Educating physicians to reduce benzodiazepine use by elderly patients: a randomized controlled trial.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Benzodiazepine use by elderly patients is associated with adverse outcomes including increased risk of falls and fractures, motor vehicle accidents and cognitive impairment. Recent studies suggest that individualized feedback and education to physicians may improve drug prescribing. In this study, we evaluated an intervention to address the inappropriate prescribing of benzodiazepines for elderly patients.

Methods

We identified 1624 primary care physicians who wrote at least 10 prescriptions for the target drugs in a 2-month period and randomly assigned these physicians to the intervention group or the control group. We obtained data from the Ontario Drug Benefit claims database, which covers all Ontario residents aged 65 years and over for drugs selected from a m

SUBMITTER: Pimlott NJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC151988 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature