
Patients with COPD sustain an increased fall risk and more fall-related injuries requiring medical care when using common drugs that are known to increase the risk of falling.
According to a study published in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Journal of the COPD Foundation, people with COPD already have a higher risk of falling due to increased frailty, impaired gait and the tripping hazard of oxygen tubing.
In addition to those risks, COPD patients also experience pain, anxiety, insomnia and other comorbidities like diabetes and hypertension. Medications prescribed to treat these conditions can further increase the risk of falling and fall-related injuries, the researchers said in a news release.
“Fall-risk increasing drugs [FRIDs] are commonly prescribed to people with COPD because they experience a high number of symptoms and conditions that indicate use of these drugs,” said Cara McDermott, PharmD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Care at Duke University School of Medicine and lead author of the study. “However, injuries from falls can lead to emergency department visits or hospitalization, resulting in a lower quality of life and increased health care costs.”
The study looked at data from a health system linked to Washington State that included death certificates of adults with COPD, aged 40 or older, who died between 2014 and 2018. Of the 8,204 people, 65% were prescribed at least one FRID and 30% had a fall with injury in the two years prior to their death.
The study compared the number of falls in the two years prior to death in people with COPD who used fall-risk enhancing drugs to those with COPD who did not use these drugs.
“We found that the chance of a person falling increased relative to how many fall-risk enhancing drugs they used,” Dr. McDermott said. “Pulmonologists and pharmacists need to collaborate with each other and with patients to develop fall prevention strategies and to increase patient safety by reducing the use of fall-risk increasing drugs and discussing other ways to mitigate fall risk.”