title: National estimates of medication use in nursing homes: findings from the 1997 medicare current beneficiary survey and the 1996 medical expenditure survey.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To provide the first nationwide estimates of medication use in nursing homes (NHs) and to introduce a new data set for examining drug use in long-term care facilities.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional comparison.
  
  
  METHODS
  NH medication files from two nationally representative data sets, the 1997 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) and the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey-Nursing Home Component (MEPS-NHC).
  
  
  METHODS
  NH residents in the MCBS (n=929, weighted n=2.0 million) and MEPS-NHC (n=5,899, weighted n=3.1 million).
  
  
  METHODS
  Estimates include characteristics of facilities and residents, average number of drugs used per person per month, and the prevalence and duration of use by select therapeutic drug classes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  NH residents received, on average, seven to eight medications each month (7.6 MCBS, 7.2 MEPS-NHC). About one-third of residents had monthly drug regimens of nine or more medications (31.8% MCBS, 32.4% MEPS-NHC). The most commonly used medications in NHs, in descending order, were analgesics and antipyretics, gastrointestinal agents, electrolytic and caloric preparations, central nervous system agents, anti-infective agents, and cardiovascular agents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These estimates serve as examples of the first national benchmarks of prescribing patterns in NHs. This study highlights the usefulness of the MCBS as an important new resource for examining medication use in NHs.
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Universityof Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. jdoshi@mail.med.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Jalpa A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Doshi
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shaffer
authors.forename: Becky A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Briesacher
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D017723:Drug Utilization Review / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D006278:Medicare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States