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Injurious Falls Common in Last Years of Life With COPD

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on Jan 23, 2025.

By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Jan. 23, 2025 -- Injurious falls are common among people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the two years before death, with some medications tied to higher fall risk, according to a study published online Oct. 25 in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation.

Cara L. McDermott, Pharm.D., Ph.D., from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and colleagues retrospectively analyzed linked electronic health records and death certificates to determine fall risk for 8,204 adults aged 40 years and older with COPD who died between 2014 and 2018.

The researchers found that 30 percent of decedents with COPD had an injurious fall in the two years before death, and use of fall risk-increasing drugs (FRIDs) was common (65 percent). Compared with individuals without a fall, a higher percentage of patients with falls received prescriptions for anticonvulsants (35 versus 26 percent), antipsychotics (24 versus 13 percent), atypical antidepressants (28 versus 19 percent), and tricyclic antidepressants (10 versus 5 percent). When adjusting for confounders, FRID burden was associated with greater odds of injurious falls (odds ratio, 1.07).

"Our findings highlight an opportunity for collaboration between pharmacists, pulmonologists, and patients to develop new processes to potentially deprescribe and optimize the use of FRIDs among patients with COPD to increase safety," the authors write.

Abstract/Full Text

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

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Posted January 2025

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