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Quality use of medicines indicators and associated factors in residential aged care facilities: baseline findings from the pharmacists in RACF Study in Australia

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posted on 2023-05-21, 14:23 authored by Haider, I, Kosari, S, Naunton, M, Niyonsenga, T, Gregory PetersonGregory Peterson, Koerner, J, Davey, R
Prescribing potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs), including antipsychotics and benzodiazepines, has been used as an indicator of the quality use of medicines in residential aged care facilities (RACFs). PIMs are associated with an increased risk of falls and hospitalisations in the elderly. The purpose of this study is to assess the extent of prescribing of PIMs in RACFs at baseline in the Pharmacists in residential aged care facilities (PiRACF) study and examine the association of resident and system factors with the number of PIMs. A cross-sectional analysis of 1368 participants from 15 Australian RACFs was performed to detect PIMs using the American Geriatrics Society 2019 Beers® criteria. Most residents (68.1%) were taking at least one regular PIM; 16.9% were taking regular antipsychotics and 11.1% were taking regular benzodiazepines. Long-term proton pump inhibitors were the most frequent class of PIMs. History of falls and higher Charlson Comorbidity Index were associated with an increased number of prescribed PIMs, while dementia diagnosis and older age (85 years or more) were associated with decreased number of PIMs (p-value <0.05). Residents in facilities with lower nurse-to-resident ratios were more likely to have an increased number of PIMs (p value = 0.001). This study indicates that potentially inappropriate prescribing is common in RACFs and interventions to target residents at highest risk are needed.

History

Publication title

Journal of Clinical Medicine

Volume

11

Issue

17

Article number

5189

Number

5189

Pagination

1-12

ISSN

2077-0383

Department/School

School of Pharmacy and Pharmacology

Publisher

MDPI AG

Place of publication

Switzerland

Rights statement

© 2022 The authors. This article is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Efficacy of medications