Reduction in the use of potentially inappropriate drugs among old people living in geriatric care units between 2007 and 2013

Abstract

The extent of potentially inappropriate drug use declined between 2007 and 2013 according to the quality indicators used. Medication reviews involving clinical pharmacists might be an important factor in reducing potentially inappropriate drug use and improving drug treatment among old people.

Exploring the prevalence and variance of cognitive impairment, pain, neuropsychiatric symptoms and ADL dependency among persons living in nursing homes; a cross-sectional study

“…A longitudinal follow-up is planned for 2018 and other future national and international studies can compare those results with the results from this study. The results show a cognitive impairment prevalence rate of 67 %, which is in line with earlier studies in similar contexts which indicate prevalence rates of 71–73 % [6, 7]. This finding is also in line with a European study including 4156 residents in eight countries (the Czech Republic, England, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and Israel) which shows an overall prevalence of cognitive impairment of 68 % [3].…”

“…Cognitive and physical impairments are two of the factors most associated with nursing-home admission [1] and both cognitive and ADL impairments have been shown to be common in nursing homes internationally [2–5]. Two previous studies in Sweden show that cognitive impairment among nursing-home residents was prevalent in 71 % (2008) [6] and 73 % (2013) [7] respectively of all cases. However, these studies were limited because of their regional context and, in the case of the first one, also regarding their sample size ( n  = 315).…”

“…Cross-sectional data have been collected from nursing-home residents in Nordic countries, but limited to residents in the four capitals of Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden, as well as at a European level [3, 10, 12] but since Sweden has no national repeated measures of health and health-related factors for the national population of residents in nursing homes as other countries have, comparison of studies is difficult. Large [7, 11] and smaller [6, 24] studies have been performed in Swedish nursing homes, but to our knowledge no national study of the prevalence of cognitive impairment, pain and neuropsychiatric symptoms among residents in nursing homes has been reported. Knowledge about national prevalence rates would provide a point of reference that could be of great value for other future national and international studies, allowing comparisons of their result with these results.…”

Development of the PHASE-Proxy scale for rating drug-related signs and symptoms in severe cognitive impairment

“…The cooperation between workers may have contributed to valuable exchanges of views and knowledge. There is evidence that medication reviews based on medication lists and PHASE-20 can reduce the number of inappropriate medications (Milos et al, 2013;Gustafsson et al, 2015). The rapid spread and extensive use of PHASE-20 in Sweden also indicate that clinicians find it a useful and worthwhile tool.…”

“…In recent studies, it has been shown that pharmacist-led medication reviews based on medication lists and PHASE-20 reduce potentially inappropriate medications in people aged 75 years or older in primary health care (Milos et al, 2013) and among residents in nursing homes (Gustafsson et al, 2015). PHASE-20 is recommended in the Quality indicators for good drug therapy in the elderly, which was developed by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare (2010), and is currently used in all counties in Sweden.…”