# REDUCING GERIATRIC DRUG THERAPY--TWO APPROACHES

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 1992 · $337,601

## Abstract

DESCRIPTION:  (Adapted from Applicant's Abstract) Inappropriate prescribing
for geriatric patients can have enormous clinical and economic
consequences, yet few valid studies have compared the effectiveness of
alternative approaches for reducing drug therapy problems among the
elderly.  The major goal of the proposed study is to provide the first
rigorous, systematic comparison of the effectiveness of two interventions
to reduce drug therapy problems among geriatric outpatients by improving
the quality of prescribing:  1) the application of a prospective
computerized drug utilization review (DUR) system, and (2) ongoing clinical
pharmacists' drug regimen reviews and consultations to providers.  Both
theory and empirical data suggest these interventions are particularly
promising.  The study is a 3-year, pretest/post-test controlled trial in
the General Internal Medicine Practices at the University of California,
San Francisco.  The drug regimens of sampled patients will be assessed for
the 12-month pre-intervention and the 12-month post-intervention periods.
Random pairs of a 7-member physician-pharmacist review panel will
independently assess the sampled cases by reviewing medications and
clinical records, using an instrument tested for reliability and validity.
Targeted dependent variables will measure drug therapy problems due to
schedule, dosage, drug-drug interactions, therapeutic duplication, no
therapy.  At the end of the pre-intervention period, sampled patients will
be surveyed with a validated instrument for measuring health status, an
important covariate.  Data will be analyzed using analysis of covariance
and multiple regression techniques.  The long-term goal of this research is
to reduce drug therapy problems among the elderly by improving physicians'
prescribing practices.  Toward this goal, the following factors will be
assessed for the two interventions:  1) the effectiveness of drug therapy
reviews concurrent with outpatient visits; 2) the relative effectiveness of
the two drug review methods; 3) their relative cost-effectiveness; 4) their
acceptability to providers and patients; 5) the logistical problems of
implementation; and 6) dissemination of the findings to other settings to
assist in establishing drug-therapy reviews concurrent with patients'
visits.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3121507
- **Project number:** 5R01AG009611-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **SAM.gov UEI:** KMH5K9V7S518
- **Principal Investigator:** HELENE D LIPTON
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1992
- **Award amount:** $337,601
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1991-02-01 → 1994-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3121507

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3121507, REDUCING GERIATRIC DRUG THERAPY--TWO APPROACHES (5R01AG009611-02). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3121507. Licensed CC0.

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