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Potentially Inappropriate Prescribing among Elderly Patients at a Primary Care Clinic in Oman

  • Said Al-Busaidi
  • Ayman Al-Kharusi
  • Mustafa Al-Hinai
  • Ibrahim Al-Zakwani
  • Fatma Al-Ghafri
  • Syed Rizvi
  • Khalid Al BalushiEmail author
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
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Abstract

Drug prescribing to the elderly increases the risk of potential adverse drug reactions as well as potentially inappropriate medications. The goal of this study was to describe drug prescribing patterns in elderly patients and to measure the prevalence of potentially inappropriate medications using updated Beers’ criteria and the STOPP criteria. This was a retrospective cross-sectional study for all patients aged ≥65 years who attended regularly a primary care clinic at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital in Oman. Data of 377 patients were analyzed using the software Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 23.0 (SPSS™, Chicago, IL, USA). Using Beers criteria, the prevalence of potentially inappropriate medications was 12.7% as 48 patients had at least one potentially inappropriate medication. Beers criteria revealed a statistical association between the occurrence of potentially inappropriate medications with polypharmacy (p < 0.001), with female gender (p = 0.002) and with asthma as a comorbidity (p = 0.020). STOPP criteria showed that the prevalence of potentially inappropriate medications was 17.2% as 65 patients had at least one potentially inappropriate medication. STOPP criteria revealed a statistical association between the occurrence of potentially inappropriate medications and osteoarthritis as a comorbidity (p = 0.032). The study revealed moderate prevalence of potentially inappropriate medications prescribing in elderly patients which was mainly associated with polypharmacy and female gender. Safe prescribing practices in the elderly requires increasing the awareness of healthcare providers and efficiently reporting drug-related problems.

Keywords

Elderly Prescribing pattern Beers criteria STOPP criteria 
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Notes

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Conflict of Interest

None.

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© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.College of Medicine and Health SciencesSultan Qaboos UniversityAl-KhodhOman
  2. 2.Department of Family Medicine & Public HealthSultan Qaboos University HospitalAl-KhodhOman
  3. 3.Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacy, College of Medicine & Health SciencesSultan Qaboos UniversityAl-KhodSultanate of Oman
  4. 4.Department of PathologySultan Qaboos UniversityAl-KhodhOman

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