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Relationship between anticholinergic drug use and one-year outcome among elderly people hospitalised in medical wards via emergency department: The safes cohort study

  • Published:
The journal of nutrition, health & aging

Abstract

Aim

To investigate the relationship between anticholinergic drug use and one-year outcome of elderly patients hospitalised via the emergency department.

Methods

Prospective, multicentre, cohort study of patients aged 75 years and older. Comprehensive geriatric evaluation was performed. We included in this analysis all patients for whom data on drug use was available. Anticholinergic drugs were coded using the online database “Thesorimed”. One-year mortality and nursing home admission were analysed using a Cox model, with matching on the propensity to use anticholinergic drugs.

Results

In total, 1176 subjects were included in this analysis, average age 85±6 years, 65% women. Overall, 144 (12%) were taking at least one anticholinergic drug. Mortality and nursing home admission at one year were respectively 29% and 30% in the anticholinergic group, and 34% and 33% respectively in subjects not taking anticholinergic drugs. No significant relationship was observed between anticholinergic drug use and the main endpoints.

Conclusion

Although we did not observed any statistically significant relationship between use of anticholinergic drugs and one-year outcome in elderly patients, the long-term use of anticholinergic drugs can have deleterious effects on memory and functional capacity, and therefore requires prescriptions to be reviewed regularly.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine, University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, EA 3797, Reims, France

    D. Narbey, D. Jolly, R. Mahmoudi, T. Trenque, F. Blanchard, J. -L. Novella & Moustapha Dramé

  2. Robert Debré Hospital, Department of Research and Innovation, Reims University Hospitals, Reims, France

    D. Jolly & Moustapha Dramé

  3. Maison Blanche Hospital, Department of Geriatrics and Internal Medicine, Reims University Hospitals, Reims, France

    R. Mahmoudi, F. Blanchard, J. -L. Novella & Moustapha Dramé

  4. Robert Debré Hospital, Regional Centre of Pharmacovigilance and Pharmaco-epidemiology, Reims University Hospitals, Reims, France

    T. Trenque

  5. Department of Geriatrics and Internal Medicine, Reims University Hospitals, Maison Blanche Hospital, 45 rue Cognacq Jay, 51092, Reims cedex, France

    Moustapha Dramé

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  1. D. Narbey
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  2. D. Jolly
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  3. R. Mahmoudi
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  6. J. -L. Novella
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  7. Moustapha Dramé
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Correspondence to Moustapha Dramé.

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Narbey, D., Jolly, D., Mahmoudi, R. et al. Relationship between anticholinergic drug use and one-year outcome among elderly people hospitalised in medical wards via emergency department: The safes cohort study. J Nutr Health Aging 17, 766–771 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-013-0349-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-013-0349-4

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