Changes in medication use among long-stay residents with dementia in Michigan during the pandemic

Agreement of Antipsychotic Use between Nursing Home Electronic Records and Minimum Data Set

OBJECTIVES

Nursing home (NH) Minimum Data Set (MDS) have frequently been used to measure medication use in epidemiologic studies, but there is little evidence on the accuracy of MDS-based medication records. We compared antipsychotic use estimated using 2 data sources-MDS and NH electronic medication administration records (eMAR).

DESIGN

Cross-sectional comparison.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

This analysis was based on MDS and linked eMAR data of 604 NH residents with dementia at 54 NHs in 10 states, participating in a cluster-randomized pragmatic trial (METRIcAL), from June 2019 to February 2020.

METHODS

One admission, quarterly, or annual MDS assessment was chosen for each participant. The MDS assessment recorded the number of antipsychotic treatment days during a 7-day window. We then identified antipsychotic administrations during the corresponding window in the eMAR. We used Cohen kappa to assess agreement in the proportion of participants on antipsychotics during the week and used intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) to assess the agreement of treatment days. We further used the eMAR data as a reference to calculate validity parameters.

RESULTS

A total of 29.5% of study participants were identified as antipsychotic users based on the MDS vs 28.3% based on the eMAR data (kappa value: 0.96). MDS-based average treatment duration was estimated to be 2.0, consistent with eMAR-based estimate (1.8 days, ICC: 0.96). The sensitivity was 98.8% (95% CI 95.8%-99.9%), the specificity was 97.9% (95% CI 96.1%-99.1%), the positive predictive value was 94.9% (95% CI 90.8%-97.3%), and the negative predictive value was 99.5% (95% CI 98.2%-99.9%).

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

Agreement between the MDS and eMAR in antipsychotic use is high, suggesting that the MDS is a valid tool to measure antipsychotic use in epidemiologic studies. Further studies with large and diverse populations are warranted to confirm our findings.

Consequences of contact restrictions for long-term care residents during the first months of COVID-19 pandemic: a scoping review

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, stringent measures were implemented in most countries to limit social contact between residents of long-term care facilities (LTCF) and visitors. The objective of this scoping review was to identify and map evidence of direct and indirect consequences of contact restrictions, guided by three conceptual perspectives: (1) stress and learned helplessness (i.e., failure to use coping behaviors even when they are available and actionalble); (2) social contact loss; and (3) 'total institution' (i.e., a facility operates following a fixed plan due to spelled-out rules and norms, controlled by institutional representatives). We used the framework for conducting a scoping review by Arksey and O'Malley; included were peer-reviewed manuscripts reporting on the outcomes of contact restrictions from the beginning of the pandemic until the end of 2020. After removing duplicates, 6,656 records were screened and 62 manuscripts included. Results pertaining to the stress and learned helplessness perspective primarily focused on depressive symptoms, showing substantial increases compared to the pre-pandemic period. Studies examining cognitive and functional decline, as well as non-COVID-19 related mortality, were limited in number and presented mixed findings. The majority of study outcomes related to the social contact loss perspective focused on loneliness, but the study designs did not adequately allow for comparisons with the pre-pandemic status. The evidence concerning outcomes related to the 'total Institution' perspective was inconclusive. Although detrimental effects of social isolation in the long-term care context found support particularly in the negative affect domain, other outcome areas did not allow for definitive conclusions due to considerable variations in findings and, in some cases, insufficient statistical power.

State-level nursing home in-service dementia training requirements and inappropriate psychotropic medication use

BACKGROUND

Although non-pharmacological interventions, which are staff intensive, are recommended for behavioral symptoms of dementia, psychotropics are often prescribed in nursing homes (NHs), with insufficient nurse staffing levels and dementia care training. Since 2017, deficiency citations can be assigned for inappropriate psychotropics use (F-758 tag). Some states require in-service dementia training above federal minimums, but it is unknown whether extra dementia training requirements were related to fewer F-758 citations for residents with dementia and whether nurse staffing influenced the relationship between receiving F-758 citations and having additional state-level dementia training requirements.

PURPOSE

To relate F-758 citation occurrence to extra in-service dementia training regulations and to explore how the relationships are affected by nurse staffing levels.

METHOD

Generalized linear mixed models were used to examine F-758 citation occurrence in relation to state-level in-service dementia training regulations. Stratification was also conducted to compare the effects in NHs with low versus high nurse staffing.

FINDINGS

Requiring in-service dementia training with extra hours was inversely related to receiving F-758 tags. That relationship was also noted in NHs with lower registered nurse and certified nurse assistant staffing.

DISCUSSION

In-service dementia training may be helpful in reducing inappropriate psychotropics use, particularly in facilities with lower nurse staffing.

Functional and clinical needs of older hospice enrollees with coexisting dementia

BACKGROUND

The Medicare Hospice Benefit increasingly serves people dying with dementia. We sought to understand characteristics, hospice use patterns, and last-month-of-life care quality ratings among hospice enrollees with dementia coexisting with another terminal illness as compared to enrollees with a principal hospice diagnosis of dementia, and enrollees with no dementia.

METHODS

We conducted a pooled cross-sectional study among decedent Medicare beneficiaries age 70+ using longitudinal data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) (last interview before death; after-death proxy interview) linked to Medicare hospice claims (2011-2017). We used unadjusted and adjusted regression analyses to compare characteristics of hospice enrollees with coexisting dementia to two groups: (1) enrollees with a principal dementia diagnosis, and (2) enrollees with no dementia.

RESULTS

Among 1105 decedent hospice enrollees age 70+, 40% had coexisting dementia, 16% had a principal diagnosis of dementia, and 44% had no dementia. In adjusted analyses, enrollees with coexisting dementia had high rates of needing help with 3-6 activities of daily living, similar to enrollees with principal dementia (62% vs. 67%). Enrollees with coexisting dementia had high clinical needs, similar to those with no dementia, for example, 63% versus 61% had bothersome pain. Care quality was worse for enrollees with coexisting dementia versus principal dementia (e.g., 61% vs. 79% had anxiety/sadness managed) and similar to those with no dementia. Enrollees with coexisting dementia had similar hospice use patterns as those with principal diagnoses and higher rates of problematic use patterns compared to those with no dementia (e.g., 16% vs. 10% live disenrollment, p = 0.004).

CONCLUSIONS

People with coexisting dementia have functional needs comparable to enrollees with principal diagnoses of dementia, and clinical needs comparable to enrollees with no dementia. Changes to hospice care models and policy may be needed to ensure appropriate dementia care.

Behavioral symptoms, depression symptoms, and medication use in Michigan nursing home residents with dementia during COVID-19

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted nursing home (NH) care, including visitation restrictions, reduced staffing levels, and changes in routine care. These challenges may have led to increased behavioral symptoms, depression symptoms, and central nervous system (CNS)-active medication use among long-stay NH residents with dementia.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective, cross-sectional study including Michigan long-stay (≥100 days) NH residents aged ≥65 with dementia based on Minimum Data Set (MDS) assessments from January 1, 2018 to June 30, 2021. Residents with schizophrenia, Tourette syndrome, or Huntington's disease were excluded. Outcomes were the monthly prevalence of behavioral symptoms (i.e., Agitated Reactive Behavior Scale ≥ 1), depression symptoms (i.e., Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ]-9 ≥ 10, reflecting at least moderate depression), and CNS-active medication use (e.g., antipsychotics). Demographic, clinical, and facility characteristics were included. Using an interrupted time series design, we compared outcomes over two periods: Period 1: January 1, 2018-February 28, 2020 (pre-COVID-19) and Period 2: March 1, 2020-June 30, 2021 (during COVID-19).

RESULTS

We included 37,427 Michigan long-stay NH residents with dementia. The majority were female, 80 years or older, White, and resided in a for-profit NH facility. The percent of NH residents with moderate depression symptoms increased during COVID-19 compared to pre-COVID-19 (4.0% vs 2.9%, slope change [SC] = 0.03, p < 0.05). Antidepressant, antianxiety, antipsychotic and opioid use increased during COVID-19 compared to pre-COVID-19 (SC = 0.41, p < 0.001, SC = 0.17, p < 0.001, SC = 0.07, p < 0.05, and SC = 0.24, p < 0.001, respectively). No significant changes in hypnotic use or behavioral symptoms were observed.

CONCLUSIONS

Michigan long-stay NH residents with dementia had a higher prevalence of depression symptoms and CNS active-medication use during the COVID-19 pandemic than before. During periods of increased isolation, facility-level policies to regularly assess depression symptoms and appropriate CNS-active medication use are warranted.

Drug utilization patterns before and during COVID-19 pandemic in Manitoba, Canada: A population-based study

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic has led the Canadian provincial governments to take unprecedented measures, including restrictions to healthcare services and pharmacists. Limited evidence exists on changes in prescription trends in Canada during the pandemic period.

OBJECTIVES

To examine the trend of prescription medications' utilization before and during COVID-19, among incident and prevalent users in the general population. We examined 18 major classes of medications.

METHODS

We used the administrative health databases from the province of Manitoba, Canada, to conduct a province-wide cross-sectional study. Incident and prevalent use was compared between two time periods; pre-COVID-19: July 2016-March 2020 and during COVID-19: April 2020-March 2021. Interrupted time series analysis using autoregressive models was used to quantify the change in level and slope in quarterly medication use among incident and prevalent users.

RESULTS

The quarterly study population ranged from 1,353,485 to 1,411,630 Manitobans. The most common comorbidities were asthma (26.67%), hypertension (20.64%), and diabetes (8.31%). On average, the pandemic restrictions resulted in a 45.55% and 12.17% relative decline in the aggregated utilization of all drugs among both incident and prevalent users, respectively. Subclass analysis showed a 46.83%, 23.05%, and 30.98% relative drop among incident users of antibiotics, cardiovascular drugs and opioids use, respectively. We observed a significant slope increase during COVID-19 among the quarterly cardiovascular, antidiabetics, alpha-1 blockers, and statins incident users compared to the pre-COVID-19 period. We noted a significant decrease in level among NSAIDs, opioids, and antibiotic prevalent users, however, no significant changes in slope were observed.

CONCLUSION

Our findings show a significant impact of COVID-19 measures on prescription trends in the general population. The observed decline among several medication classes was temporary. Further research is needed to monitor prescription trends and better understand if those changes were associated with increased health services and worsened outcomes.