A Thai primary-care analysis shows why the screening instrument matters when comparing prescribing prevalence.
The retrospective study reviewed 4,848 older adults and more than 20,000 prescriptions across eight units. It applied the List of Risk Drugs for Thai Elderly rather than simply importing one foreign classification. Lorazepam appeared among commonly flagged medicines alongside several anticholinergic drugs. Polypharmacy and chronic disease burden were associated with flagged prescribing.
A prescription-level prevalence differs from a patient-level prevalence. The design did not establish actual ingestion, injury, or the appropriateness of every flagged case. Local medication availability and screening rules affect comparisons with other countries.
For an expert report, state which criteria generated a label and what denominator was used. A flagged lorazepam prescription warrants clinical review, but the label is not itself proof of harm. Cross-country comparisons need comparable tools, populations, and outcome definitions before numerical differences are interpreted.
Source reviewed: Prevalence and Factors that Influence Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use among Thai Elderly in (PMC8629499). Forensic applications above are interpretive analysis of the supplied paper.
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