Prophylaxis of Venous Thromboembolism in Geriatric Settings: A Cluster-Randomized Multicomponent Interventional Trial

To evaluate the efficacy of an intervention on the practice of venous thromboembolism prevention.

A multicenter, prospective, controlled, cluster-randomized, multifaceted intervention trial consisting of educational lectures, posters, and pocket cards reminding physicians of the guidelines for thromboprophylaxis use.

Twelve geriatric departments with 1861 beds total, of which 202, 803, and 856 in acute care, post-acute care, and long-term care wards, respectively.

Patients hospitalized between January 1 and May 31, 2015, in participating departments.

The primary endpoint was the overall adequacy of thromboprophylaxis prescription at the patient level, defined as a composite endpoint consisting of indication, regimen, and duration of treatment. Geriatric departments were divided into an intervention group (6 departments) and control group (6 departments). The preintervention period was 1 month to provide baseline practice levels, the intervention period 2 months, and the postintervention period 1 month in acute care and post-acute care wards or 2 months in long-term care wards. Multivariable regression was used to analyze factors associated with the composite outcome.

We included 2962 patients (1426 preintervention and 1536 postintervention), with median age 85 [79;90] years. For the overall 18.9% rate of inadequate thromboprophylaxis, 11.1% was attributable to underuse and 7.9% overuse. Intervention effects were more apparent in post-acute and long-term care wards although not significantly [odds ratio 1.44 (95% confidence interval 0.78;2.66), P = .241; and 1.44 (0.68, 3.06), P = .345]. Adequacy rates significantly improved in the postintervention period for the intervention group overall (from 78.9% to 83.4%; P = .027) and in post-acute care (from 75.4% to 86.3%; P = .004) and long-term care (from 87.0% to 91.7%; P = .050) wards, with no significant trend observed in the control group.

This study failed to demonstrate improvement in prophylaxis adequacy with our intervention. However, the intervention seemed to improve practices in post-acute and long-term care but not acute care wards.