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The use of anticholinergics, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, and other potentially harmful medications (PHMs) is associated with particularly poor outcomes in nursing home (NH) residents with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD). Our objective was to compare PHM prescribing by NH physicians and advanced practitioners who focus their practice on NH residents (NH specialists) vs non-NH specialists. Retrospective cohort study. We included a 20% random sample of Medicare beneficiaries with ADRD who resided in 12,278 US NHs in 2017. Long-stay NH residents with ADRD were identified using MDS, Medicare Parts A and B claims. Residents <65 years old or without continuous Part D coverage were excluded. Physicians in generalist specialties and advanced practitioners with ≥90% of Part B claims for NH care were considered NH specialists. Residents were assigned to NH specialists vs non-NH specialists based on plurality of Part D claims submitted for that resident. Any PHM use (defined using the Beers Criteria) and the proportion of NH days on a PHM were modeled using generalized estimating equations. Models included resident demographics, clinical characteristics, cognitive and functional status, behavioral assessments, and facility characteristics. Of the 54,713 residents in the sample, 27.9% were managed by an NH specialist and 72.1% by a non-NH specialist. There was no statistically significant difference in any PHM use [odds ratio (OR) 0.97, 95% CI 0.93-1.02, P =.23]. There were lower odds of prolonged PHM use (OR 0.87, 95% CI 0.81-0.94, P <.001, for PHM use on >75% vs >0%-<25% of NH days) for NH specialists vs non-NH specialists. Although the use of PHMs among NH residents with ADRD managed by NH specialists was not lower, they were less likely to receive PHMs over longer periods of time. Future work should evaluate the underlying causes of these differences to inform interventions to improve prescribing for NH residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Federal initiatives have been successful in reducing antipsychotic exposure in nursing home residents with dementia. We assessed if these initiatives were implemented equally across racial and ethnic minority groups. Retrospective, cross-sectional trends study. National long-stay nursing home residents with dementia from 2011 to 2017. We examined trends in psychotropic drug class exposures from the Minimum Data Set assessments for non-Hispanic Black (NHB), Hispanic, and non-Hispanic White (NHW) residents using interrupted time-series analyses with age-sex standardized quarterly outcomes and time points to denote the National Partnership (2012) and Five Star Rating changes (2015). Initially, antipsychotic (33.0%) and sedative (6.8%) exposure was highest for Hispanic residents; antidepressant (59.8%) and anxiolytic (23.4%) exposure was highest for NHW residents; NHB residents had the lowest use of each. Antipsychotic use dropped at the time of the Partnership (β = −0.8807, P =.0023) and the slope declined further after the Partnership (β = −0.6611, P <.0001) for NHW. In comparison to NHW, the level and slope changes for NHB and Hispanics were not significantly different. The Five Star Rating change did not impact the level of antipsychotic use (β = 0.027, P =.9467), but the slope changed to indicate a slowed rate of decline (β = 0.1317, P =.4075) for NHW. As to the other psychotropic drug classes, there were few significant differences between trends seen in the racial and ethnic subgroups. The following exceptions were noted: antidepressant use decreased at a faster rate for NHB residents post-Partnership (β = −0.1485, P =.0371), and after the Five Star Rating change, NHB residents (β = −0.0428, P =.0312) and Hispanic residents (β = −0.0834, P <.0001) saw antidepressant use decrease faster than NHW. Sedative use in slope post-Partnership period (β = −0.086, P =.0275) and post–Five Star Rating (β = −0.0775, P <.0001) declined faster among Hispanic residents. We found little evidence of clinically meaningful differences in changes to 4 classes of psychotropic medication use among racial and ethnic minority nursing home residents with dementia following 2 major federal initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than two-thirds of assisted living (AL) residents have dementia or cognitive impairment and antipsychotics are commonly prescribed for behavioral disturbances. As AL communities are regulated by state-level policies, which vary significantly regarding the care for people with dementia, we examined how antipsychotic prescribing varied across states among AL residents with dementia. This was an observational study using 20% sample of national Medicare data in 2017. The study cohort included Medicare beneficiaries with dementia aged 65 years or older who resided in larger (≥25-bed) ALs in 2017. The study outcome was the percentage of eligible AL person-months in which antipsychotics were prescribed for each state. We used a random intercept linear regression model to shrink estimates toward the overall mean use of antipsychotics addressing unstable estimates due to small sample sizes in some states. A total of 20,867 AL residents with dementia were included in the analysis, contributing to 194,718 person-months of observation. On average, AL residents with dementia were prescribed antipsychotics during 12.6% of their person-months. This rate varied significantly by state, with a low of 7.8% (95% CI 5.9%-10.3%) for Hawaii to a high of 20.5% (95% CI 16.4%-25.3%) for Wyoming. We observed significant state variation in the prescribing of antipsychotics among AL residents with dementia using national data. These variations may reflect differences in state regulations regarding the care for AL residents with dementia and suggest the need for further investigation to ensure high quality of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]