Prevalence of potentially inappropriate prescribing in community-dwelling older adults: an application of STOPP/START version 3 to The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA).

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Potentially inappropriate prescribing includes prescribing potentially inappropriate medicines (PIMs), where risk of medication-related harm may outweigh the clinical benefit(s), and potential prescribing omissions (PPOs), whereby clinically indicated medications are unprescribed without good reason. This study aimed to assess prevalence of PIMs and PPOs (subset of STOPP/START version 3) in older community-dwelling adults and any association with healthcare utilisation and functional decline over time.

Methods

Retrospective cohort study of a nationally representative longitudinal study of ageing in Ireland (n = 3619) (2016-2018). Logistic regressions examined association of patient characteristics with PIMs/PPOs and between prevalent PIMs/PPOs and functional decline. Negative binomial regressions examined association between PIM/PPO with healthcare utilisation over time.

Results

Participants' mean age was 74.2 years (SD 6.99), 53.9% were female and were prescribed a mean of 4.02 (SD 3.16) medications. A total of 1123 (31.0%) participants experienced STOPP PIMs and 1309 (36.2%) START PPOs. STOPP PIMs were associated with increased hospital admissions (adjusted incident rate ratio (aIRR) 1.38, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.08, 1.75), and functional decline (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1.46, 95% CI 1.11, 1.91) at follow-up. Age ≥ 75 years (aOR 1.32, 95% CI 1.10, 1.57) and three or more chronic conditions (aOR 5.19, 95% CI 3.69, 7.31) were significantly associated with START PPOs.

Conclusion

Approximately one-third of study participants experienced STOPP PIMs, associated with an increased risk of hospital admissions and functional decline. START PPOs also occurred in over one-third, associated with increasing age and degree of multimorbidity. Balancing the risk: benefit of medications for older people with multimorbidity remains challenging.

SUBMITTER: Doherty AS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12378767 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature