Abstract
BACKGROUND: Pain is believed to be undertreated in patients with dementia; however, no larger studies have been conducted. The aim was to investigate prevalent use of opioids in elderly with and without dementia in the entire elderly population of Denmark.
METHOD: A register-based cross-sectional study in the entire elderly (≥65 years) population in 2010 was conducted. Opioid use among elderly with dementia (N = 35,455) was compared with elderly without (N = 870,645), taking age, sex, comorbidity, and living status into account.
RESULTS: Nursing home residents (NHRs) used opioids most frequently (41%), followed by home-living patients with dementia (27.5%) and home-living patients without dementia (16.9%). Buprenorphine and fentanyl (primarily patches) were commonly used among NHRs (18.7%) and home-living patients with dementia (10.7%) but less often by home-living patients without dementia (2.4%).
CONCLUSIONS: Opioid use in the elderly Danish population was frequent but particularly in patients with dementia and NHR, which may challenge patient safety and needs further investigation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Alzheimer's & Dementia |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Pages (from-to) | 691-699 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| ISSN | 1552-5260 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jun 2015 |