In-hospital medication reviews reduce unidentified drug-related problems.

Purpose: To examine the impact of a new model of care, in which a clinical pharmacist conducts structured medication reviews and a multi-professional team collates systematic medication care plans, on the number of unidentified DRPs in a hospital setting.

Methods: In a prospective two-period study, patients admitted to an internal medicine ward at the University Hospital of Lund, Sweden, were included if they were ≥ 65 years old, used ≥ 3 medications on a regular basis and had stayed on the ward for ≥ 5 weekdays. Intervention patients were given the new model of care and control patients received conventional care.

Bleeding and first-year mortality following hip fracture surgery and preoperative use of low-dose acetylsalicylic acid: an observational cohort study.

Background: Hip fracture is associated with high mortality. Cardiovascular disease and other comorbidities requiring long-term anticoagulant medication are common in these mostly elderly patients. The objective of our observational cohort study of patients undergoing surgery for hip fracture was to study the association between preoperative use of low-dose acetylsalicylic acid (LdAA) and intraoperative blood loss, blood transfusion and first-year all-cause mortality.

Older adults' medication use 6 months before and after hip fracture: a population-based cohort study.

Objectives: To study changes in use of fall-risk increasing drugs (FRIDs) and bone density-related medication in participants with hip fracture before and after the fracture and to analyze differences between five healthcare districts.

Design: Population-based cohort study.

Setting: Data retrieved from two national databases

Participants: All 2,043 people with hip fracture aged 60 and older in a Swedish county in 2006.

[Remote drug-review for better use of pharmaceuticals among the elderly].

During a decade various actions have been taken to decrease the use of inappropriate medication for elderly patients in Sweden. The Swedish Health Department has recently compiled guidelines for inappropriate medication that can be used to evaluate medication in nursing homes for elderly. At the beginning of our project we assessed the medication of persons living in 21 nursing homes in the northeastern district of the county Skåne and based on this analysis we decided that one of the actions to take were drug-reviews.

[Two out of three persons living in nursing homes for the elderly are treated with at least ten different drugs. A survey of drug prescriptions in the northeastern part of Skane].

Polypharmacy and high usage of psychotropic drugs have been seen in Swedish nursing homes for elderly. An increasing number of older people are prescribed inappropriate amounts, types and combinations of drugs. Adverse effects including sedation, confusion and increased risk of falls tend to occur in this population.