Authors : Andrew S Mark, Maulik M Patel, Varsha J Patel
DOI : 10.18231/j.ijcaap.2020.021
Volume : 5
Issue : 2
Year : 2020
Page No : 95-99
Aims: To detect the prevalence of use of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) in elderly patients attending outpatient departments using 2015 Beers criteria (BC) and to compare the same with 2012 BC.
Materials and Methods: This prospective study was conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital of India between October 2018 and October 2019. Prescriptions of patients aged 65 years and above were collected from the outpatient departments and analyzed. PIMs were identified using 2015 and 2012 BC and comparison was made between the two criteria. The differences between PIM use according to 2015 and 2012 BC were compared using chi-squared and kappa tests. The association between PIMs and independent variable were analyzed by chi square test.
Results: A total of 306 patients received 1,542 drugs. According to 2015 and 2012 BC, 97 (31.7%) and 90(29.4%) patients received at least one PIM and 125(8.1%) and 106(6.9%) drugs were PIMs, respectively.
The most frequent PIMs class was anticholinergic drugs (47.6 %) and Pain medications (27.4 %) according to the both criteria. Diuretics used with caution were a new addition as per 2015 BC. 2015 BC detects more PIMs use than 2012 BC but not significantly (chi-squared test, P= 0.5985), but good accordance was found between the previous and updated criteria (kappa test 0.93, P<0>2) between polypharmacy and the encounter of PIMs according to both criteria (P<0>
Conclusion: The study showed high prevalence of prescribing PIMs in elderly Indian patients attending outpatient department which was associated with polypharmacy. The Beers 2015 criteria detected more PIMs but not significantly than the 2012 criteria.
Keywords: Beers criteria 2012, Beers criteria 2015, Elderly, Inappropriate prescribing, Potentially Inappropriate Medications.