This study proposes a practical and simple method of identifying patients who are at an increased risk of an ADR. This approach may be useful in clinical practice as a tool to identify patients at risk and in research to target a population that can benefit from interventions aimed to reduce drug-related illness.

PIP prevalence in European community-dwelling older adults is high and depends partially on the data collection method used. Polypharmacy, poor functional status, and depression were identified as the most common risk factors for PIP.

Older patients are particularly vulnerable to adverse drug reactions (ADRs) because age is associated with changes in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics that may alter drug metabolism. In addition, other conditions, commonly observed in older adults, may increase the risk of ADRs in the older population (including polypharmacy, comorbidity, cognitive and functional limitations). ADRs in older adults are frequently preventable, suggesting that screening and prevention programmes aimed at reducing the rate of iatrogenic illness are necessary in this population. The present study reviews available approaches that may be used to screen and prevent the occurrence of ADRs in older adults, including medication review, avoiding the use of potentially inappropriate medications, computer-based prescribing systems and comprehensive geriatric assessment. Available evidence on these approaches is mixed and controversial, and none of them showed a clear beneficial effect on patients' health outcomes. Limitation of these interventions is the lack of standardisation, and these differences may give reason for the variability of the results documented in randomised clinical studies. Interestingly, most of the available research is focused on a single intervention targeting either clinical or pharmacological factors causing ADRs. When these approaches are combined, positive effects on patients health outcomes can be shown, suggesting that integration of skills from different health care professionals is needed to address medical complexity of the older adults. The challenge for future research is to integrate valuable information obtained by existing instruments and methodologies in a complete and global approach targeting all potential factors involved in the onset of ADRs.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the type, acceptance rate, and clinical relevance of clinical pharmacist recommendations at the geriatric ward of the Ghent university hospital.MethodsThe clinical pharmacist evaluated drug use during a weekly 2-hour visit for a period of 4 months and, if needed, made recommendations to the prescribing physician. The recommendations were classified according to type, acceptance by the physician, prescribed medication, and underlying drug-related problem. Appropriateness of prescribing was assessed using the Medication Appropriateness Index (MAI) before and after the recommendations were made. Two clinical pharmacologists and two clinical pharmacists independently and retrospectively evaluated the clinical relevance of the recommendations and rated their own acceptance of them.ResultsThe clinical pharmacist recommended 304 drug therapy changes for 100 patients taking a total of 1137 drugs. The most common underlying drug-related problems concerned incorrect dose, drug–drug interaction, and adverse drug reaction, which appeared most frequently for cardiovascular drugs, drugs for the central nervous system, and drugs for the gastrointestinal tract. The most common type of recommendation concerned adapting the dose, and stopping or changing a drug. In total, 59.7% of the recommendations were accepted by the treating physician. The acceptance rate by the evaluators ranged between 92.4% and 97.0%. The mean clinical relevance of the recommendations was assessed as possibly important (53.4%), possibly low relevance (38.1%), and possibly very important (4.2%). A low interrater agreement concerning clinical relevance between the evaluators was found: kappa values ranged between 0.15 and 0.25. Summated MAI scores significantly improved after the pharmacist recommendations, with mean values decreasing from 9.3 to 6.2 (P < 0.001).ConclusionIn this study, the clinical pharmacist identified a high number of potential drug-related problems in older patients; however, the acceptance of the pharmacotherapy recommendations by the treating physician was lower than by a panel of evaluators. This panel, however, rated most recommendations as possibly important and as possibly having low relevance, with low interrater reliability. As the appropriateness of prescribing seemed to improve with decreased MAI scores, clinical pharmacy services may contribute to the optimization of drug therapy in older inpatients.