Time-Trends of Drug-Drug Interactions among Elderly Outpatients in the Piedmont Region (Italy): A Population-Based Study

Elisabetta Galai, Lorenza Scotti, Marco Gilardetti, Andrealuna Ucciero, Daniela Ferrante, Elisabetta Poluzzi, Armando A. Genazzani and Francesco Barone-Adesi
Additional contact information
Elisabetta Galai: Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Università del Piemonte Orientale, 28100 Novara, Italy
Lorenza Scotti: Department of Translational Medicine, Università del Piemonte Orientale, 28100 Novara, Italy
Marco Gilardetti: SC Epidemiologia dei Tumori CRPT U, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria (A.O.U.) Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino, Centro di Riferimento per l’Epidemiologia e la Prevenzione Oncologica (CPO) Piemonte, 10100 Torino, Italy
Andrealuna Ucciero: Department of Translational Medicine, Università del Piemonte Orientale, 28100 Novara, Italy
Daniela Ferrante: Department of Translational Medicine, Università del Piemonte Orientale, 28100 Novara, Italy
Elisabetta Poluzzi: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, 40100 Bologna, Italy
Armando A. Genazzani: Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Università del Piemonte Orientale, 28100 Novara, Italy
Francesco Barone-Adesi: Department of Translational Medicine, Università del Piemonte Orientale, 28100 Novara, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 12, 1-10

Abstract: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are a major health problem in the primary care setting, particularly among the elderly population. While the high frequency of ADRs in the elderly has several causes, a major and common determinant is polypharmacy, which can in turn increase the risk of drug-drug interactions (DDIs). In this paper, we analyzed the drugs prescriptions dispensed to elderly outpatients, to assess changes in the prevalence of selected DDIs in the period 2013–2019. Overall, about 15% of the patients aged >65 years were poly-treated. Among them, a decreasing trend in prevalence was observed for the majority of DDIs during the study period. This trend was particularly noticeable for DDIs involving fluoroquinolones and vitamin K antagonists, where a sharp reduction of over 40% was observed. On the opposite, a small increase in prevalence was observed for the association of antidiabetics and beta-blocking agents and for that of clopidogrel and PPIs. While the occurrence of most of the considered DDIs among poly-treated elderly decreased over time, the prevalence of some of them is still worrying. The complexity of the national drug formularies, as well as the increased number of prescribing actors that are involved, further urges the update of DDI lists to be used to monitor drug appropriateness and reduce avoidable ADRs.

Keywords: elderly; drug-drug interactions; time trend (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/7353/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/7353/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:12:p:7353-:d:839658

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().