Beers Criteria versus Screening Tool of Older Persons’ Potentially Inappropriate Prescriptions in evaluation of drug-prescribing practice in an Indian hospital

Purpose. To compare the Beers Criteria and Screening Tool of Older Persons’ Potentially Inappropriate Prescriptions (STOPP) in identifying potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) and adverse drug reaction (ADR) among Indian geriatric inpatients. Methods. Patients aged ≥60 years who were admitted to the geriatric medicine ward of Bangalore Baptist Hospital between January 2016 and July 2016 were observed throughout the hospital stay. Medical records of patients were reviewed to determine PIM and ADR. The Beers Criteria and STOPP were used to identify PIM. Results. 226 male and 124 female geriatric patients aged 60 to 92 (median, 68) years were included. The median number of medications was 12 (range, 0-26), the median number of comorbidities was 2 (range, 1-6), and the median length of hospital stay was 5 (range, 1-23) days. Respectively for the Beers Criteria and STOPP, 97 (27.7%) and 86 (24.6%) patients were identified to have 136 (38.9%) and 108 (30.9%) PIMs and 11 (3.1%) and 7 (2.0%) ADRs. Beers Criteria was more likely to identify PIM than STOPP (0.2 vs. 0.1 per patient, χ2=43.21, p<0.001). The Beers Criteria was more sensitive (0.59 vs. 0.52) but less specific (0.60 vs. 0.65) than STOPP in identifying PIMs. Conclusion. The Beers Criteria was more sensitive but less specific than STOPP in identifying PIMs. The prevalence of PIMs was high among elderly patients in our geriatric medicine ward. The use of the Beers Criteria or STOPP may help reduce PIM and ADR.