia treated with (77%) or without (23%) antibiotics.

MEASUREMENTS

Using an observational scale (Discomfort Scale-Dementia of Alzheimer Type), discomfort was assessed at the time of the pneumonia treatment decision and periodically thereafter for 3 months or until death. (Thirty-nine percent of patients treated with antibiotics and 93% of patients treated without antibiotics died within 3 months.) Physicians also offered a retrospective judgment of discomfort 2 weeks before the treatment decision. In addition, pneumonia symptoms were assessed at baseline and on follow-up. Linear regression was performed with discomfort shortly before death as an outcome.

RESULTS

A peak in discomfort was observed at baseline. Compared with surviving patients treated with antibiotics, the level of discomfort was generally higher in patients in whom antibiotic treatment was withheld and in nonsurvivors. However, these same patients had more discomfort before the pneumonia. Breathing problems were most prominent. Shortly before death from pneumonia, discomfort increased. Discomfort was higher shortly before death when pneumonia was the final cause of death than with death from other causes.

CONCLUSION

Irrespective of antibiotic treatment, pneumonia causes substantial suffering in demented patients. Adequate symptomatic treatment deserves priority attention.

Severe dementia and adverse outcomes of nursing home-acquired pneumonia: evidence for mediation by functional and pathophysiological decline

OBJECTIVES

To assess whether the severity of dementia is related to unfavorable outcomes of nursing home-acquired pneumonia and how this relationship is mediated.

DESIGN

Prospective cohort study.

SETTING

Psychogeriatric wards of 61 nursing homes in the Netherlands.

MEASUREMENTS

Dementia severity and the possible mediators swallowing disturbance, aspiration, insufficient food intake, weight loss, and dehydration were measured and related to the following outcomes: death (rate), cure rate, and increase in discomfort at the onset of pneumonia.

PARTICIPANTS

Demented patients (n = 374) treated with antibiotics for pneumonia.

RESULTS

Dementia severity was independently related to death rate within the first week after pneumonia (hazard rate ratio = 3.0 for the most severely demented quartile versus the least demented quartile, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.1-8.3) and to 3-month mortality (odds ratio (OR) 2.5, 95% CI = 1.1-5.4). The latter relation was in part mediated by aspiration and weight loss (OR dementia severity adjusted for these mediators declined from 2.5 to 1.9, 95% Cl = 0.8-4.3). Dementia severity was not related to cure rate within 2 weeks nor to an in-crease in discomfort after 3 days compared with before the pneumonia.

CONCLUSION

The functional and pathophysiological consequences of progressive dementia account in part for increased 3-month mortality after pneumonia. Mid-term mortality is expected to be high only in the most severely demented patients and in less severely demented patients who aspirated or who lost weight. Implications for end-of-life decision-making and effectiveness of preventive and curative interventions are discussed.