• Josef Maly, Martin Dosedel, Ales Antonin Kubena, Katerina Mala-Ladova, Jan Vosatka, Iva Brabcova, Hana Hajduchova, Sylva Bartlova, Valerie Tothova, and Jiri Vlcek.
• Department of Social and Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Kralove, Charles University, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic.
• J Eval Clin Pract. 2020 Jun 1; 26 (3): 973-982.

Rationale, Aims, And ObjectivesFalls are among the major problems occurring in hospital setting, when drugs are viewed as important modifiable risk factor of falling. The aim was to analyse the effect of pharmacotherapy on the risk of falls in hospitalized patients.MethodsA multicentre prospective case-control study was conducted in 2017 retrieving data from four hospitals in South Bohemia, Czech Republic. An online database was constructed to collect patient and fall-related data. Each fall that occurred during hospitalization was assigned to appropriate controls (no fall during hospitalization) based on gender, age, length of hospitalization, and the number of drugs. Univariate and multivariate correlations were performed with a significance level of P < .05.ResultsA total of 222 fall cases (107 males; median age, 81 y) and 1076 controls (516 males; median age, 80 y) were included. According to the first ATC level classification, drugs from groups S, N, and P were significantly associated with fall-related risk compared with controls (P < .05); further analysis of ATC levels showed that only psycholeptics (N05), antipsychotics (N05A), and tiapride were significantly associated with falls. Regression analysis revealed use of psycholeptics N05 (OR = 2.06; 95% CI, 1.56-2.76), or ophthalmologicals S01 (OR = 2.72; 95% CI, 1.37-5.41), as factors with the highest fall-related risk.ConclusionsApart from the commonly considered fall-risk increasing drugs, other groups, such as ophthalmologicals, should also be considered; however, regarding clinical practice, it is difficult to evaluate the effects of individual drugs in the context of other risk factors of falls, due to the multifactorial nature of falls.© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

17 keywords...

hide…