Safer Prescribing and Care for the Elderly (SPACE): a cluster randomised controlled trial in general practice

Background: Safer prescribing in general practice may help to decrease preventable adverse drug events (ADE) and related hospitalisations. Aim: To test the effect of the Safer Prescribing and Care for the Elderly (SPACE) intervention on highrisk prescribing of non- steroidal anti- inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and/or antiplatelet medicines and related hospitalisations. Design & setting: A pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial in general practice. Participants were patients at increased risk of ADEs from NSAIDs and/or antiplatelet medicines at baseline. SPACE comprises automated search to generate for each GP a list of patients with high- risk prescribing; pharmacist outreach to provide education and one- on- one review of list with GP; and automated letter inviting patients to seek medication review with their GP. Method: The primary outcome was the difference in high- risk prescribing of NSAIDs and/or antiplatelet medicines at 6 months. Secondary outcomes were high- risk prescribing for gastrointestinal, renal, or cardiac ADEs separately, 12- month outcomes, and related ADE hospitalisations. Results: Thirty- nine practices were recruited with 205 GPs and 191 593 patients, of which 21 877 (11.4%) were participants. Of the participants, 1479 (6.8%) had high- risk prescribing. High- risk prescribing improved in both groups at 6 and 12 months compared with baseline. At 6 months, there was no significant difference between groups (odds ratio [OR] 0.99; 95% confidence intervals [CI] = 0.87 to 1.13) although SPACE improved more for gastrointestinal ADEs (OR 0.81; 95% CI = 0.68 to 0.96). At 12 months, the control group improved more (OR 1.29; 95% CI = 1.11 to 1.49). There was no significant difference for related hospitalisations. Conclusion: Further work is needed to identify scalable interventions that support safer prescribing in general practice. The use of automated search and feedback plus letter to patient warrants further exploration.