Potentially Inappropriate Drug Use and Health-Related Quality of Life in the Elderly

Study Objective. To investigate the relationship between two widely used, generic health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) measures, Short Form‐12 (SF‐12) and EuroQol's EQ‐5D, and potentially inappropriate drug use in an elderly cohort. Design. Longitudinal retrospective cohort study. Data Source. Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, panel 5. Participants. Respondents aged 65 years or older. Measurements and Main Results. Participants with potentially inappropriate drug use were identified by using National Drug Codes based on the Beers updated criteria. The dependent variable, HRQOL, was measured by using self‐reported scores on the SF‐12 (physical component summary, mental component summary, and global rating of health) and the EQ‐5D (index and visual analog scale). The HRQOL data were regressed onto scores for potentially inappropriate drug, age, sex, number of prescriptions, race, comorbidity, and previous HRQOL. Regression analysis revealed statistically significant models for all five HRQOL equations (adjusted R2 = 26.50–53.83%, p