Many nursing home residents not taking beta-blockers after AMI

(HealthDay)—Many nursing home (NH) residents do not initiate beta-blocker use after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), according to a study published online Nov. 15 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Andrew R. Zullo, Pharm.D., from Brown University in Providence, R.I., and colleagues conducted a retrospective study involving a national cohort of 15,720 NH residents aged 65 years and older who were hospitalized for AMI. Participants had not taken beta-blockers for at least four months prior to AMI and survived 14 days or longer after readmission to NH.

The researchers found that after AMI, 57 percent of residents initiated a beta-blocker. Use of beta-blockers was less in older residents and in residents with higher levels of functional impairment and medication use, after adjustment for confounding variables. A wide variety of resident and NH characteristics, including sex, cognitive function, comorbidity burden, and NH ownership were not associated with beta-blocker use.

"Almost half of older NH residents in the United States do not initiate a beta-blocker after AMI," the authors write. "The absence of observed factors that strongly predict beta-blocker use may indicate a lack of consensus on how to manage older NH residents, suggesting the need to develop and disseminate thoughtful practice standards."

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the health care information technology industry.