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Table 2 Prevalence and characteristics of potentially inappropriate medicationa use among the 671 elderly ambulatory patients

From: Effect of total exemption from medical service co-payments on potentially inappropriate medication use among elderly ambulatory patients in a single center in Japan: a retrospective cross-sectional study

 

Total

N = 671

Total exemption

N = 62

Control

N = 609

p valuec

Number of PIMs, mean ± SD

0.5 ± 0.8

0.9 ± 0.9

0.5 ± 0.8

0.002

Any PIMs, n (%)

253 (37.7)

34 (54.8)

219 (36.0)

0.01

Category of PIM, n (%)

 Benzodiazepines

109 (16.2)

17 (27.4)

92 (15.1)

0.02

 Proton-pump inhibitors

87 (13.0)

11 (17.7)

76 (12.5)

0.24

 Hypnoticsb

33 (4.9)

5 (8.1)

28 (4.6)

0.22

 NSAIDs

25 (3.7)

4 (6.5)

21 (3.4)

0.28

 Peripheral alpha-1 blockers

24 (3.6)

3 (4.8)

21 (3.4)

0.48

 Antidepressants

14 (2.1)

2 (3.2)

13 (2.1)

0.64

 Digoxin

7 (1.0)

2 (3.2)

5 (0.8)

0.13

 Antipsychotics

7 (1.0)

0 (0.0)

7 (1.1)

1.00

 Ticlopidine or dipyridamole

6 (0.9)

1 (1.6)

5 (0.8)

0.44

 First-generation antihistamines

4 (0.6)

0 (0.0)

4 (0.7)

1.00

 Others

26 (3.9)

3 (4.8)

23 (3.8)

0.73

  1. aPIM was defined based on the 2015 American Geriatric Society Beers Criteria
  2. bNon-benzodiazepine and benzodiazepine receptor agonist hypnotics
  3. cComparison between the total exemption and control groups was performed using Fisher’s exact test for categorical variables and Student’s t-test for continuous variables