title: Potentially inappropriate medication use at ambulatory care visits by elderly patients covered by National Health Insurance in Korea.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) use is an important and preventable safety concern in the care of elderly patients and has been associated with adverse drug reactions, hospitalization, and mortality. Although PIM use for the elderly is a common and serious public health issue worldwide, there are few studies examining PIM use in the ambulatory care setting in Korea.
  
  
  METHODS
  To examine the prevalence and risk factors of PIM use from ambulatory care visits by elderly patients covered by National Health Insurance (NHI) in Korea, the nationwide prescription claims data of elderly patients' ambulatory care visits in 2006 were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Potentially inappropriate prescriptions were identified using extensive criteria that included Beers', Zhan's, and Canadian criteria. In 2006, 3,770,978 elderly patients received 40,995,267 prescriptions. 36.7% of the total prescriptions for elderly patients who visited ambulatory care clinics were identified as PIM use. Findings in this study indicated that the strongest risk factors for PIM prescriptions were the number of drugs prescribed and visit characteristics.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Therefore, it is necessary to develop the explicit criteria of PIM prescription in Korea that can be included in the Drug Utilization Review (DUR) system, which is expected to lead to more appropriate and judicious prescribing.
authors: Dong-Sook
authors: DS
authors: Kim
authors: Soonim
authors: S
authors: Huh
authors: Sukhyang
authors: S
authors: Lee
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D057970:Inappropriate Prescribing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D009313:National Health Programs; D056910:Republic of Korea