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Interprofessional Interventions Involving Pharmacists and Targeting the Medicines Management Process Provided to Older People Residing in Nursing Homes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials

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Abstract

Background

Nursing home residents are often prescribed multiple medications, which increases their susceptibility to drug-related problems. The medicines management process involves multiple stages, for example, assessing, prescribing, dispensing, delivering and storing, administering, reviewing and monitoring. The medicine management process aims to optimise medicine use and associated patient outcomes. Interprofessional interventions of healthcare professionals from different disciplines in many clinical settings, including the nursing home setting, have shown success in improving patients’ clinical outcomes. However, reporting of the pharmacist’s role and the impact of these interventions has been unclear.

Objectives

We aimed to systematically identify and describe interprofessional interventions involving pharmacists that target the medicine management process in nursing homes by (a) describing interprofessional interventions and the role of pharmacists within, (b) describing the impact of these interventions, (c) exploring which of the medicine management process stages were targeted and (d) identifying any reported theoretical underpinning.

Methods

EMBASE, MEDLINE, CINAHL, SCOPUS, PsycInfo, Cochrane library, Web of Science and clinical trial registers were searched from the inception date until August 2021. Randomised controlled trials reporting interprofessional interventions involving pharmacists, targeting at least one stage of the medicine management process and provided to nursing home residents with a mean age ≥ 65 years, were included. The search had no restriction on outcomes measured. Included randomised controlled trials were assessed for quality and risk of bias using the Jadad scale and Cochrane Collaboration tool, respectively. The overall certainty of outcomes was assessed using GRADEpro. If present, details about theoretical underpinning were extracted using the theory coding scheme. Fixed and random-effects models were used to calculate the pooled effect estimates to compare outcomes between intervention and control groups, where feasible, or a narrative description was reported.

Results

Eighteen manuscripts describing interprofessional interventions involving pharmacists were identified: medication review (n = 14), education (n = 3) and medication simplification (n = 1) based interventions. The pharmacists’ most frequent role was the provision of medicine-related recommendations, and they worked mostly with general practitioners and nurses. Residents/family members contributed in 44% of included interventions. A meta-analysis identified that interventions were significantly associated with significant improvements in prescribing appropriateness (standard mean difference − 0.20; 95% confidence interval − 0.33 to − 0.77; I2 = 27%) but not with hospitalisation and mortality. None of the included studies reported a theoretical underpinning to intervention development.

Conclusions

This systematic review provides a detailed description of the impact of interprofessional practice, involving pharmacists, which targets at least one stage of the medicine management process in the nursing home setting. The findings suggest that future research should prioritise improving prescribing inappropriateness rather than the number of long-term medications prescribed. It remains unknown if interventions are designed using theory and, therefore, it is not clear whether theory-derived interventions are more effective than those without a theoretical element.

Clinical Trial Registration

The protocol was published in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) [Ref: CRD42020181744].

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Catriona Honohan (subject librarian in Trinity College Dublin) for helping with the development of the search terms and strategy; Greg Sheaf (subject librarian in Trinity College Dublin) in further assisting with finding full-text articles; Connie Brennan for helping in the title and abstract screening stage of the study; and Micheal Doody (Pharmacist in Median Healthcare pharmacy group) for supporting the concept and development of the study.

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Correspondence to Asil Sadeq.

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Asil Sadeq, Monica Strugaru, Maryam AlMutairi, Derek Stewart, Cristin Ryan and Tamasine Grimes have no conflicts of interest that are directly relevant to the content of this article.

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Study conception and design: AS, CR, TG. Screened references for eligibility: AS, MS, CR, TG, MA. Data extraction and assessment for quality: AS, MS, TG, MA. Drafted manuscript: AS. Critically reviewed and revised manuscript and approved final version: AS, CR, TG, DS, MS, MA. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript and agree to be accountable for the work.

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Sadeq, A., Strugaru, M., Almutairi, M. et al. Interprofessional Interventions Involving Pharmacists and Targeting the Medicines Management Process Provided to Older People Residing in Nursing Homes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials. Drugs Aging 39, 773–794 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40266-022-00978-3

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