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Beers Criteria Based Review of Medication Appropriateness in Geriatric Patients in Tamil Nadu – A Prospective Observational Study
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| Author:
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TOM THOMAS, ZACHARIAH JOHN, ANAND JOY, CHRISTINA E PRASAD
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| Abstract:
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Background: Safe and effective prescribing of medicines in elderly continues to present a major challenge. Inappropriate medications for older adults are defined as medications for which the potential risk outweighs the potential benefit and for which a good alternative drug is available. Beers' criteria are the most widely cited explicit tool and have dominated the international literature.
Objective: Evaluating the prevalence and pattern of potentially inappropriate medications in geriatric patients using Beers criteria 2012 and to determine the risk of polypharmacy in predicting potentially inappropriate medications in geriatric patients.
Methodology: This is a six month Cross sectional prospective study which involved 400 geriatric patients. The gathered data was analyzed for rationality/appropriateness of prescribing by Beers criteria. The data collected was analyzed using SPSS version 16.
Results: Polypharmacy was identified in 54% of the participants. The mean number of medication taken by patients with atleast one inappropriate medication were 5.16(2.6) while mean number of medication used in patient with no inappropriate medications were 4.17(2.6). The difference here was statistically significant (t 5.5 p<0.0001).This shows that as the number of medications increases the number of Potentially inappropriate Medication prescribed increases. This study reports that prescribing PIMs is common in elderly.
Conclusion: The prevalence of prescribing atleast one inappropriate medication was 64.5%. Polypharmacy was a major factor associated with prescribing PIMs. It once again reiterates the need for “geriatric prescription guidelines”. The most inappropriate medication which was prescribed more was diclofenac.
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| Keyword:
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Geriatric, Beer’s criteria, Polypharmacy, Potentially inappropriate medications
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| DOI:
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