Clinical Trials Logo

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

NCT number NCT01876095
Other study ID # DIM-NHR study
Secondary ID
Status Completed
Phase N/A
First received June 10, 2013
Last updated March 20, 2017
Start date June 2014
Est. completion date April 2016

Study information

Verified date March 2017
Source University of Groningen
Contact n/a
Is FDA regulated No
Health authority
Study type Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

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.


Recruitment information / eligibility

Status Completed
Enrollment 992
Est. completion date April 2016
Est. primary completion date April 2016
Accepts healthy volunteers No
Gender All
Age group N/A and older
Eligibility 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

Study Design


Related Conditions & MeSH terms

  • Polypharmacy Because of Multimorbidity in Geriatric Nursing Home Residents

Intervention

Procedure:
Multidisciplinary medication review
Consists of the following steps: 1. Elderly care physician and nursing staff evaluate with the patient the experience of taking medicines, adverse drug reactions and patient's preferences. 2. Pharmacist reviews medication to identify drug related problems using START/STOPP en Beers criteria. 3/4. Meeting of elderly care physician, pharmacist. Possibilities to discontinue prescribed medication will be examined resulting in pharmaceutical care plan that optimizes the patient's medication i.e. which inappropriate medication should be discontinued following a prioritization and time schedule. 5. Execution of pharmaceutical care plan according to agreed schedule.

Locations

Country Name City State
Netherlands University of Groningen Groningen

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor Collaborator
University of Groningen ZonMw: The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Netherlands, 

Outcome

Type Measure Description Time frame Safety issue
Other Cognitive function Cognitive function as assessed with standardized cognitive tests called the Severe Impairment Battery and the Mini Mental Status Examination 4 months
Other Neuropsychiatric Symptoms Assessment of change in neuropsychiatric symptoms (e.g. hallucinations & delusions) with the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) (nursing home version). 4 months
Primary Successful medication discontinuation The number of residents for whom =1 inappropriate medication(s) are succesfully discontinued i.e. without relapse or severe withdrawal effects 4 months
Secondary Medication initiation Number of residents for whom =1 medication(s) are initiated (s) that should be started on the basis of the Screening Tool to Alert doctors to Right Treatment (START) criteria 4 months
Secondary Dose adjustment Number of residents for whom =1 dose(s) are lowered or increased 4 months
Secondary Safer alternative medication The percentage of residents for whom =1 medication(s) is replaced by a safer alternative 4 months
Secondary Drug burden index A measure of a person's cumulative exposure to anticholinergic and sedative medications, which has been associated with falls in nursing home patients 4 months
Secondary Quality of Life Quality of life will be measured using a disease specific instrument (DQI (Scholzel-Dorenbosch et al, in press) and a generic instrument EQ-5D-5L for all patients (Herdman et al, 2011). 4 months
Secondary adverse drug withdrawal events The rate of adverse drug withdrawal events related to the discontinued medication 4 months
Secondary Death Incidence of death 4 months
Secondary Hospital admission Hospital admission 4 months
Secondary Falling Defined as any event in which a nursing home resident touches the ground in an unintentional sudden manner without cues of emergency 4 months
Secondary Bone fractures Bone fractures caused by falling 4 months
Secondary number of visits to outpatient clinics / emergency rooms / by medical consultants number of visits to outpatient clinics, emergency rooms, number of visits by medical consultants i.e. physicians who visit the patients in the nursing homes, 4 months