[Inappropriate prescription in the community elderly, are we aware of?]

To analyse the prescription according to the STOPP (Screening Tool of Older Person's Prescriptions) and Beer's suitability criteria, and associated factors in patients over 85 years-old.

Cross-sectional study of inappropriate prescribing to over 85 year-olds. The data recorded were: sociodemographic variables, cardiovascular risk factors, chronic illnesses, multiple medication (or polypharmacy) (4 or more) and geriatric assessment. The inappropriate prescription (IP) was evaluated according to total and cardiovascular prescription.

The mean number of drugs in the total of 78 subjects was 6.1 (3.3). Of the total number, 34.6% patients had 1 IP drug; 19.2% had 2; 15.4% had 3 or more, and in total 69.2% of patients had at least one IP drug, and 37.2% had 1 or more IP cardiovascular drugs. The therapeutic groups involved in the overall IP were benzodiazepines (BZP) 23.1%, loop diuretics 17.9%, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) 16.7%, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) made up 10.3% of the total criteria. The bivariate analyse found a relationship between the number of drugs and multiple medication (P=.030 in both) and total IP, with no significance found in cardiovascular IP. The multivariate analysis showed an association between multiple medication (OR: 1.22; 95% CI: 1.02-1.47; P=.031) and total IP, and dyslipaemia (OR: 0.30; 95% CI: 0.10-0.87; P=.026) and AHT (OR: 0.15; 95% CI: 0.03-0.78; P=.024) for cardiovascular IP.

More than half the over 85 year-old patients received an inappropriate prescription. Dyslipaemia and AHT are associated with an inappropriate cardiovascular prescription, and the most frequent drug groups were, BZP, diuretics, SSRIs, and NSAIDs.