Multiple physicians are not independently associated with inappropriate prescribing: A cross-sectional study of geriatric patients

摘要

Many frail elderly individuals use several medications, which can lead to unnecessary adverse drug events, resulting in medication-associated hospitalizations of which up to half are potentially preventable [1]. Several methods are available to improve the appropriateness of medications used by the elderly. For example, the Prescribing Optimization Method (POM) [2] evaluates medication adherence and classifies potentially inappropriate prescriptions into different categories. As most clinical specialists do not have a complete overview of all the medicines prescribed or used by patients and often do not have sufficient time or knowledge to optimize polypharmacy, it can be expected that the number of physicians visited contributes to inappropriate prescribing. Previous studies have shown that inappropriate prescribing is associated with multiple prescribers [3-5].