Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Community-Dwelling Older Adults Living with Dementia

The Beers Criteria identifies potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) that should be avoided in older adults living with dementia.

The aim of this study was to provide estimates of the prevalence and persistence of PIM use among community-dwelling older adults living with dementia in 2011-2017.

Medicare claims data were used to create an analytic dataset spanning from 2011 to 2017. The analysis included community-dwelling Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries aged 65 and older who were enrolled in Medicare Part D plans, had diagnosis for dementia, and were alive for at least one calendar year. Dementia status was determined using Medicare Chronic Conditions Date Warehouse (CCW) Chronic Condition categories and Charlson Comorbidity Index. PIM use was defined as 2 or more prescription fills with at least 90 days of total days-supply in a calendar year. Descriptive statistics were used to report the prevalence and persistence of PIM use.

Of 1.6 million person-year observations included in the sample, 32.7% used one or more PIMs during a calendar year in 2011-2017. Breakdown by drug classes showed that 14.9% of the sample used anticholinergics, 14.0% used benzodiazepines, and 11.0% used antipsychotics. Conditional on any use, mean annual days-supply for all PIMs was 270.6 days (SD = 102.7). The mean annual days-supply for antipsychotic use was 302.7 days (SD = 131.2).

Significant proportion of community-dwelling older adults with dementia used one or more PIMs, often for extended periods of time. The antipsychotic use in the community-dwelling older adults with dementia remains as a significant problem.