Efficacy of pharmacists' assessment and intervention based on Screening Tool for Older Persons' Appropriate Prescriptions for Japanese compared with Screening Tool for Older Persons' Appropriate Prescriptions for Japanese criteria version 2 in older patients with cardiovascular disease

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.