Nearly one-third of COPD patients prescribed fall-risk medications experienced injuries in the two years before death, with risk increasing based on the number of drugs taken.
RT’s Three Key Takeaways:
- High Prevalence of Fall-Risk Medications in COPD: Sixty-five percent of COPD patients in the study were prescribed at least one fall-risk increasing drug, such as opioids or benzodiazepines.
- Increased Likelihood of Falls and Injuries: Thirty percent of COPD patients experienced a fall with injury in the two years prior to death, with the risk increasing based on the number of fall-risk drugs prescribed.
- Call for Collaborative Fall Prevention Strategies: Researchers recommend collaboration between pulmonologists, pharmacists, and patients to reduce the use of fall-risk medications and develop comprehensive fall prevention strategies to improve patient safety.
People with COPD experience more falls and related injuries requiring medical care when using common fall-risk increasing drugs, according to a new study.
The study is published in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation.
Previous research has shown that people with COPD have a higher risk of falling due to increased frailty, impaired gait, and the tripping hazard of oxygen tubing. They also commonly experience pain, anxiety, insomnia, and other comorbidities, such as diabetes or hypertension.
Opioids, benzodiazepines, and other medications used to treat these comorbidities and symptoms can increase a person’s risk of falling and fall-related injuries.
“Fall-risk increasing drugs are commonly prescribed to people with COPD because they experience a high number of symptoms and conditions that indicate use of these drugs,” says Cara L. McDermott, PharmD, PhD, assistant professor in medicine in the Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Care at Duke University School of Medicine and lead author of the study, in a release. “However, injuries from falls can lead to emergency department visits or hospitalization, resulting in a lower quality of life and increased health care costs.”
Fall-Risk Increase Drugs Linked to Falls With Injury
The study examined data from a single health system linked to Washington State death certificates of adults 40 or older with COPD who died between 2014 and 2018. Of the 8,204 people, 65% were prescribed at least one fall-risk increasing drug, and 30% had a fall with injury in the two years prior to their death.
“Our study compared the number of falls in the two years prior to death in people with COPD who used fall-risk increasing drugs to those with COPD who did not use these drugs. We found that the chance of a person falling increased relative to how many fall-risk increasing drugs they used,” McDermott says in a release. “Pulmonologists and pharmacists need to collaborate with each other and with patients to develop fall prevention strategies and to increase patient safety by reducing the use of fall-risk increasing drugs and discussing other ways to mitigate fall risk.”