Featured Review: Interventions to improve the appropriate use of polypharmacy for older people

Taking medicine to treat symptoms of chronic illness and to prevent worsening of disease is common in older people. However, taking too many medicines can cause harm. The Cochrane Review,' Interventions to improve the appropriate use of polypharmacy for older people 'examinedstudies in which healthcare professionals have taken action to make sure that older people are receiving the most effective and safest medicines foranyillness they may have.  Actions taken included providing a service, known as pharmaceutical care, which involves promoting the correct use of medicines by identifying, preventing and resolvingmedicine‐related problems. Another strategy the reviewers were interested in was using computerised decision support, which involves a programme on the doctor’s computer that aids the selection of appropriate treatment(s).This is an important research area as polypharmacy is the single most commonly identified risk factor associated with potentially inappropriate prescribing in older people. Potentially inappropriate prescribinghas been linked to a range of negative clinical outcomes including hospitalisations.The review authors found 32 relevant trials from 12 countries that involved 28,672 older people. These studies compared interventions aiming to improve the appropriate use of medicines with usual care.Based on the assessments of the certainty of the evidence, theresults of the review showed that: it is uncertain whether the interventions improved the appro...
Source: Cochrane News and Events - Category: Information Technology Authors: Source Type: news