Prevalence of inappropriate medication prescription in the elderly in Nigeria: A comparison of Beers and STOPP criteria

BACKGROUND: Inappropriate medication prescription among the elderly is a major problem with significant negative health consequences. The Beers and STOPP (Screening Tool of Older Persons' potentially inappropriate Prescription) criteria are common tools used for screening of potentially inappropriate medications. The primary objective of the study was to estimate the incidence of PIM among elderly Nigerian patients using the earlier mentioned tools. METHODOLOGY: This prospective study was conducted among elderly patients attending the general outpatients' clinics of two tertiary healthcare institutions in the South-Western part of Nigeria. The patients' age, gender, diagnosis for which the patient was receiving treatment and prescribed drugs were the information retrieved from the medical records. The WHO drug use indicators were applied in the drug utilization aspect of the study while the Beers and STOPP criteria were used to define the inappropriateness or otherwise of the prescribed medications. RESULTS: The mean number of drugs per prescription was 4.1 ± 1.2 while the median number of drugs prescribing by generic name was 46.5% (IQR: 35). Using Beers criteria for the assessment of prescription of potentially inappropriate medications, 106 (30.3%) of all patients had at least one inappropriate medication prescribed with a total of one hundred and twenty six cases recorded. Screening for PIM using the STOPP criteria, we found 55 (15.7%) of the study participants with at least one potential encounter. Female sex, number of prescribed medications and co-morbidities were positively associated with prescription of a PIM using both tools. CONCLUSION: Prescription of PIM is highly prevalent among elderly Nigerian patients. There is a need for continuing education of prescribers on rational prescribing in the elderly using some of the screening tools.