Association of β-Blockers With Functional Outcomes, Death, and Rehospitalization in Older Nursing Home Residents After Acute Myocardial Infarction.

Importance: Although β-blockers are a mainstay of treatment after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), these medications are commonly not prescribed for older nursing home residents after AMI, in part owing to concerns about potential functional harms and uncertainty of benefit.

Objective: To study the association of β-blockers after AMI with functional decline, mortality, and rehospitalization among long-stay nursing home residents 65 years or older.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cohort study of nursing home residents with AMI from May 1, 2007, to March 31, 2010, used national data from the Minimum Data Set, version 2.

Beta-Blocker Use in U.S. Nursing Home Residents After Myocardial Infarction: A National Study.

Objectives: To evaluate how often beta-blockers were started after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in nursing home (NH) residents who previously did not use these drugs and to evaluate which factors were associated with post-AMI use of beta-blockers.

Design: Retrospective cohort using linked national Minimum Data Set assessments; Online Survey, Certification and Reporting records; and Medicare claims.

Setting: U.

Use of opioids and other analgesics by older adults in the United States, 1999-2010.

Background And Objective: There has been concern over rising use of prescription opioids in young and middle-aged adults. Much less is known about opioid prescribing in older adults, for whom clinical recommendations and the balance of risks and benefits differ from younger adults. We evaluated changes in use of opioids and other analgesics in a national sample of clinic visits made by older adults between 1999 and 2010.

Prescribing quality in older veterans: a multifocal approach.

Background And Objective: Quality prescribing for older adults involves multiple considerations. We evaluated multiple aspects of prescribing quality in older veterans to develop an integrated view of prescribing problems and to understand how the prevalence of these problems varies across clinically important subgroups of older adults.

Design And Participants: Cross-sectional observational study of veterans age 65 years and older who received medications from Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) pharmacies in 2007.