Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) use in older Turkish adults on the basis of three criteria as well as to investigate its relationship with frailty.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in an outpatient clinic. The Turkish Inappropriate Medication Use in the Elderly (TIME), Beers 2019, and Screening Tool of Older Person’s Prescriptions Version 2 (STOPPv2) criteria were used to detect PIM. Frailty was determined using the Fried Frailty Index categorized as 0 points, non-frail; 1, pre-frail; and ≥2, frail.
Results: Of the 382 patients, 179 (46.9%) were identified with at least one PIM according to the three sets of criteria. The prevalence rates of PIM based on the TIME, Beers 2019, and STOPPv2 criteria were 46.1%, 30.6%, and 26.2%, respectively. No association was found between PIM and frailty (p=0.593 for the TIME criteria, 0.562 for the Beers 2019 criteria, and 0.524 for the STOPPv2 criteria). The risk of PIM presence was higher when the TIME criteria were applied than when the other criteria were used (odds ratio [OR]: Beers 2019 vs. TIME, 0.5231 and STOPPv2 vs. TIME, 0.4072; p<0.001 for all). The number of prescribed medications and older age were associated with the use of any PIM (ORs, 1.3143 and 1.0301, respectively).
Conclusion: The TIME criteria showed the highest PIM frequency in older Turkish adults and had moderate-to-significant concordance with non-country-specific criteria. Further studies are needed to evaluate the relationship between frailty and PIM.