Safer Prescribing and Care for the Elderly (SPACE): a Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial in General Practice

Overview

Journal BJGP Open

Specialty Public Health

Date 2021 Oct 14

PMID 34645654

Citations 2

Authors

Katharine A Wallis

Carolyn Raina Elley

Simon A Moyes

Arier Lee

Joanna F Hikaka

Ngaire M Kerse

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Safer prescribing in general practice may help to decrease preventable adverse drug events (ADE) and related hospitalisations.

Aim: To test the effect of the Safer Prescribing and Care for the Elderly (SPACE) intervention on high-risk prescribing of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and/or antiplatelet medicines and related hospitalisations.

Design & Setting: A pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial in general practice. Participants were patients at increased risk of ADEs from NSAIDs and/or antiplatelet medicines at baseline. SPACE comprises automated search to generate for each GP a list of patients with high-risk prescribing; pharmacist outreach to provide education and one-on-one review of list with GP; and automated letter inviting patients to seek medication review with their GP.

Method: The primary outcome was the difference in high-risk prescribing of NSAIDs and/or antiplatelet medicines at 6 months. Secondary outcomes were high-risk prescribing for gastrointestinal, renal, or cardiac ADEs separately, 12-month outcomes, and related ADE hospitalisations.

Results: Thirty-nine practices were recruited with 205 GPs and 191 593 patients, of which 21 877 (11.4%) were participants. Of the participants, 1479 (6.8%) had high-risk prescribing. High-risk prescribing improved in both groups at 6 and 12 months compared with baseline. At 6 months, there was no significant difference between groups (odds ratio [OR] 0.99; 95% confidence intervals [CI] = 0.87 to 1.13) although SPACE improved more for gastrointestinal ADEs (OR 0.81; 95% CI = 0.68 to 0.96). At 12 months, the control group improved more (OR 1.29; 95% CI = 1.11 to 1.49). There was no significant difference for related hospitalisations.

Conclusion: Further work is needed to identify scalable interventions that support safer prescribing in general practice. The use of automated search and feedback plus letter to patient warrants further exploration.

Citing Articles

Acceptability and optimisation of resources to support antidepressant cessation: a qualitative think-aloud study with patients in Australian primary care.

McDonald S, Wallis K, Horowitz M, Mann E, Le V, Donald M Br J Gen Pract. 2024; 74(739):e113-e119.

PMID: 38272680 PMC: 10714746. DOI: 10.3399/BJGP.2023.0269.

Trial and error: challenges conducting pragmatic trials in general practice.

Wallis K, Elley C Br J Gen Pract. 2022; 72(715):54-55.

PMID: 35091399 PMC: 8813103. DOI: 10.3399/bjgp22X718289.

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