title: Potentially inappropriate medications in a sample of Portuguese nursing home residents: Does the choice of screening tools matter?
abstract: Background Potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) are often found in high proportion among the elderly population. The STOPP criteria have been suggested to detect more PIMs in European elderly than the Beers criteria. Objective This study aimed to determine the prevalence of PIMs and potential prescribing omissions (PPOs) in a sample of Portuguese nursing homes residents. Setting Four elderly facilities in mainland Portugal Method A descriptive cross-sectional study was used. Elderly polypharmacy patients were included in the study and their medication (registered in patient clinical records) analysed using the Beers (2012 original version and 2008 version adapted to Portugal), STOPP (Screening Tool of Older Person's Prescriptions) and START (Screening Tool to Alert doctors to Right Treatment) criteria. Data were analysed using univariate and bivariate descriptive statistics, considering a confidence interval of 95 %.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prevalence of PIMs and PPOs. Results The sample included 161 individuals, with a mean age of 84.7 years (SD = 6.35), 68.9 % being female. A total of 807 PIMs and 90 PPOs were identified through the application of the three set of criteria. The prevalence of PIMs using the most recent version of the Beers criteria was 85.1 and 42.1 % for independent and dependent of diagnosis, respectively. The Portuguese adaptation of this same tool indicated a lower prevalence of PIMs, 60.3 and 16.7 %, respectively. The prevalence of PIMs using the STOPP criteria was 75.4 %, whilst the prevalence of PPOs, using START, was 42.9 %. There were significant differences in the mean number of PIMs detected depending on the tool used. (p < 0.001). Conclusions The application of the studied criteria in an elderly sample enabled the identification of a notable amount of PIMs and PPOs, indicating there is room for improving the quality of care. The variation in prevalence indicates careful choice of the tool is a prerequisite for engaging in medication review. Using START/STOPP criteria enabled a more holistic approach to the quality of prescribing in the elderly, highlighting low levels of cardiovascular risk prevention and abuse of psychotropic drugs, aside with system failures largely preventable by electronic prescribing and alert generation.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar Egas Moniz (CiiEM), Instituto Superior de Ciências da Saúde Egas Moniz (ISCSEM), Campus Universitário, Quinta da Granja, Monte da Caparica, 2829-551, Caparica, Portugal. alvesdacosta.f@gmail.com.|Epidemiology Department (ROR-Sul), Portuguese Institute of Oncology Lisbon Francisco Gentil (IPOLFG), Rua Prof. Lima Basto, 1099-023, Lisbon, Portugal. alvesdacosta.f@gmail.com.|Pharmaceutical Society (OF), Rua da Sociedade Farmacêutica 18, 1169-075, Lisboa, Portugal. alvesdacosta.f@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Filipa Alves
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0562-2514
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: da Costa
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar Egas Moniz (CiiEM), Instituto Superior de Ciências da Saúde Egas Moniz (ISCSEM), Campus Universitário, Quinta da Granja, Monte da Caparica, 2829-551, Caparica, Portugal.
authors.forename: Catarina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Periquito
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar Egas Moniz (CiiEM), Instituto Superior de Ciências da Saúde Egas Moniz (ISCSEM), Campus Universitário, Quinta da Granja, Monte da Caparica, 2829-551, Caparica, Portugal.
authors.forename: Maria Clara
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Carneiro
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar Egas Moniz (CiiEM), Instituto Superior de Ciências da Saúde Egas Moniz (ISCSEM), Campus Universitário, Quinta da Granja, Monte da Caparica, 2829-551, Caparica, Portugal.
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar Egas Moniz (CiiEM), Instituto Superior de Ciências da Saúde Egas Moniz (ISCSEM), Campus Universitário, Quinta da Granja, Monte da Caparica, 2829-551, Caparica, Portugal.
authors.forename: Ana Isabel
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Fernandes
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar Egas Moniz (CiiEM), Instituto Superior de Ciências da Saúde Egas Moniz (ISCSEM), Campus Universitário, Quinta da Granja, Monte da Caparica, 2829-551, Caparica, Portugal.
authors.forename: Patrícia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cavaco-Silva
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D017723:Drug Utilization Review / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006707:Homes for the Aged / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D057970:Inappropriate Prescribing / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008297:Male; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000592:standards*; D011174:Portugal / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors
keywords: Beers criteria; Elderly; Inappropriate prescriptions; Medication review; Nursing homes; Pharmaceutical care; Polypharmacy; Prescribing omissions; START criteria; STOPP criteria