Evidence-based summary for the safety of multiple medication in elderly patients with ischemic stroke

BACKGROUND: To retrieve, analyze, and summarize the relevant evidence of home-based medications use for stroke patients, so as to provide evidence for safe home-based medication of elderly patients with ischemic stroke. METHODS: We performed a search in the databases of British Medical Journal (BMJ) Best Practice, UpToDate, Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Evidence-based Health Care Center Library, Cochrane Library, PubMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Knowledge Data Service Platform, and others, according to the evidence pyramid model. We retrieved all evidence on the safety of home-based multiple medications use in elderly patients with ischemic stroke, including clinical decision-making, expert consensus, guidelines, systematic reviews, and summary of evidence. The search time limit was from the establishment of the database to March 2021. The literature evaluation standard and evidence grading system of JBI Evidence-based Health Care Center were used to evaluate the quality of the literature, and to classify the extracted evidence. RESULTS: A total of 17 articles were included in this study, comprising 2 guidelines, 11 systematic reviews, 3 evidence summaries, and 1 expert consensus. This article summarizes the 7 best evidences from 5 aspects: drug dispensing, drug identification, medication time, prescription simplification, and self-management plan. CONCLUSIONS: The evidence of home-based multiple medication use in elderly patients with ischemic stroke provides an evidence-based reference for ensuring the safety of medications for patients, and guides elderly patients with ischemic stroke and their caregivers by applying the best available evidence.