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Elderly Appropriate Treatment in Primary Care (EAT)

Not Applicable
Completed
Conditions
Polypharmacy
Elderly
Interventions
Other: Systematic medication review with the STOPP/START tool
Registration Number
NCT03298386
Lead Sponsor
Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris
Brief Summary

The general practitioner (GP) is confronted, for a part of his clientele, with the management of patients suffering from multimorbidity, leading most often to a polypharmacy. It has five major consequences: increasing the number of inappropriate treatments, increasing the risk of potentially dangerous drug interactions, increasing the risk of contraindications associated with several concomitant pathologies, decreasing adherence to treatments by patients and the increased cost of care. Drug misuse in the elderly is particularly common, due to the age-related physiological changes and physiological alterations, with the consequent increase in the risk of adverse events, particularly hospitalizations. Several tools have been proposed to decrease morbimortality in elderly patients with polypharmacy. The studies concluded that the STOPP/START tool was the most structured, sensitive and had the most appropriate use format for clinical practice. However, there are currently no ambulatory studies demonstrating the impact of prescription revision with STOPP/START on the morbimortality of persons aged 75 years and over. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of an intervention targeting GPs to decrease morbimortality in elderly patients with polypharmacy. Volunteer GPs will be randomly assigned to either the intervention group or to usual care (control group) and they will be followed one year. The intervention consists in systematic medication review by GP with STOPP/START. In both groups, patient morbimortality will be measured at the end of the study.

Detailed Description

STOPP/START criteria for potential inappropriate prescribing in older people recognise the dual nature of inappropriate prescribing by including a list of potentially inappropriate medications (STOPP criteria) and potential prescribing omissions (START criteria).

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
COMPLETED
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
3032
Inclusion Criteria
  • Patient 75 years of age or older
  • With polypharmacy (≥ 5 medications)
  • Not institutionalized
  • Patient affiliated with the French health care system
  • Oral consent given to participate in the study
  • Patient who can be followed up 12 months
  • Patient visiting the GP for any reason
Exclusion Criteria
  • Patient protected by law (under guardianship or curatorship)
  • Having an estimated life expectancy of less than 12 months
  • Participating in a therapeutic trial during the study period

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Intervention Group "STOPP/START"Systematic medication review with the STOPP/START toolTraining of General Practitioners with the tool STOPP/START Systematic medication review by GP with STOPP/START
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
A composite criterion: - percentage of unplanned hospitalization - percentage of death regardless of cause, - percentage of emergency department visit - percentage of institutionalizationat 12 months

The primary outcome measure will be a composite criterion comprising unplanned hospitalization, death regardless of cause, emergency department visits and institutionalization after 12 months of follow-up.

Unplanned hospitalization is defined as either hospitalization decided after a visit to the emergency department (whether the patient was sent by a doctor or not) or hospitalization decided on the same day by the general practitioner.

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Percentage of death regardless of causeat 12 months
Decrease in the number of drugs on the prescription (%)at 12 months

The decrease in the number of drugs on the prescription (Polypharmacy decrease) between baseline and 12 months of follow-up

Percentage of unplanned hospitalizationat 12 months
Percentage of recommendations followedat 12 months
Percentage of loss of autonomyat 12 months

The loss of autonomy at 12 months defined by the loss of at least one activity of the daily living (ADL) between the intervention and 12 months of follow-up.

Percentage of emergency department visitsat 12 months
Percentage of institutionalizationat 12 months
Percentage of fallsat 12 months

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Clinical Epidemiology and Ageing (CEpiA) EA7376 Faculté de Médecine, Université Paris Est Créteil (UPEC)

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Créteil, France

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