• Encarnación Blanco-Reina, Gabriel Ariza-Zafra, Ricardo Ocaña-Riola, and Matilde León-Ortiz.
• Pharmacology and Therapeutics Department, Medical School, Málaga Biomedical Institute, University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain.
• J Am Geriatr Soc. 2014 Jul 1; 62 (7): 1217-23.

ObjectivesTo determine the prevalence of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) and related factors through a comparative analysis of the Screening Tool of Older Person's Potentially Inappropriate Prescriptions (STOPP), the 2003 Beers criteria, and the 2012 AGS update of the Beers criteria.DesignCross-sectional.SettingPrimary care.ParticipantsCommunity-dwelling persons aged 65 and older who live on the island of Lanzarote, Spain (N = 407).MeasurementsSociodemographic characteristics; independence in activities of daily living; cognitive function; Geriatric Depression Scale; clinical diagnoses; and complete data on indication, dosage, and length of drug treatments. One thousand eight hundred seventh-two prescriptions were examined, and the rate of PIMs was assessed with the three criteria. The primary endpoint was the percentage of participants receiving at least one PIM. Multivariate logistic regression was used to examine the factors related to PIMs.ResultsPotentially inappropriate medications were present in 24.3%, 35.4%, and 44% of participants, according to the 2003 Beers criteria, STOPP, and 2012 Beers criteria, respectively. The profile of PIMs was also different (the most frequent being benzodiazepines in both Beers criteria lists and aspirin in the STOPP). The number of drugs was associated with risk of prescribing PIMs in all three models, as was the presence of a psychological disorder in the 2003 Beers criteria (odds ratio (OR) = 2.07, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.26-3.40) and the 2012 Beers criteria (OR = 2.91, 95% CI = 1.83-4.66). The kappa for degree of agreement between STOPP and the 2012 Beers criteria was 0.35 (95% CI = 0.25-0.44).ConclusionThe 2012 Beers criteria detected the highest number of PIMs, and given the scant overlapping with the STOPP criteria, the use of both tools may be seen as complementary.© 2014, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation © 2014, The American Geriatrics Society.

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