%0 Journal Article
%T Reducing inappropriate, anticholinergic and psychotropic drugs among older residents in assisted living facilities: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial
%A Kaisu H Pitkala
%A Anna-Liisa Juola
%A Helena Soini
%A Marja-Liisa Laakkonen
%A Hannu Kautiainen
%A Mariko Teramura-Gronblad
%A Harriet Finne-Soveri
%A Mikko Bjorkman
%J Trials
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1745-6215-13-85
%X During years 2011 and 2012, a sample of residents in assisted living facilities in Helsinki (approximately£¿212) will be recruited, having offered to participate in a trial aiming to reduce their harmful drugs. Their wards will be randomized into two arms: one, those in which staff will be trained in two half-day sessions, including case studies to identify inappropriate, anticholinergic and psychotropic drugs among their residents, and two, a control group with usual care procedures and delayed training. The intervention wards will have an appointed nurse who will be responsible for taking care of the medication of the residents on her ward, and taking any problems to the consulting doctor, who will be responsible for the overall care of the patient. The trial will last for twelve months, the assessment time points will be zero, six and twelve months.The primary outcomes will be the proportion of persons using inappropriate, anticholinergic, or more than two psychotropic drugs, and the change in the mean number of inappropriate, anticholinergic and psychotropic drugs among residents. Secondary endpoints will be, for example, the change in the mean number of drugs, the proportion of residents having significant drug-drug interactions, residents' health-related quality of life (HRQOL) according to the 15D instrument, cognition according to verbal fluency and clock-drawing tests and the use and cost of health services, especially hospitalizations.To our knowledge, this is the first large-scale randomized trial exploring whether relatively light intervention, that is, staff training, will have an effect on reducing harmful drugs and improving QOL among institutionalized older people.ACTRN12611001078943
%K Inappropriate drugs
%K Psychotropic drugs
%K Anticholinergic drugs
%K Drug-drug interactions
%K Polypharmacy
%K Assisted living
%K Serviced housing
%K Randomized controlled trial
%U http://www.trialsjournal.com/content/13/1/85/abstract