Hospital physicians’ and older patients’ agreement with individualised
STOPP/START based medication optimisation recommendations in a clinical
trial setting
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate agreement of hospital physicians and older
patients with individualised STOPP/START based medication optimisation
recommendations from a pharmacotherapy team. METHODS: This study was
embedded within a large European, multicentre, cluster randomised
controlled trial examining the effect of a structured medication review
on drug-related hospital admissions in multimorbid (≥3 chronic
conditions) older people (≥70 years) with polypharmacy (≥5 chronic
medications). Data from the Dutch intervention arm of this trial were
used for this study. Medication review was performed jointly by a
physician and pharmacist (i.e. pharmacotherapy team) supported by a
Clinical Decision Support System with integrated STOPP/START criteria.
Individualised STOPP/START based medication optimisation recommendations
were discussed with patients and attending hospital physicians. RESULTS:
139 patients were included, mean (SD) age 78.3 (5.1) years, 47% male
and median (IQR) number of medications at admission 11 (9-14). 371
recommendations were discussed with patients and physicians, overall
agreement was 61.6% for STOPP and 60.7% for START recommendations.
Highest agreement was found for initiation of osteoporosis agents and
discontinuation of proton pump inhibitors (both 74%). Determinants
associated with higher agreement in multivariate analysis were: female
gender (+17.1% [3.7;30.4]), ≥1 falls in the past year (+15.0%
[1.5;28.5]) and eGFR 30-50 ml/min/1.73m2; (+18.0% [2.0;34.0]).
The main reason for disagreement (40%) was patients’ reluctance to
discontinue or initiate medication. CONCLUSION: Better patient and
physician education regarding the benefit/risk balance of
pharmacotherapy, in addition to more precise and up-to-date medical
records to avoid invalid recommendations, will likely result in higher
agreement with future pharmacotherapy optimisation recommendations.