Evaluation of the Rational Analgesic use in elderly adults: A cross-sectional study

To assess inappropriate analgesic use (IAU) by comparison of STOPP/START Version-2 and Beers 2019 criteria.

This is a cross-sectional study of 331 elderly patients admitted to family medicine clinics at a tertiary hospital between February and July 2018. Data were collected from face-to-face surveys, including informed patient consent and electronic drug monitoring databases.

The presence of IAU by STOPP version2 was higher than the Beers criteria (19.6%, 14.5%, respectively; P<0.04; Z= -2.5) with a moderate agreement (Kappa= 0.458). The number of drugs and pain score were predictors of IAU. The most commonly caused IAU was diclofenac, although naproxen was the most used analgesic. Almost 39% of diclofenac use, 18.5% of naproxen use, and 33% of etodolac use were IAU. Most commonly, IAU reasons were; (i) NSAID use in hearth failure (Beers) (ii) NSAID use with an antiplatelet agent(s) without PPI (STOPP).

The difference between criteria in terms of IAU was significant in favor of STOPP V2.