Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) include aggression, agitation, resistiveness to care, depression, anxiety, apathy, and hallucinations. BPSD are common in nursing home residents and can be ameliorated using person-centered approaches. Despite regulatory requirements, less than 2% of nursing homes consistently implement person-centered behavioral approaches. In a National Institute of Nursing Research-funded research protocol, we are implementing a pragmatic cluster randomized clinical trial designed to enable staff in nursing homes to reduce BPSD using behavioral approaches while optimizing function, preventing adverse events, and improving quality of life of residents. The implementation is based on use of the Evidence Integration Triangle (EIT), a parsimonious, community-engaged participatory framework that is well suited to the complexity and variability in the nursing home environment. A total of 50 nursing home communities will be randomized to EIT-4-BPSD or education only. Primary Aim 1 is to determine if communities exposed to EIT-4-BPSD demonstrate evidence of implementation evaluated by the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) criteria. Primary Aim 2 is to evaluate the feasibility, utility, and cost of the EIT approach in EIT-4-BPSD communities.

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Background and PurposeThe purpose of this study was to test the reliability and validity of the Quality of Interaction Survey (QuIS) using a quantification scoring approach.MethodsBaseline data from the Evidence Integration Triangle for Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (EIT-4-BPSD) study was used.ResultsA total of 553 residents participated. There was evidence of inter-rater reliability with Kappa scores of .86 to 1.00 and internal consistency based on the Rasch analysis (item reliability of .98). There was some support for validity based on item fit and hypothesis testing as resistiveness to care was significantly associated with total QuIS scores.ConclusionThis study supports the use of the quantified QuIS to evaluate the quality of interactions over time and to test interventions to improve interactions.

This study described current use and predictors of psychotropics among residents with moderate to severe cognitive impairment. This was a secondary data analysis using baseline data from the first 341 residents in an ongoing trial. Predictive measures included age, gender, race, depressive symptoms, agitation, resistiveness to care, depression, cognition, pain, comorbidities, facility factors, and state. Overall 63% ( n = 211) received at least one psychotropic medication, 16% ( n = 52) an anti-seizure medication, 23% ( n = 77) an anxiolytic, 30% ( n = 99) an antidepressant, 2% ( n = 8) a sedative hypnotic, 28% ( n = 93) an antipsychotic medication, and 9% ( n = 29) an opioid. Testing of models explained 9% to 15% of psychotropic medication use. There were high rates of psychotropic medication use and a limited association between demographic factors, behavioral symptoms, and psychotropic medication use. Continued research is needed to explore the impact of deprescribing, person-centered behavioral interventions, and beliefs of providers on psychotropic medication use.