AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine
View all recommendations from this societyReleased September 4, 2013; updated July 1, 2019
Don’t routinely prescribe lipid-lowering medications in individuals with a limited life expectancy.
Hypercholesterolemia is an important risk factor for all-cause mortality, coronary heart disease mortality, hospitalization for myocardial infarction or unstable angina in persons with known CAD (i.e., secondary prevention) and among those up to age 75 years without prior CV events (i.e., primary prevention), for whom statins may have additional benefits. The strength of association between cholesterol and events is weaker in those with advanced age, and competing risks play a greater role particularly among those with frailty, comorbidity, physical or cognitive decline, or limited life expectancy. Both primary and secondary prevention should aim to achieve a net-benefit, balancing potential harm(s) of polypharmacy and side effects, and in some cases discontinuation may be reasonable. However, discontinuation of secondary prevention statin therapy should only be done after careful discussion of risk/benefit. Among high risk patients (i.e. with diabetes or multiple CV risk factors), without functional decline in whom there is a benefit to continuation of therapy but who develop side effects, consideration could be given to dose reduction.
These items are provided solely for informational purposes and are not intended as a substitute for consultation with a medical professional. Patients with any specific questions about the items on this list or their individual situation should consult their physician.
How The List Was Created
1–5: AMDA – The Society for Post -Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine convened a work group made up of members from the Clinical Practice Steering Committee (CPSC). Members of the CPSC include board certified geriatricians, certified medical directors, multi-facility medical directors, attending practitioners, physicians practicing in both office-based and nursing facility practice, physicians in rural, suburban and academic settings, those with university appointments, and more. It was important to AMDA that the workgroup chosen represent the core base of the AMDA membership. Ideas for the “five things” were solicited from the workgroup. Suggested elements were considered for appropriateness, relevance to the core of the specialty and opportunities to improve patient care. They were further refined to maximize impact and eliminate overlap, and then ranked in order of potential importance both for the specialty and for the public. A literature search was conducted to provide supporting evidence or refute the activities. The list was modified and a second round of selection of the refined list was sent to the workgroup for paring down to the final “top five” list. Finally, the work group chose its top five recommendations before submitting a final draft to the AMDA Executive Committee, which were then approved.
6–10: The AMDA Choosing Wisely® endeavor utilized a similar procedure as published in JAMA Intern Med. 2014;174(4):509-515 – A Top 5 List for Emergency Medicine for our five items.
The AMDA Clinical Practice Committee acted as the Technical Expert Panel (TEP).
Phase 1 – The Clinical Practice Steering Committee (CPSC) along with the Infection Advisory Committee clinicians brainstormed an initial list of low-value clinical decisions that are under control of PA/LTC physicians that were thought to have a potential for cost savings.
Phase 2 – Each member of the CPSC selected five low-value tests considering the perceived contribution to cost (how commonly the item is ordered and the individual expense of the test/treatment/action), benefit of the item (scientific evidence to support use of the item in the literature or in guidelines); and highly actionable (use decided by PA/LTC clinicians only).
Phase 3 – A survey was sent to all AMDA members. Statements were phrased as specific overuse statements by using the word “don’t,” thereby reflecting the action necessary to improve the value of care.
Phase 4 – CPSC members reviewed survey results and chose the five items.
(11–15)
The AMDA Choosing Wisely project utilized procedures similar to previous workgroups.
In Phase 1 – The Clinical Practice Steering Committee (CPSC) solicited recommendations from members of the Society’s five subcommittees.
In Phase 2 – Each member of the CPSC reviewed the submitted recommendations (with the goal to selecting the best five recommendations) considering the
perceived contribution to cost, benefit of the item and scientific evidence to support use of the item in the literature or in guidelines. Based on the feedback of the CPSC, the recommendations were narrowed to five, revised, and supporting evidence was added.
Phase 3 – The revised five recommendations and sources were reviewed by the CPSC for final approval, and then approved by the Board of Directors.
Sources
For more information, visit www.paltc.org.
Sources
Dalleur O, Spinewine A, Henrard S, Losseau C, Speybroeck N, Boland B. Inappropriate prescribing and related hospital admissions in frail older persons according to the STOPP and START criteria. Drugs Aging. 2012 Oct;29(10):829-37.
Schiattarella GG, Perrino C, Magliulo F, Ilardi F, Serino F, Trimarco V, Izzo R, Amato B, Terranova C, Cardin F, Militello C, Leosco D, Trimarco B, Esposito G. Statins and the elderly: recent evidence and current indications. Aging Clin Exp Res. 2012 Jun;24(3 Suppl):47-55.
Maraldi C, Lattanzio F, Onder G, Gallerani M, Bustacchini S, De Tommaso G, Volpato S. Variability in the prescription of cardiovascular medications in older patients: correlates and potential explanations. Drugs Aging. 2009 Dec;26 Suppl 1:41-51
Schatz IJ, Masaki K, Yano K, Chen R, Rodriguez BL, Curb JD. Cholesterol and all-cause mortality in elderly people from the Honolulu Heart Program: a cohort study. Lancet. 2001 Aug 4;358(9279):351-5.
Weverling-Rijnsburger AW, Blauw GJ, Lagaay AM, Knook DL, Meinders AE, Westendorp RG. Total cholesterol and risk of mortality in the oldest old. Lancet. 1997 Oct 18;350(9085):1119-23.
Krumholz HM, Seeman TE, Merrill SS, Mendes de Leon CF, Vaccarino V, Silverman DI, Tsukahara R, Ostfeld AM, Berkman LF. Lack of association between cholesterol and coronary heart disease mortality and morbidity and all-cause mortality in persons older than 70 years. JAMA. 1994 Nov 2;272(17):1335-40.
Afilalo J, Duque G, Steele R, et al. Statins for Secondary Prevention in Elderly Patients. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2008 Jan, 51 (1) 37–45.
Kim Johnson et al. The PRagmatic EValuation of evENTs And Benefits of Lipid-lowering in oldEr adults (PREVENTABLE) trial. Ongoing study in 2022.
