SynthesisEuropean journal of clinical pharmacology2021
Current evidence on the impact of medication optimization or pharmacological interventions on frailty or aspects of frailty: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.
Synthesis in European journal of clinical pharmacology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 31 papers, 2 of them syntheses 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
31 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 47 citations in OpenAlex.
- Interventions to improve locomotive syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Nagoya journal of medical science · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Effect of a pharmacist-led educational intervention on clinical outcomes: a randomised controlled study in patients with hypertension, type 2 diabetes and hypercholesterolaemia.European journal of hospital pharmacy : science and practice · 2021Trial
- Identifying potential drug targets for physical and cognitive frailty: an integrative analysis of CHARLS cohort, mendelian randomization, and gene colocalization.Biogerontology · 2026Article
- Optimizing polypharmacy management in older adults: impact of an interdisciplinary outpatient clinic on long-term function and quality of life.European geriatric medicine · 2026Observational
- Lifestyle enrichment through social and cognitive engagement in later life: its associations with frailty trajectories and risk over 11 years.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Acid-Base Dysregulation Links Aging Metabolism to Frailty.Aging cell · 2026Article
- Effect of a home-based physical rehabilitation program via virtual reality on the functional outcomes of frail older adults: a quasi-experimental study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Impact of impaired intrinsic capacity on postoperative frailty in elderly patients undergoing colorectal surgery: study protocol for a single-center, prospective, cohort study.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2025Article
- A narrative review of interventions for post-stroke frailty: current advances and future directions.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Review
- Frailty as a breakthrough point for multimorbidity management among older adults: challenges and opportunities in China.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2024Article
- Frailty in the cardiac intensive care unit: assessment and impact.European heart journal. Acute cardiovascular care · 2024Review
- Management of potentially inappropriate medication use among older adult's patients in primary care settings: description of an interventional prospective non-randomized study.BMC primary care · 2024Article
- Relationship Between Frailty and Diabetic Pharmacologic Therapy in Older Adults with Type 2 Diabetes: A Cross-Sectional Study.Drugs & aging · 2024Article
- Clinical Application of Frailty in the Evaluation of Solid Organ Transplant Patients.Current transplantation reports · 2024Article
- Inflammatory Markers Associated with Physical Frailty and Cognitive Impairment.Aging and disease · 2024Review
- Medication Review: What's in a Name and What Is It about?Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Drug prescriptions in elderly hospitalized patients with cognitive impairment in the Italian Dementia Friendly Hospital project.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2024Article
- Associations of medicine use and ejection fraction with the coexistence of frailty and sarcopenia in a sample of heart failure outpatients: a cross-sectional study.BMC cardiovascular disorders · 2023Article
- Medication optimization according to the Fit fOR The Aged (FORTA) rules improves functional status in patients hospitalized for geriatric rehabilitation.European geriatric medicine · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
34 authors at 20 institutions in 15 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundFrailty and adverse drug effects are linked in the fact that polypharmacy is correlated with the severity of frailty; however, a causal relation has not been proven in older people with clinically manifest frailty.
methodsA literature search was performed in Medline to detect prospective randomized controlled trials (RCTs) testing the effects of pharmacological interventions or medication optimization in older frail adults on comprehensive frailty scores or partial aspects of frailty that were published from January 1998 to October 2019.
resultsTwenty-five studies were identified, 4 on comprehensive frailty scores and 21 on aspects of frailty. Two trials on comprehensive frailty scores showed positive results on frailty although the contribution of medication review in a multidimensional approach was unclear. In the studies on aspects related to frailty, ten individual drug interventions showed improvement in physical performance, muscle strength or body composition utilizing alfacalcidol, teriparatide, piroxicam, testosterone, recombinant human chorionic gonadotropin, or capromorelin. There were no studies examining negative effects of drugs on frailty.
conclusionSo far, data on a causal relationship between drugs and frailty are inconclusive or related to single-drug interventions on partial aspects of frailty. There is a clear need for RCTs on this topic that should be based on a comprehensive, internationally consistent and thus reproducible concept of frailty assessment.
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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.