Fall Risk Increasing Drugs : The Effect on Injuries of the Frail Elderly Estimated from Administrative Data

Society benefits on a large scale from improved medical care and pharmaceuticals. The prescription of pharmaceuticals, however, also carries risks such as the possibility of an increased risk of falls, which may lead to severe injuries and increased health expenditures associated with these injuries. This study investigates the influence of several fall risk increasing drugs (FRIDs) on the number of injuries of elderly persons using multivariate regression models. Routine data from the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) of frail elderly persons aged ≥ 65 years is analyzed for the year 2009 by estimating count data models, in order to take the data generating process of the number of injuries into account. The results of the count data model are compared to those from logistic regressions, which is the default regression model in this field of research. The empirical results suggest that antidepressants, anxiolytics, hypnotics and sedatives, anti-arrhythmics, and drugs from the Priscus-list have a significant positive effect on the number of injuries, while anti-hypertensives and anti-parkinsonian agents show no and neuroleptics a significant negative effect. As recurrent injuries are common, the analysis of the number of injuries rather than just the probability of having an injury provides a more informative analysis of FRIDs