Local Nursing Home Prescribing Patterns and Psychoactive Prescribing in Assisted Living

Because prescribing practices in long-term care settings may reflect regional influences, we examined how potentially inappropriate antipsychotic and antianxiety medication prescribing in assisted living (AL) compared to prescribing in nursing homes (NHs) based on their proximity, using generalized linear models adjusting for facility characteristics and state fixed effects. Data were derived from a seven state sample of AL communities and data for the same seven states drawn from publicly available data reported on the Nursing Home Compare website. In adjusted analyses, AL rates of antipsychotic use were not associated with the rates in the nearest or farthest NHs. However, AL communities that were affiliated with a NH had lower rates of potentially inappropriate antipsychotic use (b=−0.27[95%CI=−0.50,−0.04]). In a separate model, antianxiety medication prescribing rates in AL were significantly associated with neighboring NHs’ rates of prescribing (b=2.65[95%CI=1.00,4.29]). Findings suggest efforts to change prescribing in NHs may influence prescribing in AL.