Korean J Fam Pract. 2016; 6(6): 682-687  https://doi.org/10.21215/kjfp.2016.6.6.682
Differences of Health Outcome Indicators Including Mortality according to Potentially Inappropriate Drug Utilization in the Elderly Male
Jinwon Cho, Young-Jin Jeong*, Junyong Lee, Tae-Hee Jeon, Nayeon Moon, Sejung Kim, Hongkyung Kim
Department of Family Medicine, Veterans Health Service Medical Center, Seoul, Korea
Young-Jin Jeong
Tel: +82-2-2225-1291, Fax: +82-2-484-1545
E-mail: kj1227@korea.com
Received: May 9, 2016; Revised: July 28, 2016; Accepted: August 7, 2016; Published online: December 20, 2016.
© The Korean Academy of Family Medicine. All rights reserved.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background: In recent years, rapid growth of the elderly population has resulted in many chronic diseases, which are the main cause of increased medication use in the population. In this study, we investigated the prevlalence of potentially inappropriate drug utilization among elderly veterans and analyzed the association between utilization of potentially inappropriate medication and health outcome indicators.
Methods: Potentially inappropriate medication was defined according to the Beers’ criteria. A total of 7,047 male subjects over 65 years of age were included in this study. Information on the study subjects was obtained from the Seoul Veterans Hospital database, from January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2004. The following details of hospital admissions between January 2005 and December 2009 were also obtained from the database: number of admissions, total length of stay, and mean length of stay. Death of the study subjects was verified using the database of the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, updated in August 2010.
Results: Approximately 54% of the prescriptions examined in this study were deemed potentially inappropriate, according to Beers’ criteria. Proportion of potentially inappropriate medication - independent of diagnoses or conditions - was 42.16%. Probabilities to become highest 10% of admission number, total length of stay, mean length of stay 1.27, 1.47, and 1.66 times greater among potentially inappropriate medication group. Hazards ratio for death from use of potentially inappropriate medication was 1.07 (0.90-1.26), which was not statistically significant.
Conclusion: We observed the prescription of a high proportion of potentially inappropriate medication among elderly patients visiting a Veterans Hospital outpatients. It is important to develop strategies to reduce the use of potentially inappropriate medication among elderly patients.
Keywords: Inappropriate Drug Utilization; Beers’ Criteria; Mortality; Health Outcome Indicator
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