• Zinan Zhao, Mengyuan Fu, Can Li, Zhiwen Gong, Ting Li, Kexin Ling, Huangqianyu Li, Jianchun Li, Weihang Cao, Dongzhe Hong, Xin Hu, Luwen Shi, Xiaodong Guan, and Pengfei Jin.
• Department of Pharmacy, Beijing Hospital, National Center of Gerontology, Institute of Geriatric Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing Key Laboratory of Assessment of Clinical Drugs Risk and Individual Application (Beijing Hospital), Beijing 100730, China.
• Chin. Med. J. 2025 Jan 23.

BackgroundThe use of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) is a major concern for medication safety as it may entail more harm than potential benefits for older adults. This study aimed to explore the prescribing rate, healthcare utilization, and expenditure of older adults using PIMs in China.MethodsA cross-sectional analysis was conducted using a national representative database of all medical insurance beneficiaries across China, extracting ambulatory visit records of adults aged 65 years and above between 2015 and 2017. Descriptive analysis was conducted to measure the rate of patients exposed to PIM, prescribing rate of each PIM, average annual outpatient visits per patient, average total medication costs for each visit, average annual cost of PIMs for each patient, and average annual medication costs for each patient. Generalized linear model with logit link function and binomial distribution was used to examine the adjusted associations between PIMs and independent variables.ResultsIn total, 845,278 (33.2%) participants were identified to be exposed to at least one PIM. Patients aged 75-84 years (38.1%) and ≥85 years (37.9%) were more likely to be prescribed with PIMs. Beneficiaries of the Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance (UEBMI) and living in eastern and southern regions were more frequently prescribed with PIMs. Compared with patients without PIM exposure (7.5 visits, drug cost of RMB 1545.0 Yuan), patients with PIM exposure showed higher adjusted average annual number of outpatient visits (10.7 visits, β = 3.228, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.196-3.261) and higher annual drug costs (RMB 2461.8 Yuan, Coef. = 916.864, 95% CI = RMB 906.292-927.436 Yuan).ConclusionsThe results showed that the use of PIM among older adults was common in China. This study suggests that it represents a clear target, pending multidimensional efforts, to promote rational prescribing for older adults.Copyright © 2025 The Chinese Medical Association, produced by Wolters Kluwer, Inc. under the CC-BY-NC-ND license.

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