World Journal of
Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences

EVALUATION OF APPROPRIATENESS OF PRESCRIBING IN GERIATRIC PATIENTS: A COMPARISON OF 2012 BEERS CRITERIA AND STOPP/START CRITERIA

Prasanth N. V.*, M. N. Shisna, Stephy Simon, Sharanya Nair, Rosmy Paulose and Sabin T. Sojan

ABSTRACT

Background: Inappropriate prescriptions are particularly more prevalent in older patients and are often associated with adverse drug events, hospitalization, and wasteful utilization of resources. Different screening tools have been prepared for the assessment of appropriateness of prescription. Objectives: The main objectives of this study were to identify and compare PIMs using Beers and STOPP/START criteria. The START criteria were applied to detect potential prescribing omission in elderly patients and the STOPP and Beers criteria measures potentially inappropriate prescriptions. Materials and methods: A prospective observational study was carried out for a period of 6 months from February 2015 to July 2015 by assessing the case files of 260 patients whose age is greater than 65 years admitted to the various departments in the hospital. The prescription of patients were analyzed and evaluated using various criteria which include the 2012 Beer’s criteria, the newer and most validated criteria known as the START and STOPP criteria. Results: The prevalence of PIM among elderly patients in our study was comparable to other reports (22–41.8%). The grand total of PIPs according to STOPP-START criteria were 61.5%, 58.2% in first and second phase respectively. Beers criteria detected 38.5% and 41.8% of PIPs respectively in both phases. The STOPP-START criteria detected a larger number of patients with any PIM than the Beers criteria. Conclusion: STOPP/START criteria showed higher PIMs detection capability than Beers criteria. This study confirms the high prevalence of PIMs among older adults comparing prior studies.

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