Health Services > Collaboration with the Health Care Agency, Emilia-Romagna Region, Italy > Potentially Inappropriate Medication Prescribing for Elderly Ambulatory Patients in Emilia Romagna, Italy

Potentially Inappropriate Medication Prescribing for Elderly Ambulatory Patients in Emilia Romagna, Italy

The elderly consume, by far, the largest amount of drugs per capita and, therefore, represent the segment of the population at highest risk for adverse drug effects. Given that the population in developed countries is aging at an accelerated rate, adverse drug effects in the elderly remain a critical challenge to health care systems. Inappropriate medication use has been found to be one of the most prominent causes of adverse drug effects in the elderly. Information from outpatient prescription claims and demographic data from the Regione Emilia Romagna are being used to investigate the prevalence of potentially inappropriate medication prescribing among elderly residents by using published, widely used explicit criteria and to examine factors associated with inappropriate prescribing. The awareness of the prevalence of inappropriate medication prescribing and associated determinants may be useful in designing and implementing effective programs targeting outpatient practitioners to influence their prescribing behavior to reduce inappropriate prescribing. (Vittorio Maio, PharmD, MSPH, Department of Health Policy is collaborating with Center Staff on this project.)