Development of a medication review tool for community-dwelling older adults in Korea

With the aging population, older adults are more likely to receive outpatient care. Therefore, it is necessary to identify drug-related problems (DRPs) and potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) associated with adverse clinical outcomes in community-dwelling older adults. This study aimed to develop a medication review tool for community-dwelling older adults in Korea.

We developed the tool using three steps: (i) establishment of a preliminary list by reviewing 21 existing tools, (ii) a two-round Delphi survey to evaluate clinical appropriateness and (iii) a two-round Delphi survey to evaluate applicability. The list was categorized into 23 diseases/conditions with five types of DRPs. The interventions for each item have been described.

The preliminary list contained 100 items. The final list contained 81 items, including 17 general PIMs, 26 PIMs under specific disease/conditions, 16 potential drug interactions, 20 potential omissions and 2 PIMs requiring dose adjustment.

We developed a disease-based explicit medication review tool that can be used in primary care. This tool would assist primary care healthcare providers in identifying inappropriate medication use, which may help reduce adverse clinical consequences in older adults. Further studies are required to validate the clinical efficacy of this tool.