Prevalence and Predictors of Potentially Inappropriate Medications Among Elderly Patients Attending Government Primary Care Clinics in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

Abstract

Introduction: PIM (Potentially Inappropriate Medication) has been defined as medication unsuitable for patients based on age, laboratory findings, and medical history, which may lead to further complications in health. The purpose of this study was to find out the prevalence and predictors of PIM in elderly patients attending government primary care clinics in the Seremban District. Method: Prescribed medications were analysed by using the Screening Tool of Older Persons’ Potentially Inappropriate Prescription (STOPP) criteria and were identified as PIM if the medication was included in STOPP with a similar description. Simple logistic regression was applied to determine the crude odd ratio and variables with p 0.25 were entered into the multivariate logistic regression model to determine predictors for PIM. Result: 792 randomly selected elderly patients were recruited in this study. Elderly patients aged less than 70 were less likely to have PIM compared to patients above the age of 70 (AOR = 0.974, 95% CI 0.721 to 1.316). Patients who took five or fewer medications were less likely to have PIM (AOR = 0.850, 95% CI 0.628 to 1.152). PIM was less likely in patients with fewer than three illnesses (AOR = 0.494, 95% CI 0.301 to 0.811). Predictors of PIM based on this study were age (> 70 years), number of prescribed medications (> 5), number of illnesses (> 3), and endocrine disease, renal disease, and urogenital disease. Conclusion: The prevalence of PIM is found to be high, at 37% based on STOPP criteria. The findings of the study can be used as a baseline study on PIM among the elderly in Malaysia's primary care setting.