Results
The study included 196 patients randomized to medication review and 212
to usual care. The included patients had a median age of 81 years (IQR
75 to 85 years), were prescribed a median of 12 medicines (IQR 10 to 14)
at baseline, and 71% were females. Detailed patient characteristics and
patient flowchart have previously been reported.3 Medicines prescribed at baseline are listed in Supporting Information
Table S1. As reported in the primary publication,3 medication review reduced the number of prescribed medicines by 18%
after the first visit, by 16% after 4 months, and by 11% after 13
months compared with 5%, 5% and 2% in the usual care group. The
medicine changes, and their corresponding persistence, that led to these
differences in the number of prescribed medicines are described in
detail in Table 1. The number of overprescribed and underprescribed
medicines as a function of the number of baseline medicines is
visualized in Figure \ref{633516}. The primary reasons for discontinuations in the
medication review group are listed in Table 2. The medicines that were
more often discontinued in the medication review group compared with
usual care are listed in Table 3. The medicines that were most often
restarted after being discontinued in the medication review group are
listed in Table 4. The proportions of prescribed medicines in
pharmacological subgroups in the two groups at the different time points
are shown in Figure \ref{222994}. The numbers from the plots in Figure \ref{222994} are listed
in Supporting Information Table S2. The factors that predicted the
number of overprescribed medicines in the two models are listed in Table 5. The effect of the patient-related factors on predicted number of
overprescribed medicines is visualized in Figure \ref{907792}. For reference, the
number of overprescribed medicines for patients referred from the
geriatric department was a median (IQR) of 3 (2 to 5) compared with 4 (2
to 6) for patients referred from the GP, and for patients not motivated
for medicine changes 3 (1 to 4) compared with 4 (2 to 6) for patients
motivated for medicine changes.