SynthesisAge and ageing2023
Interventions for reducing anticholinergic medication burden in older adults-a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Age and ageing, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
32 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Concurrent Use of Anticholinergic and Antidementia Medicines in Older Adults with Dementia: A Systematic Review of Prevalence, Predictors and Clinical Outcomes.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Pooled it
- Anticholinergic Medication Burden Scales: A Systematic Review.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2026Pooled it
- Prevalence and factors associated with anticholinergic medication use in community-dwelling older adults: a systematic review.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2025Pooled it
- Deprescribing Anticholinergic Medications in Hospitalised Older Adults: A Systematic Review.Basic & clinical pharmacology & toxicology · 2025Pooled it
- Trial
- Reducing Adverse Drug Reactions for Older People in the Community: Evaluating the Validity and Reliability of the ADRe Profile.Journal of nursing management · 2025Trial
- Differences in Anticholinergic Exposure Assessment Across Burden Scales and Exposure Measures in a Population-Based Study: Implications for Targeted Deprescribing in Older Adults.Drugs & aging · 2026Article
- Clinically recognized sepsis in older adults admitted to medical wards: patient characteristics and hospital outcomes from the REPOSI register.Internal and emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Comment on revisiting the association between anticholinergic burden and frailty in people with HIV.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2026Article
- How are HIV services in the UK and Ireland managing care home residents living with HIV?European geriatric medicine · 2026Article
- Evaluation of Beers Criteria Implementation in the Community Pharmacy Setting to Optimize Medication Management for Older Adults-A Pilot Study.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Anticholinergic load and quality of life in Australian residential aged care: a retrospective cohort study.International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care · 2026Article
- Anticholinergic burden and bone health in rheumatoid arthritis.Revista da Associacao Medica Brasileira (1992) · 2026Article
- Anticholinergic burden and its associated factors among adult outpatients in a resource-limited setting: a cross-sectional study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Anticholinergic burden and incident dementia: a Swedish nationwide case-control study.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2025Article
- Anticholinergic and Sedative Medication Burden in Croatian Older Adults: EuroAgeism Cohort Findings.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Anticholinergic medicines - medication management, prescribing cascades, and deprescribing.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2025Article
- Retrospective multi-centre cohort study of polypharmacy, the Drug Burden Index and associations with outcomes in older surgical inpatients.Age and ageing · 2025Article
- Quality of prescribing and health-related quality of life in older adults: a narrative review with a special focus on patients with atrial fibrillation and multimorbidity.European geriatric medicine · 2025Review
- Around the EQUATOR With Clin-STAR: Systematic Reviews of Intervention Effectiveness; Challenges and Opportunities.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
introductionAnticholinergic medications block the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the brain and peripheral nervous system. Many medications have anticholinergic properties, and the cumulative effect of these medications is termed anticholinergic burden. Increased anticholinergic burden can have short-term side effects such as dry mouth, blurred vision and urinary retention as well as long-term effects including dementia, worsening physical function and falls.
methodsWe carried out a systematic review (SR) with meta-analysis (MA) looking at randomised controlled trials addressing interventions to reduce anticholinergic burden in older adults.
resultsWe identified seven papers suitable for inclusion in our SR and MA. Interventions included multi-disciplinary involvement in medication reviews and deprescribing of AC medications. Pooled data revealed no significant difference in outcomes between control and intervention group for falls (OR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.52-1.11, n = 647), cognition (mean difference = 1.54, 95% CI: -0.04 to 3.13, n = 405), anticholinergic burden (mean difference = 0.04, 95% CI: -0.11 to 0.18, n = 710) or quality of life (mean difference = 0.04, 95% CI: -0.04 to 0.12, n = 461). DISCUSSION: Overall, there was no significant difference with interventions to reduce anticholinergic burden. As we did not see a significant change in anticholinergic burden scores following interventions, it is likely other outcomes would not change. Short follow-up time and lack of training and support surrounding successful deprescribing may have contributed.
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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.