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Healthcare outcomes associated with beers' criteria: a systematic review
Elda Jano1, Rajender R Aparasu
1College of Pharmacy, University of Houston, Texas Medical Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
Insights
Inappropriate medication use among the elderly, as defined by Beers' criteria, is linked to adverse healthcare outcomes, particularly in community settings. Further research is needed to improve the criteria's predictive validity across all care environments.
Area of Science:
- Gerontology
- Pharmacology
- Health Services Research
Background:
- Beers' criteria identify potentially inappropriate medications for older adults.
- The use of these criteria is increasing as a quality-of-care measure.
- Understanding the healthcare outcomes associated with Beers' criteria is crucial for optimizing geriatric care.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically review and synthesize evidence on healthcare outcomes linked to Beers' criteria of inappropriate medication use in the elderly.
- To assess the association between inappropriate medication use and various health outcomes across different healthcare settings.
Main Methods:
- A comprehensive literature search was conducted in MEDLINE, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, and CINAHL from October 1991 to October 2006.
- Keywords included "Beers," "inappropriate," "medication," "drug," "use," "prescribing," and "elderly."
- Eighteen studies examining healthcare outcomes associated with Beers' criteria were selected and analyzed for setting, sample, design, outcomes, and findings, with statistical significance (>50%) determining evidence of association.
Main Results:
- In community settings, inappropriate medication use was associated with hospitalization but not mortality, quality of life, or conclusively with costs.
- In nursing homes and hospitals, evidence regarding associations with mortality and hospitalization was inconclusive.
- Across all settings, inappropriate medication use was linked to adverse drug reactions and increased costs.
Conclusions:
- Evidence indicates that Beers' criteria for inappropriate medication use are associated with adverse healthcare impacts, especially in community-dwelling older adults.
- The predictive validity of Beers' criteria needs enhancement to be more effective across diverse healthcare settings.
- Further research should focus on refining these criteria for improved quality-of-care measurement in geriatric populations.
Objective:
To examine healthcare outcomes associated with Beers' criteria of inappropriate medication use based on a literature review.
Data Sources:
A search of MEDLINE, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature was conducted to identify articles published from October 1991 to October 2006. The following key words were used: Beers, inappropriate, medication, drug, use, prescribing, and elderly. A manual search was also conducted using the references listed in the articles identified through the database search.
Study Selection And Data Extraction:
Studies that examined the impact or outcomes of Beers' criteria of inappropriate medication use (1991, 1997, and 2003 critera) were selected. Each article was examined for study setting, data source, study sample, study design, criteria, analysis and covariates, type of healthcare outcome, and study findings. Of 235 articles retrieved, 18 presented studies that examined healthcare outcomes associated with inappropriate medication use based on Beers' criteria. Specifically, setting-specific evidence as well as overall evidence was examined from the selected studies. The review considered evidence of association if more than 50% of the findings were statistically significant.
Data Synthesis:
Most of the 18 studies evaluated were retrospective cohort studies involving patients 65 years of age or older from diverse healthcare settings. In community settings, there was no evidence of association with respect to mortality and other healthcare use, and evidence regarding quality of life and costs was inconclusive. However, inappropriate medication use was associated with hospitalization measures in community elderly. In nursing homes, there was no evidence of association with mortality and the association with hospitalization measures was inconclusive. In hospitals, there was inconclusive evidence to make any generalizations. Across healthcare settings, inappropriate medication use was associated with adverse drug reactions and costs but not with other outcome measures.
Conclusions:
There is evidence that Beers' criteria of inappropriate medication use is associated with adverse healthcare impact in the community-dwelling elderly. With increasing use of Beers' criteria as quality-of-care measures, there is a need to strengthen the predictive validity of these criteria in all healthcare settings.
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