Prevalence and factors with potentially inappropriate prescribing among older outpatients with depression: a multicentre study across China.

Background: Older outpatients with depression are at high risk for potentially inappropriate prescription (PIP). This investigation sought to determine the frequency and associated factors of PIP within Chinese older adults.

Methods: This cross-sectional study used prescription data from older outpatients with depression from 90 hospitals in seven cities in China from January-December 2021. Risk factor identification for PIP employed multivariate logistic regression analysis. Trend assessment was performed through joinpoint regression to calculate the average annual percent change.

Results: The prevalence of PIP reached 50.42%. The top five PIM were alprazolam, clonazepam, olanzapine, lorazepam, estazolam. The prevalence of PIP decreased from 51.56 to 50.99% (average annual percent change = -0.335%). Logistic regression demonstrated that tertiary-level hospital (odds ratio (OR) = 1.215; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.100, 1.342, P < 0.001), department of psychiatry (OR = 1.958; 95% CI = 1.855, 2.067, P < 0.001), age ≥80 (OR = 1.069; 95% CI = 1.016, 1.124, P = 0.01), more diseases (OR = 1.209; 95% CI = 1.092, 1.339, P < 0.001), polypharmacy (OR = 1.672; 95% CI = 1.541, 1.814, P < 0.001) exhibited positive links to PIP among older outpatients suffering from depression.

Conclusions: This investigation revealed that the occurrence of PIP in older outpatients with depression is high in China.