Anticholinergic use is a significant concern in dementia patients because of impaired cholinergic nervous system and an associated decrease in cognitive function [16].
Consequently, dementia patients are particularly sensitive to the cognitive adverse effects of anticholinergics [17, 18].Few studies have determined the use of anticholinergic medications in elderly dementia patients [19, 20]. Roe et al. used pharmacy benefit company data and found that 33 % of elderly dementia patients in the community used anticholinergic medications [19], and Carnahan et al. found a similar rate of clinically significant anticholinergic use in older Medicaid patients receiving cholinesterase inhibitors [20]. Chatterjee et al. [21] measured the prevalence of
anticholinergic use in elderly nursing home dementia patients and found that 21 % used medications with clinically significant anticholinergic effects. A recent study by
Bhattacharya et al. analyzed 2006–2007 ambulatory surveys and found that 10 % of outpatient visits for elderly US outpatients with dementia involved prescribing of a drug with clinically significant anticholinergic properties [22]. To our knowledge, no study has evaluated the prevalence of anticholinergic medications and its predictors in a nationally representative sample of community-based elderly dementia patients in the USA. Identification of predictors will help to determine elderly dementia patients at-risk so as