title: Pattern of medication use among older inpatients in seven hospitals in Italy: results from the CRiteria to assess Appropriate Medication use among Elderly complex patients (CRIME) project.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Prescribing pharmacological treatment for hospitalized older patients represents a challenge for physicians. In particular, hospitalized older adults present with acute and chronic diseases, which may require multiple treatments and increase their susceptibility to adverse drug reactions. Patterns of drugs use have rarely been investigated in these patients.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To describe patterns of drugs use among hospitalized older adults participating in the CRiteria to assess Appropriate Medication use among Elderly complex patients (CRIME) project.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a cross-sectional multicentre study based on data from the CRIME project, a study performed in geriatric and internal medicine acute care wards of 7 Italian hospitals. The only two exclusion criteria were: age < 65 years old and unwillingness to participate in the study. Participants were assessed at hospital admission and followed until discharge.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean (Standard Deviation) age of 1123 participants was 81.5 (7.4) years, with 629 (56%) being women and 572 participants (51%) were admitted from Emergency Room. Mean length of stay was 11.2 (6.7) days. Mean number of drugs used greatly varied before (6.2, SD 3.2), during (10.6, SD 5.6) and after (7.1, SD 3.1) hospitalization. No difference in the number of drugs used during hospital stay was observed across age groups. During hospital stay, drugs for acid related disorders (77.9%) and antithrombotic agents (76.8%) were the most commonly used drugs, followed by drugs acting on the renin-angiotensin system (58.0%) and diuretics (57.1%). Very common was the use of psycholeptics (34.3%) and psychoanaleptics (22.4%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Use of multiple drug treatments is common in hospitalized older adults and hospitalization is associated with a substantial increment in the number of drugs used, with no differences across age groups.
authors.affiliation: Centro Medicina dell'Invecchiamento, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy. matteo.tosato@rm.unicatt.it
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tosato
authors.forename: Silvana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Settanni
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Antocicco
authors.forename: Miriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Battaglia
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Corsonello
authors.forename: Carmelinda
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ruggiero
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Volpato
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fabbietti
authors.forename: Fabrizia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lattanzio
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bernabei
authors.forename: Graziano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Onder
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D064420:Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*