Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) feeding in elderly people with diabetes resident in nursing homes

To investigate the level of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) feeding in elderly people with diabetes resident in Nursing homes in one area of the U.K., to describe their degree of disability, co-morbidities and to estimate medication costs of these residents.

The data was collected from a retrospective case notes review of the 75 people with known diabetes who were resident in the 11 Nursing homes in the Coventry Teaching PCT in early 2010.

14 residents (19% of the total sample) had PEG feeds in situ and one (1.3%) had a nasogastric feeding tube in situ. The 14 residents were taking a total of 80 daily medications, a mean of 5.7 daily medications per resident (range 3-10). The total medication costs for the regular medications for these 14 residents was 2410 euros per month giving a mean of 172 euros/month (range 14-935 euros per month). All of the 14 were recorded as being bedbound, having no speech and being doubly incontinent.

All 14 residents being PEG fed have severe levels of disability. Cerebro vascular accident and dementia are the main recorded co-morbidities. The most expensive monthly medication costs were for special order liquid medications, many for cardio vascular disease prevention, which may be considered as inappropriate in such severely disabled residents.