[A review of the medication in polymedicated elderly with vascular risk: a randomised controlled trial]

Systematic review and meta-analysis on the effectiveness of multidisciplinary interventions to address polypharmacy in community-dwelling older adults

Interventions to address polypharmacy in community-dwelling older adults often focus on medication-related outcomes. The aim was to explore the impact of multidisciplinary interventions to manage polypharmacy on clinical outcomes for community-dwelling older adults. This systematic review and meta-analysis included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on interventions by at least a pharmacist and a physician, indexed in MEDLINE, EMBASE or CENTRAL up to January 2023. Evidence certainty was assessed using the GRADE approach. Seventeen RCTs were included. Fifteen were rated as 'high' risk of bias. No relevant benefits were found in functional and cognitive status (primary outcomes), falls, mortality, quality of life, patient satisfaction, hospital admissions, emergency department or primary care visits. Interventions reduced medication costs, improved medication appropriateness (odds ratio [OR] 0.39), reduced number of medications (mean difference [MD] -0.57), resolved medication-related problems (MD -0.45), and improved medication adherence (relative risk [RR] 1.14). There was a low or very low certainty of the evidence for most outcomes. Multidisciplinary interventions to address polypharmacy appear effective in improving multiple dimensions of medication use. However, evidence for corresponding improvements in functional or cognitive status is scarce. New efficient models of multidisciplinary interventions to address polypharmacy impacting clinical outcomes should be explored.

Evaluation of Inappropriate Prescribing in Patients Older than 65 Years in Primary Health Care

To asses inappropriate prescribing and its predisposing factors in polymedicated patients over the age of 65 in primary health care. Design: cross-sectional study. Setting: Primary care centres in the Costa del Sol Health District and Northern Health Area of Malaga in southern Spain. Participants: Patients older than 65 years who use multiple medications. Data collection was conducted during 1 year in a population of 425 individuals who comprised a stratified randomized sample of the population of health care users in the study area. The data were collected by interview on a structured data collection form. Study variables. Dependent variable: Potentially inappropriate prescribing (PIP) (STOPP/START criteria). Predictor variables: Sociodemographic characteristics, clinical characteristics and medication use. A descriptive analysis of the variables was performed. Statistical inference was based on bivariate analysis (Student’s t or Mann-Whitney U test and chi-squared test) and multivariate analysis was used to control for confounding factors. 73.6% of participants met one or more STOPP/START criteria. According to information about prescribed treatments, 48.5% of participants met at least one STOPP criterion and 43.30% of them met at least one START criterion. The largest percentage of inappropriate prescriptions was associated with cardiovascular treatments. More than three-quarters of the participants had one or more inappropriate prescriptions for medicines in primary care, according to STOPP/START criteria. In addition, PIP was directly related to the number of prescribed medications, gender and specific pathologies (diabetes).

Polifarmacia en adulto mayor, impacto en su calidad de vida. Revision de literatura

Objetivo Conocer mediante el análisis del estado del conocimiento, el impacto de polifarmacia en calidad de vida de adultos mayores y cuál ha sido el rol de enfermería frente a esta problemática de salud.Métodos Revisión descriptiva de 62 artículos originales de diversos diseños metodológicos, en bases de datos: EBSCO, PubMed, Web of Science, SciELO, Elsevier, SCOPUS y Dialnet.Resultados La polifarmacia en adultos mayores se presenta con mayor frecuencia en el sexo femenino, en personas con bajo nivel de escolaridad, sumados a factores socioeconómico. Un gran porcentaje de adultos mayores presenta efecto cascada en consumo de fármacos, por cantidad de medicamentos consumidos y número de médicos consultados, produciendo interacciones farmacológicas, afectando funcionalidad y calidad de vida.Conclusiones Es necesario mayor control de medicamentos consumidos por adultos mayores, para evitar efectos nocivos. Los profesionales de enfermería deben tener un rol educativo en este grupo etario, para disminuir polifarmacia e impulsar estilos de vida que fomenten el envejecimiento saludable.

Pharmacist-participated medication review in different practice settings: Service or intervention? An overview of systematic reviews

Introduction

Medication review (MR) is a pharmacy practice conducted in different settings that has a positive impact on patient health outcomes. In this context, systematic reviews on MR have restricted the assessment of this practice using criteria such as methodological quality, practice settings, and patient outcomes. Therefore, expanding research on this subject is necessary to facilitate the understanding of the effectiveness of MR and the comparison of its results.

Aim

To examine the panorama of systematic reviews on pharmacist-participated MR in different practice settings.

Methods

A literature search was undertaken in Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde (BVS), Embase, PubMed, Scopus, The Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases through January 2018 using keywords for "medication review", "systematic review", and "pharmacist". Two independents investigators screened titles, abstracts, full texts; assessed methodological quality; and, extracted data from the included reviews.

Results

Seventeen systematic reviews were included, of which sixteen presented low to moderate methodological quality. Most of reviews were conducted in Europe (n = 7), included controlled primary studies (n = 16), elderly patients (n = 9), and long-term care facilities (n = 8). Seven reviews addressed MR as an intervention and thirteen reviews cited collaboration between physicians and pharmacists in the practice of MR. In addition, thirteen terminologies for MR were used and the main objective was to identify and solve drug-related problems and/or optimize the drug use (n = 11).

Conclusion

There is considerable heterogeneity in practice settings, population, definitions, terminologies, and approach of MR as well as poor description of patient care process in the systematic reviews. These facts may limit the comparison, summarization and understanding of the results of MR. Furthermore, the methodological quality of most systematic reviews was below ideal. Thus, international agreement on the MR process is necessary to assess, compare and optimize the quality of care provided.

Role and impact of pharmacists in Spain: a scoping review

Background The role of the pharmacist has evolved greatly over the last decades, expanding to patient-oriented activities, administrative tasks and public health functions. However, considerable differences emerge across regions. Aim of the review To gather evidence in order to describe and highlight the different characteristics of the pharmacists' role and the impact of their activities in Spain. Method A review of the existing literature was conducted. The literature search was undertaken in PubMed between 01/01/2006 and 15/08/2017. Results were screened and reviewed to extract previously established criteria such as author(s), publication year, language, study design, setting, pharmaceutical activity, patient care programs, targeted diseases and intervention description using DEPICT2 tool. Pharmaceutical intervention were classified into eight outcome measures and categorized by types of outcomes reported: descriptive or impact evaluation regarding the effect of the service (positive, neutral or negative). Results The search strategy resulted in 473 articles and 108 articles met the inclusion criteria. The most common design was observational (n = 76, 70%). Most articles were published after 2011 (75%), in English (69%). Studies were conducted in hospitals (60%) and community pharmacies (30%). Of the 24 pharmaceutical activities identified, medication review was the activity most frequently studied (n = 42), followed by patient education (n = 29), risk and prevention (n = 27) and medication reconciliation (n = 19). Only 39 articles (36%) had outcome measures with impact evaluation. Of the 223 impact outcome measures, 48% (107/223) had a positive effect. Conclusion This review shows the substantial scientific production focusing on pharmacy practice in Spain over the last years. The evidence reviewed reflects the pharmacist role at various professional settings, providing a wide variety of activities on diverse targeted diseases and patient care programs, in line with the increasing specialization of clinical pharmacists over the last years.

Medication-related factors associated with health-related quality of life in patients older than 65 years with polypharmacy

METHODS AND DESIGN

Objective: To describe the relationship between medication-related factors and the health-related quality of life in patients older than 65 years who use multiple medications (polypharmacy). Design: Cross-sectional descriptive study. Setting: Primary care. Participants: Patients older than 65 years who use multiple medications (n = 375). Measurements: The main outcome measure was health-related quality of life according to the EuroQol-5D instrument. Sociodemographic, clinical and medication-related variables were recorded during home interviews.

RESULTS

Mean age was 74.72 ± 5.59 years, and 65.5% of our participants were women. The global level of health-related quality of life according to the EQ-5D visual analog scale was 59.25 ± 20.92. Of the five EuroQol dimensions, anxiety/depression and pain were the most frequently reported, while mobility and self-care were the dimensions with the greatest impact on self-reported quality of life. Multivariate analysis indicated that functional independence was the factor most strongly associated (β = 14.27 p < 0.001) with better health-related quality of life, while illiteracy (β = -13.58 p < 0.001), depression (β = -10.13 p < 0.001), social risk (β = -7.23 p = 0.004) and using more than 10 medicines (β = -4.85 p = 0.009) were strongly associated with a poorer health-related quality of life.

CONCLUSIONS

Factors inherent within the patient such as functional incapacity, cognitive impairment and social and emotional problems were the main constraints to quality of life in our study population. The number of medicines taken was negatively related with quality of life.

[Prevalence of inappropriate prescription to polymedicated patients over 65 years old in a rural health area]

OBJECTIVE

Describe the inappropriate prescription to polymedicated patients over 65 years old in rural areas.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted in health care units in the Guadalhorce Valley, a rural area of Malaga, Spain. The district has a catchment population of about 144,993 inhabitants. This study is focused on the population that is older than 65 years, and who use 10 or more medications (4.344 patients). The study has as a primary variable: the rates of inappropriate prescription. These are classified using the Screening Tool of Older Persons' potentially inappropriate Prescriptions (STOPP) criteria, as well as the criteria of the strategy of the approach to polymedicated of the Andalusian Health System. An application was used to create individualised forms that identified inappropriate prescribing criteria. For each patient, we used variables, such as the unit, drug group, medications, dose, and use of the STOPP and Andalusian Health System criteria were recorded for each patient.

RESULTS

More than one-third (35.5%) of all patients have inappropriate prescription, according to STOPP criteria, related to some health problem (direct problems). The large majority (94%) have potentially inappropriate prescription according to the criteria of the Andalusian Health System. If the criteria directly related to prescribing medication for people over 65 (general) is taken into account, 100% of patients have some form of inappropriate or potentially inappropriate prescribing.

CONCLUSIONS

The prevalence of polypharmacy and inappropriate prescription is a real problem in the population over 65 years old. An informatics tool provides us with the facilities to identify and approach inappropriate prescribing.

[Potentially inappropriate prescription according to the "STOPP" Criteria in heavily polymedicated elderly patients]

INTRODUCTION

Appropriate prescribing is especially relevant in elderly people. The objective of this study is to analyse the potentially inappropriate prescription (PIP) in heavily polymedicated elderly patients according to the criteria Screening Tool of Older Person's Prescriptions.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in Primary Care on patients assigned to the Siero-Sariego (Asturias) Health Centre, who were over 64 years old and heavily polymedicated (consumption >10 drugs for six months). The 65 Screening Tool of Older Person's Prescriptions criteria were reviewed in the electronic Primary Care patient records, collecting sociodemographic variables, prescribed medications, and chronic diseases. Frequency distributions were made for each criterion, and causes related to PIP were explored using contingency tables, the Spearman correlation coefficient, and logistic regression.

RESULTS

A total of 349 polymedicated elderly patients were analysed with a prevalence of 6.4 (95% CI:5.76-7.08), a mean age of 79.2 years (SD:3.7), 62.2% were female, 14% institutionalised, a Charlson index of 2.9. The mean of number of drugs was 11.5 (SD:1.7), and the most frequent pathologies were high blood pressure (64%), diabetes (46%), and osteoarticular diseases (41%). There was at least one PIP in 72.9% of heavily polymedicated elderly patients [(Mean: 1.32 (SD:1.2)]. The Screening Tool of Older Person's Prescriptions criteria least complied with were: therapeutic duplication (25.2%), use of long-acting benzodiazepines (15.8%), and inappropriate use of aspirin (10.9%). An association was found between having any inappropriate prescription and the number of medications prescribed (OR=1.22 [95% CI:1.04-1.43]) and inversely to the Charlson index (OR=0.76 [95% CI:0.65-0.89]).

CONCLUSIONS

PIP is common in heavily polymedicated elderly patients. Special attention must be paid to the use of psychotropic drugs, which are implicated in a high volume of PIP.