Analysis of longitudinal patterns and predictors of medicine use in residential aged care using group-based trajectory modelling: The MEDTRAC-Polypharmacy longitudinal cohort study.

ABSTRACT:

Aims

Polypharmacy serves as a quality indicator in residential aged care facilities (RACFs) due to concerns about inappropriate medication use. However, aggregated polypharmacy rates at a single time offer limited value. Longitudinal analysis of polypharmacy patterns provides valuable insights into identifying potential overuse of medicines. We aimed to determine long-term trajectories of polypharmacy (≥9 medicines) and factors associated with each polypharmacy trajectory group.

Methods

This was a longitudinal cohort study using electronic data from 30 RACFs in New South Wales, Australia. We conducted group-based trajectory modelling to identify and characterize polypharmacy trajectories over 3 years. We evaluated the model fitness using the Bayesian Information Criterion, e

SUBMITTER: Wabe N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11602946 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature