Agreement Between Drugs-to-Avoid Criteria and Expert Assessments of Problematic Prescribing

Abstract

Drugs-to-avoid criteria are lists of drugs considered potentially inappropriate for elderly persons owing to adverse effects, limited effectiveness, or both. These criteria are commonly used as markers of prescribing problems for elderly patients in research and the practice of quality measurement.^1-6 For example, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) mandates the use of a version of the criteria of Beers and colleagues (hereinafter, Beers criteria⁷) in nursing homes,⁸ and the National Committee for Quality Assurance uses a version of the criteria of Zhan et al¹ (hereinafter, Zhan criteria) to compare the quality of US health plans.³