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Background Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) cause serious morbidity and mortality in multi-morbid older adults. Reliable ADR risk prediction would improve patient safety in this at-risk population. We aimed to derive and validate a new predictive tool for assessing ADR Risk in Older People (acronym ADRROP). Design We combined four databases describing 2217 older people hospitalized with acute illness in order to determine risk factor variables significantly associated with ADRs. We identified the independent ADR risk factors from 1687 patients (derivation cohort) and used them to construct the ADRROP scale. We prospectively validated ADRROP using data from 530 patients (validation cohort). We applied area under the curve (AUC) analysis to test ADRROP's ADR predictive power. We also compared ADRROP's performance to the GerontoNet ADR risk scale. Results Eight independent ADR risk factors were identified in the derivation patient cohort: female gender, age > 70 years, estimated GFR < 30 ml/min/1.73 m2, assistance required for ≥ 1 daily activity, ≥ 4 co-morbidities, liver disease, presence and number of STOPP criteria-defined potentially inappropriate medications, and ≥ 1 fall in the previous year. The ADRROP predictive scale constructed from these combined variables ranged from 0 to 27. The derivation cohort AUC value was 0.623 (95% CI 0.598-0.665); the validation cohort AUC was 0.592 (95% CI 0.532-0.652). Applying the GerontoNet ADR risk scale to the combined cohorts yielded an AUC of 0.566 (95% CI 0.537-0.596). Conclusions and relevance Neither ADRROP nor the GerontoNet ADR risk scale predicted ADRs to a high level in hospitalized older people with multi-morbidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: screening tool of older people's prescriptions (STOPP) and screening tool to alert to right treatment (START) criteria were first published in 2008. Due to an expanding therapeutics evidence base, updating of the criteria was required.Methods: we reviewed the 2008 STOPP/START criteria to add new evidence-based criteria and remove any obsolete criteria. A thorough literature review was performed to reassess the evidence base of the 2008 criteria and the proposed new criteria. Nineteen experts from 13 European countries reviewed a new draft of STOPP & START criteria including proposed new criteria. These experts were also asked to propose additional criteria they considered important to include in the revised STOPP & START criteria and to highlight any criteria from the 2008 list they considered less important or lacking an evidence base. The revised list of criteria was then validated using the Delphi consensus methodology.Results: the expert panel agreed a final list of 114 criteria after two Delphi validation rounds, i.e. 80 STOPP criteria and 34 START criteria. This represents an overall 31% increase in STOPP/START criteria compared with version 1. Several new STOPP categories were created in version 2, namely antiplatelet/anticoagulant drugs, drugs affecting, or affected by, renal function and drugs that increase anticholinergic burden; new START categories include urogenital system drugs, analgesics and vaccines.Conclusion: STOPP/START version 2 criteria have been expanded and updated for the purpose of minimizing inappropriate prescribing in older people. These criteria are based on an up-to-date literature review and consensus validation among a European panel of experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]