Recommendations for outcome measurement for deprescribing intervention studies.

Interpreting results from deprescribing interventions to generate actionable evidence is challenging owing to inconsistent and heterogeneous outcome definitions between studies. We sought to characterize deprescribing intervention outcomes and recommend approaches to measure outcomes for future studies. A scoping literature review focused on deprescribing interventions for polypharmacy and informed a series of expert panel discussions and recommendations.

A narrative review of updates in deprescribing research.

Background/objectives: Deprescribing is a strategy intended to reduce harms associated with potentially inappropriate medications. Reflective of the growing interest in deprescribing, there has been an increase in related research to better understand the landscape, opportunities for improvement, how best to develop and implement interventions, and remaining knowledge gaps that can be addressed with additional study.

Design: We conducted a narrative review of recent deprescribing literature.

Frequency and Predictors of Polypharmacy in US Medicare Patients: A Cross-Sectional Analysis at the Patient and Physician Levels.

Background: Polypharmacy in older patients increases the risk of medication-related adverse events and can be a marker of unnecessary care.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe the frequency of polypharmacy among patients 65 years of age or older and identify factors associated with the occurrence of patient-level and physician-level polypharmacy.

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of 100% Medicare claims data from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016.