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Is Age an Independent Risk Factor of Adverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized Medical Patients?*
Author(s) -
Carbonin Pierugo,
Bernabei Roberto,
Sgadari Antonio
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1991.tb02875.x
Subject(s) - medicine , incidence (geometry) , adverse effect , risk factor , medical prescription , drug , logistic regression , univariate analysis , retrospective cohort study , adverse drug reaction , multivariate analysis , pharmacology , optics , physics
Objective : To study the incidence and the risk factors of adverse drug reactions. Design : Multicenter survey. Setting : Hospitalized care: 22 internal medicine and 19 geriatric wards. Patients : All patients ( n = 9,148) consecutively admitted during two observation periods of 2 months. Main Outcome Measure : Incidence of adverse drug reactions. Results : The mean age was 67.1 ± 0.17 years (median 72); the mean duration of hospital stay was 18.1 ± 0.19 days (median 14). Each patient was administered 5.1 ± 0.03 (median 5) drug prescriptions. The incidence of probable or definite adverse drug reactions was 5.8% (532/9,148). In univariate analysis, the incidence of adverse drug reactions increased from 3.3% at under age 50 to 6.5% at age 70–79 and decreased over age 80 (5.8%). In multivariate logistic regression, taking more than four drugs (OR = 2.94, CI = 2.38–3.62), staying in hospital more than 14 days (OR = 2.82, CI = 2.26–3.52), having more than 4 active medical problems (OR = 1.78, CI = 1.29–2.45), staying in a medical ward instead of geriatric ward (OR = 1.33, CI = 1.09–1.63), and drinking alcohol (OR = 1.28, CI = 1.03–1.58) were positively correlated with adverse drug reactions occurrence ( P < 0.05). Age, gender, and smoking cigarettes were not significant predictors of adverse drug reactions. Conclusion : Age is not an independent risk factor of adverse drug reactions, and good geriatric care can reduce the incidence of adverse drug reactions.