Use of Fall-Risk Inducing Drugs in Patients Using Anti-Parkinson Drugs (APD): A Swedish Register-Based Study

• Published in: PloS one 2016-08, Vol.11 (8), p.e0161246-e0161246
• Main Authors: Haasum, Ylva, Fastbom, Johan, Johnell, Kristina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accidental falls; Accidental Falls - statistics & numerical data; Aged; Aging; Antidepressants; Antiparkinson agents; Antiparkinson Agents - adverse effects; Biology and Life Sciences; Care and treatment; Case-Control Studies; Control; Data processing; Drugs; Earth Sciences; Elderly patients; Epidemiology; Falls; Female; Fractures; Health aspects; Health risks; Hospitalization; Housing; Humans; Influence; Logistic Models; Male; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Medicine and Health Sciences; Movement disorders; Narcotics; Neurobiology; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neurosciences; Nursing homes; Older people; Parkinson's disease; Parkinsons disease; Patients; People and Places; Polypharmacy; Population; Prescription drugs; Psychotropic drugs; Registries; Risk; Risk factors; Risk Management; Social Sciences; Society; Studies; Sweden - epidemiology; Systematic review
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0161246

Many drugs increase the risk of falls in old age. Although persons with Parkinson's disease (PD) are at increased risk of experiencing falls and fractures, the use of fall-risk inducing drugs (FRIDs) in this population has not previously been investigated. The objective of this study was to investigate the burden of use of FRIDs in older persons treated with anti-Parkinson drugs (APD; used as a proxy for PD), compared to persons without APD. We analyzed individual data on age, sex, type of housing and drug use in 1 346 709 persons aged ≥ 65 years in the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register on the date of 30 September 2008. Main outcome measure was the use of FRIDs. FRIDs were used by 79% of persons with APD and 75% of persons without APD. Persons with APD were more likely to use ≥ 1 FRIDs compared to persons without APD (adjusted OR: 1.09; 95% CI: 1.06-1-12). The association was stronger for concomitant use of ≥ 5 FRIDS (adjusted OR: 1.49; 95% CI: 1.44-1.55). The high use of FRIDs among persons with APD indicates that these patients may be at increased risk of drug-induced falls. Further studies are needed to investigate how these drugs affect the risk of falling in persons with PD.