On the basis of reports from a pharmacovigilance center at a single tertiary hospital in South Korea from 2011 through 2018, we estimated the characteristics and culprit agents of ADRs in patients 65 years of age or older. We found that the causes and clinical features of ADRs in the older adults differed considerably from those in younger patients, with observable differences in the manifestations of adverse reactions depending on the culprit drugs. We found tramadol and fentanyl to be the most frequently reported culprit drugs in the older adults, compared to the younger individuals: the high prevalence of older patients with neoplasms may account for the high number of ADRs related with analgesics, such as tramadol, fentanyl, and nefopam. Even though the frequencies of ADRs caused by NSAIDs and ICM were lower in the older adults than in their younger counterparts, the rates of serious ADRs to NSAIDs and ICM were significantly higher in the older adults than in the younger individuals. ICM was found to be related to higher risks of anaphylaxis and heart-related disorders in the older adults than in the younger individuals.
People aged 65 years and older are now the most rapidly growing population in the world, and advancing age is associated with an increased prevalence of multiple morbidities, inevitably leading to the concurrent use of multiple medications, which can lead to increased risks of adverse drug events. Similar with prior reports [15, 16], we noted 22.0% of all ADR cases occurred in adults older than 65 years. Notably, the prevalence of ADRs was higher in females than in males in both the older and younger patients. These results are in line with previous studies indicating that older age and female sex are associated with an increased risk for the development of ADRs [16, 17]. A higher prevalence of ADRs in females has been suggested as being related to differences in propensity for symptom reporting, drug prescription rates, medical care utilization, hormonal factors, and pharmacokinetic factors [15]. We also documented a higher rate of severe ADRs of grades 3–5 based on CTCAE in the older adults than in the younger patients. Accordingly, we suspect that more complicated comorbidities and lower tolerance to adverse reactions in older adults can elicit more frequent occurrences of severe ADRs.
Studies on ADRs in older adults over the past few decades have shown divergent results on causative agents and clinical features [3, 18–20]. Accounting for the heterogeneity between studies may be variations in how researchers have defined and assessed ADRs [17]. Moreover, demographics, prevalent diseases, economic states, genetic differences, and prescription patterns in different countries can influence the characteristics of ADRs. In the present study, the most common culprit drugs for ADRs in the older adults were analgesics, contrast media, antibiotics, and NSAIDs, results that are similar with those at other pharmacovigilance centers in Korea [15, 21, 22]. While other studies have reported various clinical manifestations in different clinical settings across several countries. Cutaneous and gastrointestinal disorders were the most frequent manifestations in our study, with significantly different occurrence rates between the older and younger patients, which is consistent with the results of previous studies in Korea [16, 21, 22].
Serious ADRs leading to morbidity, mortality, and high healthcare costs are a major concern. In the present study, the two most common drug categories implicated in serious ADRs in the older adults were NSAIDs and antibiotics, similar to two retrospective studies of a spontaneous reporting database at a pharmacovigilance center [15, 23]. Accordingly, physicians should consider the risk-to-benefit profiles of these drugs when prescribing them [24]. The older adults in this study also experienced nearly twice as many anaphylactic reactions caused by ICM, compared with the younger group. Similarly, a recent study also found that older patients over 60 years were more likely to experience anaphylaxis due to nonionic low osmolality contrast media [25]. With the recent increase in the use of computed tomography, ICM use has also steadily increased. Thus, physicians should be aware of the potential risks posed by ICM to older adults and be prepared to administer appropriate emergency management of the adverse events associated with the use thereof.
Several studies have been performed in regards to the epidemiology, causative drugs, and risk factors associated with ADRs in older adults. However, to our knowledge, few have investigated the characteristics of ADRs in older adults in comparison to those in younger individuals, which is the strength of the current study. Furthermore, previous studies using databases of ADRs have only analyzed numbers of adverse events, the use of which may not be reliable, because the prescription of several drugs at a time can result in an increased number of reported ADRs. We, however, used ADR reports per 1,000 patients to assess high- and low-risk medications in older adults to obtain reliable numbers of ADR cases and patients taking at least one medication during the study period. In addition, we only included ADR cases of certain or probable causality based on the WHO-UMC criteria, supporting the relevance and validity of the relationships between the culprit drugs and adverse events.
Despite the strengths above, there are several limitations to the present study. First, this study relied on spontaneously reported ADRs, which may pose some underestimation of ADRs, since adverse events are underreported by clinicians and nurses. Also, as a retrospectively designed study, we were not able to reduce possible bias caused by missing data. Second, there could be potential bias in causality assessment evaluated by physicians or pharmacists. Though these processes are not perfect, we also used diagnostic tools, such as skin testing, blood tests measuring specific immunoglobulin E, and drug provocation tests. Third, our findings on the most commonly reported causative agents and clinical symptoms may be divergent from other populations with different prescribing patterns, disease epidemiology, and ethnicities.