The pharmacological treatment of urinary incontinence (UI) may involve bladder antimuscarinics, which can generate risks in the elderly.
The aim was to determine the treatment patterns of a group of patients with UI and possible potentially inappropriate prescriptions.
This was a cross-sectional study that identified prescription patterns of medications for outpatient use in patients with UI between December 2020 and November 2021 based on a population database of members of the Colombian Health System. Patients were identified based on the codes of the international classification of diseases, version-10. Sociodemographic and pharmacological variables were considered.
A total of 9855 patients with UI were identified, with a median age of 72 years, and 74.6% were women. Unspecified UI was the most frequent form (83.2%), followed by specified UI (7.9%), stress UI (6.7%), and UI associated with an overactive bladder (2.2%). A total of 37.2% received pharmacological treatment, mainly with bladder antimuscarinics (22.6%), mirabegron (15.6%), and topical estrogens (7.9%). Pharmacological management predominated in UI associated with overactive bladder, in women and in patients between 50 and 79 years of age. Of the patients who received bladder antimuscarinics, 54.5% were 65 years old or older, and 21.5% also had benign prostatic hyperplasia, sicca syndrome, glaucoma, constipation, or dementia. A total of 2.0% of women had been prescribed systemic estrogens and 1.7% had been prescribed peripheral α-adrenergic antagonists.
Differences in the prescriptions were found according to the type of UI, sex, and age group. Potentially inappropriate or risky prescriptions were common.
Therapeutic advances in urology. 2023 Jun 16*** epublish ***
Luis Fernando Valladales-Restrepo, Hugo Alejandro Bedoya-Arias, Brayan Stiven Aristizábal-Carmona, Jorge Enrique Machado-Alba
Grupo de Investigación de Farmacoepidemiología y Farmacovigilancia, Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira and Audifarma S.A., Pereira, Colombia., Semillero de Investigación en Farmacología Geriátrica, Facultad de Medicina, Fundación Universitaria Autónoma de las Américas, Pereira, Colombia., Grupo de Investigación de Farmacoepidemiología y Farmacovigilancia, Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira and Audifarma S.A., Calle 105 No. 14-140, Pereira 660003, Risaralda, Colombia.