Discontinuing Inappropriate Medication in Nursing Home Residents

Discontinuing Inappropriate Medication in Nursing Home Residents (the DIM NHR Study): a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

Nursing home residents are among the frailest patient groups with a high number of co-morbidities and a high use of medicines. Inappropriate polypharmacy (i.e. often overprescribing) is one of the major problems in the nursing home population increasing the number of adverse drug reactions, falls, hospital admissions, mortality as well as having an impact on health care utilization. Multidisciplinary medication reviews have a great potential to reduce inappropriate medication use. The purpose of this study is to determine the efficacy of a multidisciplinary medication review model focussing on discontinuing inappropriate medication in a cluster randomized controlled trial in 600 nursing home residents. The primary outcome measure is the difference in proportion of residents who successfully discontinued medication between intervention and control group after four months. Secondary outcome measures will be the drug burden index, adverse drug withdrawal events related to the discontinued medication, death, referral to hospitals and quality of life.

Nursing Home Wards:

Inclusion criteria:

• Long stay ward
• Capability and commitment to perform a multidisciplinary multistep medication review.

Exclusion criteria:

• Short stay, revalidation or observation wards
• Specialized ward where patients with an atypical etiology are cared for.
• Elderly care physicians who have recently received or who are to receive recertification at short notice with regard to systematic medication review methodology.
• Participation in other studies aimed at improving the quality of drug prescription (in the past 12 months).

Nursing Home Residents:

Inclusion criteria:

• A life expectancy of >4 weeks as judged by the treating elderly care physician.
• IC provided by patients themselves or provided by a legal representative for incapacitated patients.

Exclusion criteria:

• Refusal of treatment with medicines.
• Having received a multidisciplinary systematic medication review in the past 6 months.
• Being terminally ill and having a life expectancy ≤ 4 weeks as judged by the treating elderly care physician.
• Other reasons at the discretion of the elderly care physician / nursing staff