Author
Listed:
- Chien-Ying Lee
(Department of Pharmacology, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung 40201, Taiwan
Department of Pharmacy, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung 40201, Taiwan)
- Yih-Dih Cheng
(School of pharmacy, China Medical University, Taichung 40402, Taiwan
Department of Pharmacy, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 40402, Taiwan)
- Wei-Yuan Cheng
(Taso-Tun Psychiatric Center, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Nantou 54249, Taiwan)
- Tung-Han Tsai
(Department of Health Services Administration, China Medical University, Taichung 40402, Taiwan)
- Kuang-Hua Huang
(Department of Health Services Administration, China Medical University, Taichung 40402, Taiwan)
Abstract
Anticholinergic drugs may increase the risk of serious respiratory infection, especially in the elderly. The study aims to investigate the prevalence of anticholinergic drugs and the correlation of incident pneumonia associated with the use of anticholinergic drugs among the elderly in Taiwan. The study population was 275,005 elderly patients aged ≥65 years old, selected from the longitudinal health insurance database (LHID) in 2016. Among all the elderly patients, about 60% had received anticholinergic medication at least once. Furthermore, the study selected elderly patients who had not been diagnosed with pneumonia and had not received any anticholinergic drugs in the past year in order to evaluate the correlation between pneumonia and anticholinergic drugs. The study excluded elderly patients who died or had received related drugs of incident pneumonia during the study period and selected elderly patients receiving anticholinergic drugs as the case group. Propensity score matching (PSM) on a 1:1 scale was used to match elderly patients that were not receiving any anticholinergic drugs as the control group, resulting in a final sample of 32,215 patients receiving anticholinergic drugs and 32,215 patients not receiving any anticholinergic drugs. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate the association between anticholinergic drugs and pneumonia after controlling for potential confounders. Compared with patients not receiving anticholinergic drugs, the adjusted odds ratio of patients receiving anticholinergic drugs was 1.33 (95% confidence interval: 1.18 to 1.49). Anticholinergic medication is common among elderly patients in Taiwan. Elderly patients receiving anticholinergic drugs may increase their risk of incident pneumonia. The safety of anticholinergic drugs in the elderly should be of concern in Taiwan.
Suggested Citation
Chien-Ying Lee & Yih-Dih Cheng & Wei-Yuan Cheng & Tung-Han Tsai & Kuang-Hua Huang, 2020.
"The Prevalence of Anticholinergic Drugs and Correlation with Pneumonia in Elderly Patients: A Population-Based Study in Taiwan,"
IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-14, August.
Handle:
RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:17:p:6260-:d:405311
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