Why aren more drugs included as risk factors?
There are 2 categories of drugs found to be significantly related to an increased risk of falls in this study. They include benzodiazepines and antiepileptics. Each of these categories is well validated in the literature. In this large, randomized, case-control study, other categories of drugs, in and of themselves, did not increase the statistical risk of falling. This is believed to be true because the risk factors that predict falls are also the most common side effects of medications (orientation, mood, elimination, gait, and balance). To state it differently, other than the 2 categories already mentioned, the fact that a patient was taking other categories of drugs did not seem to increase fall risk if none of the fall risk factors found in H2Model were positive. This probably helps to explain why risk factors can over-identify certain populations of patients when statistical analysis and sample size are not carefully followed.
