Anticholinergic Cognitive Burden As a Predictive Factor for In-hospital Mortality in Older Patients in Korea

Overview

Journal Ann Geriatr Med Res

Specialty Geriatrics

Date 2020 Aug 4

PMID 32743318

Citations 5

Authors

Jae Hyun Lee

Hee-Won Jung

Il-Young Jang

Sung Do Moon

Sunhye Lee

Seung Jun Han

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: With the increasing prevalence of chronic disease due to aging, many older adults experience multimorbidity and polypharmacy. Medications with anticholinergic properties are particularly associated with adverse cognitive outcomes, including functional decline and mortality. We assessed the clinical impact of anticholinergic cognitive burden (ACB) on clinical outcomes of older patients acutely admitted to a single, hospitalist-operated medical unit of a tertiary hospital in Korea.

Methods: This retrospective study reviewed electronic medical records of 318 patients aged 65 years or older admitted to the hospitalist-operated medical unit through the emergency department of Seoul National University Hospital. The analyzed clinical outcomes were the length of hospital stay, in-hospital mortality, unplanned intensive care unit admission, and unexpected readmission within 30 days.

Results: The clinical outcomes did not differ between patients who took five or more drugs and those who did not. Patients with an ACB score of 3 or higher had a higher in-hospital mortality rate and longer hospital stay than those who did not. After adjusting for confounding factors, an ACB score of 3 or higher was an independent predictive factor for in-hospital mortality (odds ratio=3.09; 95% confidence interval, 1.18-8.06).

Conclusion: ACB rather than the number of medications was associated with in-hospital mortality in acutely ill older patients. Further analytic and interventional studies are required to assess potentially inappropriate medication use and ACB in older inpatients.

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