Appropriate prescribing in elderly people: how well can it be measured and optimised?
Prescription of medicines is a fundamental component of the care of elderly people, and optimisation of drug prescribing for this group of patients has become an important public-health issue worldwide. Several characteristics of ageing and geriatric medicine affect medication prescribing for elderly people and render the selection of appropriate pharmacotherapy a challenging and complex process. In the first paper in this series we aim to define and categorise appropriate prescribing in elderly people, critically review the instruments that are available to measure it and discuss their predictive validity, critically review recent randomised controlled intervention studies that assessed the effect of optimisation strategies on the appropriateness of prescribing in elderly people, and suggest directions for future research and practice.
Spinewine
Anne
A
Center for Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: anne.spinewine@facm.ucl.ac.be.
Schmader
Kenneth E
KE
Aging Center and Department of Medicine (Geriatrics), School of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA; Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA.
Barber
Nick
N
Department of Practice and Policy, School of Pharmacy, University of London, London, UK.
Hughes
Carmel
C
School of Pharmacy, Queen's University, Belfast, UK.
Lapane
Kate L
KL
Department of Community Health, Brown Medical School, Providence, RI, USA.
Swine
Christian
C
Department of Geriatric Medicine, Mont-Godinne University Hospital, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
Hanlon
Joseph T
JT
Institute on Aging, and Department of Medicine (Geriatrics), School of Medicine and Department of Pharmacy and Therapeutics, School of Pharmacy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Center for Health Equity Research and Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017723:Drug Utilization Review; D005853:Geriatrics; D006801:Humans; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D010593:Pharmaceutical Services; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations