ArticleDrugs - real world outcomes2020
Drug Prescription in Older Swiss Men and Women Followed in Family Medicine.
Article in Drugs - real world outcomes, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02618291 (Efficacy of a an Active Geriatric Evaluation), which is not on this map. Cited by 6 papers.
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.
Efficacy of a an Active Geriatric Evaluation (AGE Tool) for Geriatric Syndromes to Prevent Functional Decline in Elderly Patients in Family Medicine: a Pragmatic Cluster Randomized Trial
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Adults in Primary Care According to Four Explicit Criteria: Associations with Patient Factors.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Observational
- The association between statins and gait speed reserve in older adults: effects of concomitant medication.GeroScience · 2026Observational
- The impact of age, sex, and gender on polypharmacy and potential prescribing cascades: Lessons from five databases.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2025Article
- Prescription Rates, Polypharmacy and Prescriber Variability in Swiss General Practice-A Cross-Sectional Database Study.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Article
- Potentially Inappropriate Medication Prescribing in Older Adults According to EU(7)-Potentially Inappropriate Medication List: A Nationwide Study in Portugal.Current therapeutic research, clinical and experimental · 2022Article
- Use of Potentially Inappropriate Medications in Older Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Recipients.Biology of blood and marrow transplantation : journal of the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundWe sought to estimate the prevalence of polypharmacy, the most prevalent drug classes involved, and the prevalence and type of potentially inappropriate prescribing among older male and female patients in family medicine.
methodsWe conducted a secondary analysis of baseline data from a pragmatic cluster-randomised trial on the efficacy of a screening and management tool for geriatric syndromes among older community-dwelling patients (aged ≥ 75 years) included by 42 family physicians. Information on drug prescription and clinical diagnoses (International Classification of Primary Care-2nd Edition [ICPC-2] coded) were extracted manually from medical records. The prevalence of polypharmacy, defined as the use of at least five permanent oral or parenteral drugs, and of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs), identified according to 2015 updated Beers criteria, were compared between men and women.
resultsWe included 429 patients (269 women and 160 men; mean age 82.9 and 81.8 years, respectively). Polypharmacy was found in 59.9% of them. Analgesics, antithrombotic agents and agents acting on the renin-angiotensin system were the most frequently prescribed drug categories. Three-quarters of patients (76.7%) were prescribed at least one PIM according to Beers criteria, without difference by sex/gender (p = 0.760). The most frequent PIMs were proton-pump inhibitors used for > 8 weeks, diuretics, benzodiazepines, aspirin for primary prevention, and chronic use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Prescription patterns markedly differed by sex/gender, but the number and patterns of inappropriate prescriptions were comparable overall.
interpretationBoth polypharmacy and PIMs were very common in older patients followed regularly in family medicine in Switzerland. Interestingly, most PIMs involved only a limited number of medication classes.
trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov NCT02618291.
Identifiers
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Registered trials
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