The use of antidepressants, benzodiazepines, sedatives and hypnotics significantly increased the risk of falling among the elderly, a new meta-analysis has found.
Writing in the Nov. 23 Archives of Internal Medicine, John C. Woolcott, MA, of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and colleagues reported these unadjusted Bayesian unadjusted odds ratios for falls and credible intervals (the Bayesian equivalent of confidence intervals) according to medication classes:
* Antidepressants, OR 1.68 (95% CrI 1.47 to 1.91)
* Benzodiazepines, OR 1.57 (95% CrI 1.43 to 1.72)
* Sedatives and hypnotics, OR 1.47 (95% CrI 1.35 to 1.62)
More than 30% of people ages 65 years and older experience a fall annually. Falls are associated with more than 40% of nursing home admissions, so research into risk factors "is urgently needed," according the the researchers.
Researchers have performed meta-analyses on the association between falling and the use of medications between the 1966 and 1996. But since then, prescriptions for these drugs have increased dramatically.
So Woolcott and colleagues updated the meta-analysis using Bayesian methodology, identifying 22 observational studies that included 79,081 participants older than 60 years.
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