Hege Kersten
Telemark Hospital HF
Norway
The Incidence and Prognosis of Dementia related to Drug use in out-patients with cognitive impairments (the IPoD-D-Study).
Norwegian ExtraFoundation for Health and Rehabilitation
255,000
01/04/2014
4
Drug use is a modifiable risk factor with a large potential in dementia prevention. Use of proton pump inhibitors, benzodiazepines and anticholinergic drugs has been associated with higher rates of dementia in older people. These drug classes are also considered to be inappropriate in old people with cognitive impairments due to exacerbation of the cognitive decline. More studies are encouraged to increase the awareness of potential medication-related risk of incident and progression of dementia in different populations.
We therefore want to characterize the prescription pattern of inappropriate drugs in home-dwelling people with cognitive impairments and evaluate the possible influence on incident and progression of dementia.
The study population consists of 579 home-dwelling patients with cognitive impairment recruited from 8 out-patients clinics participating in the Norwegian Registry of Persons with Cognitive Symptoms (NorCog). All patients are enrolled in longitudinal observational studies and comprehensive assessments are performed at baseline and after mean 24 month (range 18-36). Drugs used regularly are recorded from referral letters and information given by the patients and their caregivers. All drugs are classified according to the anatomical therapeutic chemical classification system. Dementia diagnosis, mini mental state examination (MMSE-NR) and Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scale score is retrieved from the comprehensive assessments made for all patients at baseline and follow up.
The data from the baseline assessment is analyzed and a paper describing the prevalence and associated factors of inappropriate drugs in home-dwelling people with cognitive impairments is in progress. The follow-up assessments are completed in February 2017 and the drug use related to the progression of dementia will be analyzed and published thereafter.
The results of this project are important to gain more knowledge about drug use and drug safety in people with dementia.