title: Intervention with the screening tool of older persons potentially inappropriate prescriptions/screening tool to alert doctors to right treatment criteria in elderly residents of a chronic geriatric facility: a randomized clinical trial.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the effect of a Screening Tool of Older Persons potentially inappropriate Prescriptions/Screening Tool to Alert doctors to Right Treatment (STOPP/START) medication intervention on clinical and economic outcomes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Parallel-group randomized trial.
  
  
  METHODS
  Chronic care geriatric facility.
  
  
  METHODS
  Residents aged 65 and older prescribed with at least one medication (N = 359) were randomized to receive usual pharmaceutical care or undergo medication intervention.
  
  
  METHODS
  Screening medications with STOPP/START criteria followed up with recommendations to the chief physician.
  
  
  METHODS
  The outcome measures assessed at the initiation of the intervention and 1 year later were number of hospitalizations and falls, Functional Independence Measure (FIM), quality of life (measured using the Medical Outcomes Study 12-item Short-Form Health Survey), and costs of medications.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The average number of drugs prescribed was significantly lower in the intervention than in the control group after 1 year (P < .001). The average drug costs in the intervention group decreased by 103 shekels (US$29) per participant per month (P < .001). The average number of falls in the intervention group dropped significantly (P = .006). Rates of hospitalization, FIM scores, and quality of life measurements were similar for both groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Implementation of STOPP/START criteria reduced the number of medications, falls, and costs in a geriatric facility. Their incorporation in those and similar settings is recommended.
authors.affiliation: Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Dvora
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Frankenthal
authors.forename: Yaffa
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lerman
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kalendaryev
authors.forename: Yehuda
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lerman
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D016527:Drug Costs; D017723:Drug Utilization Review; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D057970:Inappropriate Prescribing / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007557:Israel; D008297:Male; D009735:Nursing Homes; D010595:Pharmacists; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011788:Quality of Life
keywords: START criteria; STOPP criteria; elderly adults; intervention