The NHS needs to improve support for GPs to optimise the medications prescribed to frail older people to avoid harmful effects. This project focuses on anticholinergic medications (ACs) used to treat bladder, bowel and mood problems which can cause confusion and falls in older people. This project aims to develop a tool to help doctors and pharmacists review a patient’s medical history to assist appropriate prescribing of ACs. This will help reduce the risk of harmful side effects in older people which can lead to hospital admissions.
This project will develop the Anticholinergic Medication Index (ACMI) tool to calculate AC medication burden for older people. The tool will be tested using anonymised routine data from the Connected Bradford dataset to see how the score predicts being admitted to hospital with confusion or a fall.
Impact: to improve quality of life and clinical outcomes and save NHS and social care costs.
