The Impact of PRISCUS Medication on Fall Risks

The PRISCUS list is a catalogue of potentially inappropriate medications for older adults in Germany, derived by experts. However, the validity of its entries has not yet been systematically verified using large-scale patient data. This study aims to validate the current PRISCUS entries and determine whether additional medications should be considered for inclusion based on empirical evidence of an increased risk of falls.

This retrospective study uses data from a German research hospital comprising over 900,000 patient records collected between 2016 and 2022 across 20 clinical departments where falls are common, including oncology, haematology, geriatrics and psychiatry. A total of over 11,000 patients were recorded as having experienced at least one fall event during this period.

Medication data were mapped to German Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) codes and linked to clinical records using data from the hospital's pharmaceutical database. Episodes were defined using clinical intervals and various covariates, including age, sex, number of diagnoses and number of procedures, were extracted. Chi-square tests and propensity score matching will be used to compare patients exposed to and unexposed to listed medications, adjusting for key covariates to minimise confounding factors. Candidate medications identified as high risk will undergo further review through clinical evaluation, with additional information sourced from drug package inserts to support risk assessment.

Inclusion criteria

• All patients across 20 clinical departments with highest fall incidence

Exclusion criteria

• Age < 18yrs