Collecting medication data in the 2004 national nursing home survey

Objectives-This methods report provides an overview of how medication data were collected and processed in the 2004 National Nursing Home Survey (NNHS) and how analysts may use the medication data. The 2004 survey marked the first time that medication data were collected on sampled nursing home residents in the NNHS. Information about medications, which are an important component of nursing home care, can help policy makers, researchers, and members of the long-term care community better understand which medications are taken by U.S. nursing home residents. Methods-The medication data were collected in the Prescribed Medications (PM) module of the 2004 NNHS. The computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) instrument, which included a drug lookup list, allowed interviewers to enter a maximum of 25 medications taken on the day before the facility interview and a maximum of 25 medications taken regularly but not on the day before the facility interview. This medication information, which is documented in residents' medication administration records, was collected during a face-to-face interview at the nursing home facilities. All data were provided by facility respondents who used residents' administrative and medical records to answer the survey items. The data were entered into the CAPI instrument that was loaded onto each interviewer's computer laptop. Results and conclusions-Data were collected on 13,507 current residents, 98.5 percent of whom took one or more medications. A stand-alone PM Public-use File has been released. This file, which includes the sampling weight and design variables from the resident file, can be linked to the 2004 NNHS Current Resident Public-use File to generate national estimates on medications by various resident characteristics.