Does home based medication review keep older people out of hospital? The HOMER randomised controlled trial

Holland, Richard, Lenaghan, Elizabeth, Harvey, Ian, Smith, Richard, Shepstone, Lee, Lipp, Alistair, Christou, Maria, Evans, David and Hand, Christopher (2005) Does home based medication review keep older people out of hospital? The HOMER randomised controlled trial. British Medical Journal, 330 (7486). pp. 293-295. ISSN 0959-8138

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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether home based medication review by pharmacists affects hospital readmission rates among older people. DESIGN: Randomised controlled trial. SETTING: Home based medication review after discharge from acute or community hospitals in Norfolk and Suffolk. PARTICIPANTS: 872 patients aged over 80 recruited during an emergency admission (any cause) if returning to own home or warden controlled accommodation and taking two or more drugs daily on discharge. INTERVENTION: Two home visits by a pharmacist within two weeks and eight weeks of discharge to educate patients and carers about their drugs, remove out of date drugs, inform general practitioners of drug reactions or interactions, and inform the local pharmacist if a compliance aid is needed. Control arm received usual care. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Total emergency readmissions to hospital at six months. Secondary outcomes included death and quality of life measured with the EQ-5D. RESULTS: By six months 178 readmissions had occurred in the control group and 234 in the intervention group (rate ratio = 1.30, 95% confidence interval 1.07 to 1.58; P = 0.009, Poisson model). 49 deaths occurred in the intervention group compared with 63 in the control group (hazard ratio = 0.75, 0.52 to 1.10; P = 0.14). EQ-5D scores decreased (worsened) by a mean of 0.14 in the control group and 0.13 in the intervention group (difference = 0.01, -0.05 to 0.06; P = 0.84, t test). CONCLUSIONS: The intervention was associated with a significantly higher rate of hospital admissions and did not significantly improve quality of life or reduce deaths. Further research is needed to explain this counterintuitive finding and to identify more effective methods of medication review.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Public Health and Health Services Research (former - to 2023) Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Norwich Clinical Trials Unit Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Health Services and Primary Care Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Epidemiology and Public Health Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Population Health
Depositing User:	EPrints Services
Date Deposited:	25 Nov 2010 11:11
Last Modified:	01 Nov 2023 01:37
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/14168
DOI:	10.1136/bmj.38338.674583.AE

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