PIMs and PPO prevalence
At discharge from a geriatric rehabilitation ward, a total of 18,704
medications were prescribed. The most frequently prescribed medications
were analgesics (80.9%), cardiovascular medications (72.2%), vitamin D
(61.1%) and psychotropics (50.8%) (Appendix I ).
A total of 1856 PIMs and 1368 PPOs (4482 PPOs including vaccines) were
identified (Appendix II ). The percentage of patients with at
least one PIM was 61.6% on acute admission, 58.8% on admission to
geriatric rehabilitation and 54.8% at discharge from geriatric
rehabilitation. The percentage of patients with at least one PPO was
91.8% on acute admission, 91.6% on admission to geriatric
rehabilitation and 90.8% at discharge from geriatric rehabilitation.
However, on excluding vaccine data, patients with at least 1 PPO reduced
to 51.9%, 51.4% and 46.3%, respectively. There was a significant
change in the prevalence of any PIM use across the care transitions
(acute admission, admission to and discharge from geriatric
rehabilitation), as was with the use of PPOs but without vaccine data.
However, the reduction rate was consistent when the use of any PIMs or
PPOs were compared between acute admission and geriatric rehabilitation
discharge (Appendix III ).