Actual drug-related harms in residential aged care facilities: a narrative review

Sheraz Ali*, Colin M. Curtain, Luke Bereznicki, Mohammed S. Salahudeen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articleResearchpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Introduction:
Older people in residential aged care facilities (RACFs) have a high risk of safety issues and concerns about the potential quality of care received. This narrative review investigates the types of actual drug-related harms, their prevalence, reporting of any standard definitions for these harms, and their identification methods.

Areas covered:
The authors conducted a systematic search on Ovid Embase, Ovid Medline, and PubMed from March 2001 to March 2021. This narrative review included all types of studies targeting aged care residents aged 65 years and above with actual drug-related harms.

Expert opinion:
The prevalence of actual drug-related harms in residents ranged from 0.07% to 63.0%. Falls, drug-drug interactions, neuropsychiatric symptoms, anaphylaxis, urinary tract infection, hypoglycemia, hypokalaemia, and acute kidney injury are the most common drug-related harms in older residents. Psychotropic drugs are the most common drug class implicated in these harms. Evidence related to the association between individual psychotropic drugs and injury, or harm is also lacking. Due to the variation in study duration, reported prevalence, identification methods, and absence of a definition for actual drug-related harms in most studies, further research is mandated to understand the prevalence and clinical implications of drug-related harms in older residents.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1047-1060
Number of pages14
JournalExpert Opinion on Drug Safety
Volume21
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Jun 2022
Externally publishedYes

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