# Clinically Significant Drug Interactions among Nursing Home Residents with ADRD

> **NIH NIH R01** · BROWN UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $707,436

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Polypharmacy is common among nursing home (NH) residents and is most prevalent among residents with
Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) due to their high burden of multiple chronic conditions that
predispose them to medication use. Polypharmacy is dangerous for NH residents with ADRD because it
substantially increases the risk of drug interactions. Fall-related injuries, including fractures, joint dislocations,
and hemorrhages, are one of the most common and impactful adverse outcomes of drug interactions and result
in morbidity, disability, and death. Many theoretical interactions between drugs have been identified and
healthcare providers believe that drug interactions are common and harmful among older NH residents with
ADRD, yet limited data exist about which interactions are most clinically significant. Given that drug interactions
resulting from polypharmacy are likely a major, yet modifiable, cause of fall-related injuries among older NH
residents with ADRD, identifying drug interactions and their effects is essential for avoiding fall-related injuries.
Thus, the overall objective of this proposal is to identify, test, and validate clinically significant drug interactions
in NH residents with ADRD through a series of rigorous epidemiological studies that employ novel drug
interaction screening and causal inference methods. The central hypothesis is that multiple clinically significant
drug interactions will increase the risk of fall-related injuries, and that this risk will be greatest among individuals
with the most severe cognitive impairment and on higher medication doses. This hypothesis will be tested
through three specific aims: Aim 1 (Screening), Conduct hypothesis-free high-throughput semi-automated
screening to identify potential interactions involving drug pairs and triads that increase the risk of fall-related
injuries among NH residents with ADRD; Aim 2 (Testing), After prioritizing interaction screening results with the
guidance of a multidisciplinary expert stakeholder panel, perform a series of hypothesis-driven studies to quantify
the effects of drug interactions on fall-related injuries, including dose, duration, and NH resident subgroup effects;
and Aim 3 (Replication), Conduct a series of validation studies in independent data to determine whether the
drug interactions identified during screening and testing are consistently associated with fall-related injuries
among NH residents with ADRD. To accomplish the three proposed aims, a large novel database of NH
electronic health record information be leveraged along with national MDS 3.0 clinical assessment records linked
to Medicare health insurance and prescription drug claims. The proposed research is highly significant because
it will provide clinically actionable empirical evidence to help guide the prescribing, deprescribing, and
management of medications to minimize the risk of important drug interactions and fall-related injuries among
N...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10849869
- **Project number:** 5R01AG077620-03
- **Recipient organization:** BROWN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Andrew Reis Zullo
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $707,436
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-09-15 → 2027-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10849869

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10849869, Clinically Significant Drug Interactions among Nursing Home Residents with ADRD (5R01AG077620-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10849869. Licensed CC0.

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