Fall risk-increasing drugs and associated health outcomes among community-dwelling older patients: A cross-sectional study in Croatian cohort of the EuroAgeism H2020 project.

Our study aimed to assess the prevalence of fall risk-increasing drugs (FRIDs) in a sample of community-residing older patients in Croatia and its association with negative health outcomes. An observational, cross-sectional study was conducted on older patients (65+) visiting community pharmacies in three regionally different study sites in Croatia. Data were collected using a questionnaire developed for that purpose and included components of comprehensive geriatric assessment.

Adjuvant Analgesics in Acute Pain - Evaluation of Efficacy.

Purpose Of The Review: Acute postoperative pain impacts a significant number of patients and is associated with various complications, such as a higher occurrence of chronic postsurgical pain as well as increased morbidity and mortality.

Recent Findings: Opioids are often used to manage severe pain, but they come with serious adverse effects, such as sedation, respiratory depression, postoperative nausea and vomiting, and impaired bowel function. Therefore, most enhanced recovery after surgery protocols promote multimodal analgesia, which includes adjuvant analgesics, to provide optimal pain control.

Polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate prescribing of benzodiazepines in older nursing home residents.

Introduction: Previous research has raised concerns about high prevalence of drug-related problems, polypharmacy and inappropriate benzodiazepine prescribing in nursing homes (NHs) and confirmed lack of studies from Central and South-Eastern Europe. The aim of our study was to determine the prevalence and characteristics of polypharmacy, hyperpolypharmacy and inappropriate benzodiazepine prescribing in NH residents in Croatia.

Methods: Data from 226 older NH residents from five Croatian NHs were collected using the InterRAI Long-Term Care Facilities assessment form.

Deprescribing potential of commonly used medications among community-dwelling older adults: insights from a pharmacist's geriatric assessment.

Pharmacist's geriatric assessment can provide valuable insights into potential deprescribing targets, while including important information on various health-related domains. Data collected from a geriatric assessment questionnaire, for 388 patients, from the Croatian cohort of the EuroAgeism H2020 ESR 7 international project, along with guideline-based deprescribing criteria, were used to analyse potentially inappropriate prescribing of four medication groups (benzodiazepines (BZN), proton pump inhibitors (PPI), opioids, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID)), and to assess the deprescribing potential. Binary logistic regression was used to explore the effects of age, gender, number of medicines and diagnoses, self-reported health, frailty score, and healthcare utilization on the likelihood of needing deprescribing.