Over 40% elderly patients were prescribed PIMs, and pharmacists' assessments and interventions based on stopp criteria ver.2 were useful in detecting and correcting prescription of PIMs.

Aim This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of pharmacists' assessment and intervention using the Screening Tool for Older Persons' Appropriate Prescriptions for Japanese (STOPP‐J) to detect and correct potentially inappropriate medications (PIM) compared with the Screening Tool of Older Persons' Potentially Inappropriate Prescriptions (STOPP) criteria version 2. Methods A prospective observational study was carried out at a medical unit of Cardiovascular Surgery and Cardiovascular Internal Medicine in a Japanese university hospital involving new inpatients aged ≥65 years prescribed one or more daily medication. Pharmacists detected PIM based on STOPP‐J and STOPP criteria version 2, and corrected them with physicians. The number of patients with PIM, the content and changes in PIM were compared between both criteria. Results Overall, 230 patients were included (mean age 75.4 years, 162 men, mean number of medications 8.3). STOPP‐J detected significantly more patients with PIM than STOPP criteria version 2 (122 [53%] vs 75 [33%], P < 0.001). The number of PIM based on STOPP‐J was 232, the physicians were recommended to change 61 (26%) and 50 (22%) were changed. Meanwhile, the number of PIM based on STOPP criteria version 2 was 133, the physicians were recommended to change 61 (46%) and 54 (41%) were changed. Several medications detected as PIM using STOPP‐J were not detected using STOPP criteria version 2. Conclusions STOPP‐J detected significantly more patients with PIM than STOPP criteria version 2, and pharmacists' assessment and intervention based on STOPP‐J were suggested to be effective for detecting and correcting PIM. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2019; 19: 1101–1107.

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Polypharmacy, the co-prescribing of nonessential drugs and inappropriate prescriptions, is a worldwide issue and is a factor affecting the increase in adverse drug reactions, drug-drug and drug-disease state interactions, and the growth in medical spending. In this study, we evaluated the current status of polypharmacy in elderly patients at Kobe University Hospital and the efficacy for screening and intervention against potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) with the screening tool of older persons＇ potentially inappropriate prescriptions (STOPP) criteria formulated by a pharmacist. Of 301 study patients, 81 (26.9％) patients with PIMs were identified using the STOPP criteria, and these patients had a significantly higher number of prescribed drugs than other patients. Moreover, there was a correlation between the number of prescribed drugs and the percentage of patients identified using the STOPP criteria. The STOPP criteria identified 125 cases to be PIMs, and the prescriptions were changed for 35 (28％) of them. In 125 cases of PIMs, 61 cases had been strongly recommended prescription changes by pharmacists, of which 32 cases (52.5％) had been changed. Several prescription changes were often associated with the administration of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Based on our findings, we suggest that the STOPP criteria are useful for screening PIMs in Japanese patients and are a helpful tool for managing polypharmacy. The benefits of this approach for pharmacists should be multilaterally evaluated by the assessment of patients and medical economic outcomes in the future.