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Evidence summaries

Medication Review in Hospitalised Patients to Reduce Morbidity and Mortality

Medication review appears to reduce hospital readmissions and may reduce emergency department contacts but may have little to no effect on mortality in elderly patients. Level of evidence: "B"

Summary

A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 included 25 studies with a total of 15 076 subjects. Follow-up ranged from 1 to 20 months. Medication reviews in hospitalised adults may have little to no effect on mortality (RR 0.96, 95% CI 0.87 to 1.05; 18 trials, n=10 108; low-certainty evidence); likely reduce hospital readmissions (RR 0.93, 95% CI 0.89 to 0.98; 17 trials, n=9561; moderate-certainty evidence); may reduce emergency department contacts (RR 0.84, 95% CI 0.68 to 1.03; 8 trials, n=3527; low-certainty evidence) and have very uncertain effects on health-related quality of life (SMD 0.10, 95% CI -0.10 to 0.30; 4 trials, n=392; very low-certainty evidence).

Comment: The quality of the evidence is downgraded by indirectness (short follow-up time).

Clinical comments

Note

Date of latest search:

    References

    • Bülow C, Clausen SS, Lundh A et al. Medication review in hospitalised patients to reduce morbidity and mortality. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2023;1(1):CD008986. [PubMed]

Primary/Secondary Keywords