Study type

Study topic

Disease /health condition

Study type

Non-interventional study

Scope of the study

Drug utilisation

Data collection methods

Secondary use of data
Non-interventional study

Non-interventional study design

Cohort
Population studied

Short description of the study population

The study cohort will include individuals aged 65 years and older diagnosed with recurrent falls registered in the respective databases between 1st of January 2013 and 31st December 2023, with at least 1 year of data visibility prior to the date of recurrent falls diagnosis. Recurrent falls will be defined as 2 or more falls within a period of 12 months.
Additional eligibility criteria will be applied for survival analysis: a minimum of 1 year of potential follow-up after index date, will be applied for survival analysis.

Age groups

Elderly (≥ 65 years)
Adults (65 to < 75 years)
Adults (75 to < 85 years)
Adults (85 years and over)
Study design details

Study design

A cohort study will be conducted using routinely collected health data from 5 databases.

Main study objective

Research question: What are the characteristics of patients with recurrent falls and how are STOPP Section K criteria medicines prescribed in Europe?

Study objectives:
1. To characterise individuals aged 65 years and older with recurrent falls in terms of age, gender, risk factors, comorbidities and concomitant prescriptions. Results will be stratified by database and where feasible by healthcare setting.
2. To estimate the overall survival of individuals aged 65 and older with recurrent falls.
3. To estimate prevalence of use of drug classes belonging to the STOPP section K criteria in individuals aged 65 and older, categorised into two cohorts: those with recurrent falls and those without recurrent falls. Results will be stratified by database, calendar year, age and sex.
4. To estimate incidence of use of drug classes belonging to the STOPP section K criteria in individuals aged 65 year and older, categorised into two cohorts: those with recurrent falls and those without recurrent falls. Results will be stratified by database, calendar year, age and sex.
5. To characterise a cohort of individuals aged 65 years and older with recurrent falls at time of their new prescription of any of the drug classes belonging to the STOPP section K criteria in terms of age, sex, comorbidities and comedication. Additionally, the proportion of individual drug substances within each drug class belonging to the STOPP section K criteria will be provided. Results will be stratified by database.
6. To determine the median duration of use the different drug classes belonging to the STOPP section K criteria at time of treatment initiation of drugs of interest in the individuals aged 65 and older, categorised into two cohorts: those with recurrent falls and those without recurrent falls. To provide product names with details on strength, formulation and volume.