Reducing Antibiotic Prescriptions for Urinary Tract Infection in Long-Term Care Facilities

Reducing Antibiotic Prescriptions for Urinary Tract Infection in Long-Term Care Facilities With a Complex Intervention Targeted at Nursing Home Staff -A Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.

This cluster randomized controlled study evaluates the effect of a tailored observation, reflection and communication tool on used by long-term care facility staff on antibiotic prescription for urinary tract infection in long-term care facility residents.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Urinary Tract Infections
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Dialogue tool

Detailed Description

Healthcare-associated infections due to antimicrobial use in long-term care facilities (LTCF) is an increasing problem in europe. It is well established that there exists a positive correlation between the amount of antibiotics used in treatment and resistant bacteria in both individual patients and society as a whole. A point-prevalence audit from 2017 in LTCFs showed that 10.5% of all LTCF residents in Denmark are treated with an antibiotic agent. In 78% of the cases, the cause for treatment was urinary tract infection (UTI). In addition, this group of elderly are particularly vulnerable to healthcare-associated infections, drug interactions and adverse effects. Thus, there are persuasive reasons for reducing antibiotic use in this specific group.

In the diagnostic process for UTI in a LTCF resident, there are several non-clinical factors influencing the diagnosis and leading to unnecessary treatment. First, because of dementia, sequelae from apoplexies, difficulties walking and other ailments, the typical LTCF resident is unable to express symptoms clearly and attend the GPs office. Consequently, the diagnosis is based on observations made by LTCF staff, which are then communicated to the General Practitioner (GP). Second, the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria is up to 50% in this particular group. Though several studies have found that asymptomatic bacteriuria is a benign condition, it continues to be treated. Third, unspecific symptoms such as mental status change, falls or decreased function are unlikely to be caused by UTI. However, unspecific symptoms are still driving diagnosis and treatment of UTI. These factors may influence diagnosis and treatment in the Danish LTCF setting and therefore, a significant portion of the prescribed antibiotics for UTI could be due to overtreatment.

There is some evidence suggesting that antibiotic stewardship programs focusing on education of LTCF staff decreases antibiotic prescriptions and increases adherence to guidelines. In addition, there is moderate evidence that the widely used communication tool ISBAR (Identification, Situation, Background, Analysis, Recommendation) improves patient safety by improving interprofessional communication especially when communicating over the phone. Thus, if LTCF staff were educated on relevant observation, how to approach ASB, unspecific symptoms and structured handover of clinical information, the impact of these factors on diagnosis and treatment of UTI in LTCF residents may decrease. Overall, antibiotic stewardship programs in LTCF are somewhat effective. However, most of these were targeted at prescribers only or prescribers and nurses and some were also prone to bias because of the choice of study design. At present, there exists no cluster Randomized Controlled Trials (cRCT) targeting only LTCF staff with nursing tasks through a combined education- and communication-centered intervention.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 1491
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Denmark
  • Copenhagen, Denmark, 1014
    • Research Unit of General Practice

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 63 years and older (Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• LTCFs eligible for inclusion have common service areas with attending staff 24 hours a day and they cannot be specialized i.e. not psychiatric LTCFs or LTCFs for the blind, except for LTCFs specialized in dementia. The residents living in these types of facilities requires a level of care that typically ensures that the LTCF staff handles all contact with the GP on behalf of the resident, while the LTCF residents remains a somewhat homogenous group.
• We include only social and health helpers, social and health assistants and nurses, who have a permanent contract at the LTCF and do day- or evening shifts for the educational session. It is optional for the LTCF to use the educational material to educate LTCF staff in nightshifts. However, a UTI is rarely observed and reported during the night, which is why we chose this pragmatic approach. Usually, if a UTI is suspected, the night shift will report to the day shift, who then reevaluates and contacts the GP if necessary. We also target the permanently employed, as they are the majority of employees with nursing responsibilities and set the standard for the temporary staff.
• All incidents of suspected UTI in LTCF residents or antibiotic prescriptions for UTI must be registered. All registrations must be made on LTCF residents above 65 years of age and with a permanent address at the LTCF, otherwise the incidence of ASB is different than assumed in preparing the intervention.

Exclusion Criteria:

• None

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control group; No intervention
Experimental: Intervention group; Receives education in diagnosing urinary tract infection and use of observation, reflection and communication tool.	Other: Dialogue tool; The intervention has two parts: an educational session and a dialogue tool. The educational session consists of 75 minutes of education in diagnosing urinary tract infection. The dialogue tool consists of 1) a checking box for the most important symptoms and observations for urinary tract infection 2) an algorithm to evaluate if urinary tract infection is likely based on the present symptoms and observations 3) a list of reflection points to evaluate with a collegue 4) a specialized ISBAR (communication tool) if long-term care facility staff finds it appropriate to contact the General Practicioner; Other Names: Observation, reflection and communication tool

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Prescription of antibiotics for urinary tract infection	The number of antibiotic prescriptions for urinary tract infections pr resident days	17 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Hospitalization	The number of hospitalizations caused by urinary tract infections pr resident days	17 weeks
Death	The number of deaths caused by urinary tract infections pr resident days	17 weeks
Appropriate prescription of antibiotics for urinary tract infections	The number of treatments with adequate symptoms and observations for treatment pr resident days	17 weeks

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Symptoms	The number of symptoms observed in each arm	17 weeks
Observations	The number of observations observed in each arm	17 weeks
Contact to doctor	Number of times the doctor was contacted pr resident	17 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Research Unit Of General Practice, Copenhagen
• Collaborators: Herlev Hospital; Velux Fonden; Ministry of the Interior and Health, Denmark
• Investigators: Study Chair: Lars Bjerrum, MD, PHD, Professor

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Arnold SH, Nygaard Jensen J, Bjerrum L, Siersma V, Winther Bang C, Brostrom Kousgaard M, Holm A. Effectiveness of a tailored intervention to reduce antibiotics for urinary tract infections in nursing home residents: a cluster, randomised controlled trial. Lancet Infect Dis. 2021 Nov;21(11):1549-1556. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00001-3. Epub 2021 Jul 22.
• Arnold SH, Jensen JN, Kousgaard MB, Siersma V, Bjerrum L, Holm A. Reducing Antibiotic Prescriptions for Urinary Tract Infection in Nursing Homes Using a Complex Tailored Intervention Targeting Nursing Home Staff: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Res Protoc. 2020 May 8;9(5):e17710. doi: 10.2196/17710.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 1, 2018
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 31, 2019
• Study Completion (Actual): March 31, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 5, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 19, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): October 22, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 4, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 31, 2019
• Last Verified: May 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Antibiotics; Long-term care facility; Communication; Antibiotic stewardship; ISBAR
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pathologic Processes; Urologic Diseases; Disease Attributes; Infections; Communicable Diseases; Urinary Tract Infections
• Other Study ID Numbers: 111

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No