DEFEAT-polypharmacy: deprescribing anticholinergic and sedative medicines feasibility trial in residential aged care facilities

The aim of this study was to identify what definitions have been published for the term 'deprescribing', and determine whether a unifying definition could be reached. A secondary aim was to uncover patterns between the published definitions which could explain any variation.

Older people carry a high burden of illness for which medications are indicated, along with increased risk of adverse drug reactions. We developed an index to determine drug burden based on pharmacologic principles. We evaluated the relationship of this index to physical and cognitive performance apart from disease indication. Data from the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study on 3075 well-functioning community-dwelling persons aged 70 to 79 years were analyzed by multiple linear regression to assess the cross-sectional association of drug burden index with a validated composite continuous measure for physical function, and with the Digit Symbol Substitution Test for cognitive performance. Use of anticholinergic and sedative medications was associated with poorer physical performance score (anticholinergic exposure, 2.08 vs 2.21, P<.001; sedative exposure, 2.09 vs 2.19, P<.001) and cognitive performance on the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (anticholinergic exposure, 34.5 vs 35.5, P = .045; sedative exposure, 34.0 vs 35.5, P = .01). Associations were strengthened when exposure was calculated by principles of dose response. An increase of 1 U in drug burden index was associated with a deficit of 0.15 point (P<.001) on the physical function scale and 1.5 points (P = .01) on the Digit Symbol Substitution Test. These values were more than 3 times those associated with a single comorbid illness. The drug burden index demonstrates that anticholinergic and sedative drug exposure is associated with poorer function in community-dwelling older people. This pharmacologic approach provides a useful evidence-based tool for assessing the functional effect of exposure to medications in this population.

Background A multi-domain suite of instruments has been developed by the interRAI research collaborative to support assessment and care planning in mental health, aged care and disability services. Each assessment instrument comprises items common to other instruments and specialized items exclusive to that instrument. This study examined the reliability of the items from five instruments supporting home care, long term care, mental health, palliative care and post-acute care. Methods Paired assessments on 783 individuals across 12 nations were completed within 72 hours of each other by trained assessors who were blinded to the others' assessment. Reliability was tested using weighted kappa coefficients. Results The overall kappa mean value for 161 items which are common to 2 or more instruments was 0.75. The kappa mean value for specialized items varied among instruments from 0.63 to 0.73. Over 60% of items scored greater than 0.70. Conclusion The vast majority of items exceeded standard cut-offs for acceptable reliability, with only modest variation among instruments. The overall performance of these instruments showed that the interRAI suite has substantial reliability according to conventional cut-offs for interpreting the kappa statistic. The results indicate that interRAI items retain reliability when used across care settings, paving the way for cross domain application of the instruments as part of an integrated health information system.