Study Data from Peking University Update Knowledge of Parkinson’s Disease (Potentially inappropriate medications among older patients with Parkinson’s disease: a cross-sectional analysis of a national health insurance database in China): Neurodegenerative Diseases and Conditions – Parkinson’s Disease

2023 DEC 26 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Information Technology Business Daily -- Researchers detail new data in Parkinson’s disease. According to news reporting from Peking University by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “With the rapid aging trend of China’s population, the issue of drug rational use in older adults has become more and more prominent. Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the one of the most common age-related neurodegenerative disorders.”

Financial supporters for this research include National Natural Science Foundation of China.

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Peking University: “Pharmaceutical treatment plays a cardinal role in alleviating motor and non-motor symptoms to improve the quality of life of patients with PD. Patients with PD have complex medical needs yet little is known about the use of potentially inappropriate medications (PIM) among them in China. We quantify the prevalence of PIM use and identify its predictors among older persons with PD in China. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis using a national representative database of all medical insurance beneficiaries across China, extracting records of ambulatory visits of older adults with PD between 2015 and 2017. Beneficiaries aged 65 and above were eligible for inclusion. The prevalence of patients exposed to overall PIMs and PIMs related to motor and cognitive impairment was calculated based on Beers Criteria 2015 version. Potential predictors of PIM concerning patients’ characteristics were estimated using multivariate logistic regression. A total of 14,452 older adults with PD were included. In total, 8,356 (57.8%) patients received at least one PIM; 2,464 (17.1%) patients received at least one motor-impairing PIM and 6,201 (42.9%) patients received at least one cognition-impairing PIM. The prevalence of overall PIM use was higher in patients of older age group (54.7% [65-74] vs. 59.5% [75-84; OR, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.14-1.31] vs.65.5% [ 85; OR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.38-1.80) and females (61.4% [female] vs. 55.0% [males; OR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.72-0.82).”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Prescribing PIMs for older adults with PD was common in China, especially for females and older age groups, yet younger patients were more inclined to be prescribed with motor or cognition-impaired PIMs. Our findings represent a clear target awaiting multidimensional efforts to promote the rational prescribing of medications for this vulnerable population.”

For more information on this research see: Potentially inappropriate medications among older patients with Parkinson’s disease: a cross-sectional analysis of a national health insurance database in China. BMC Geriatrics, 2023,23(1):1-9. (BMC Geriatrics - http://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com). The publisher for BMC Geriatrics is BMC.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-023-04547-0.

Our news editors report that more information may be obtained by contacting Mengyuan Fu, Department of Pharmacy Administration and Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Peking University. Additional authors for this research include Can Li, Zinan Zhao, Kexin Ling, Zhiwen Gong, Huangqianyu Li, Ting Li, Jianchun Li, Weihang Cao, Xin Hu, Luwen Shi, Pengfei Jin, Xiaodong Guan.

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