ArticlePharmacy practice
A retrospective analysis of prescription medications as it correlates to falls for older adults.
Article in Pharmacy practice. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Potentially inappropriate prescribing and falls-risk increasing drugs in people who have experienced a fall: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Age and ageing · 2025Pooled it
- Potentially inappropriate medication including drug-drug interaction and the risk of frequent falling, hospital admission, and death in older adults - results of a large cohort study (getABI).Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo determine the correlation between falls and two medication factors: the class of medications and potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) prescribed to community-dwelling older adults aged 55 and older.
methodsRetrospective, cross-sectional study. Home health patients residing in a Texas/Mexico border community and reporting at least one fall within the past month. Medication use, medication classification, and potentially inappropriate medications (PIM) recorded by level of falls; non-fallers and recurrent fallers.
resultsOf 99 participants, 13.1% reported falling once and 86.9% reported two or more falls. Participant's average number of medications used was 10.51 (SD 5.75) with 93.9% having four or more prescribed medications. Average number of PIMs prescribed per participant was 1.42 (SD 1.51) with at least one PIM prescribed to 65.6% of participants. Twenty three out of 83 identified classes of prescribed medications met criteria for the study's analyses but resulted in no significant association to falls when comparing NF to RF. Agents acting on the renin-angiotensin system and lipid modifying agents were the most frequently prescribed medication classes (N=55, 55.6%). Ibuprofen was the PIM most frequently prescribed (n=13, 13.1%). The correlation between use of a prescribed PIM and number of falls was not statistically significant (p=0.128).
conclusionsThere was no correlation between classes of medication and level of falls. Recurrent fallers were more likely to have been prescribed a PIM than non-fallers (not significant). Although the analyses conducted for this study did not result in statistical significance, the high prevalence of polypharmacy and prescribed PIMs observed in these participants warrants a thorough review of medications to reduce fall risks among older adults.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.