Medicine use in the elderly

Elderly are a challenging group to treat medically. They generally have several comorbidities, use a lot more medicines (polypharmacy), and are more frail than younger patients. All these aspects increase the risk of drug-related problems (DRPs).

The group wishes to do research that may contribute to less DRPs within the elderly. We are cooperating with general practicioners, nursing home physicians and NOKLUS (organisation for external quality assessment of laboratory analyses in primary health care).

Current objectives:

• What is the prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) in Norwegian nursing homes?
• What kind of blood glucose regulating treatment do nursing home patients with DM receive, in aspects of both medicines and monitoring of blood glucose?
• How and when does blood glucose monitoring occur for nursing home patients with DM, and what is the quality and use of the results?