Why the study?
Does minimizing anticholinergic burden reduce adverse health and functional outcomes in older people?
Does minimizing anticholinergic burden reduce adverse health and functional outcomes in older people?
Anticholinergic burden in older people should be minimized by avoiding, reducing dose, and deprescribing medicines with anticholinergic activity where clinically possible.
Warrants consideration in geriatric prescribing; leaves open confirmation of outcome benefits in prospective trials.
Many medicines that are commonly prescribed to older people have a degree of anticholinergic activity that can contribute to anticholinergic burden. Anticholinergic burden, measured in several ways that consider number, dose and/or degree of anticholinergic activity of medicines, has shown to be a predictor of adverse health and functional outcomes. The anticholinergic burden on older people should be minimised by avoiding, reducing dose and deprescribing medicines with anticholinergic activity where clinically possible.
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Nishtala et al. (2016) studied this question.
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