Supplementary Material for: Use of potentially inappropriate medications among older adults with dementia or/and cognitive impairment attending memory clinics: A protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: - Older adults with dementia who are on multiple medications are more vulnerable to the use of potentially inapporpriate medications (PIMs), which can significantly increase the risk of adverse events and drug-related problems (DRPs). PIMs use is prevalent and varies among older adults with dementia and/or cognitive impairment (CI) attending memory clinics. However, the prevalence of PIMs, polypharmacy, and hyper-polypharmacy among older adults with dementia or/and CI who are attending memory clinics is not well understood Objectives: - We will conduct a systematic review and meta-analyses to examine the overall estimate of the prevalence of the PIMs, polypharmacy, and hyper-polypharmacy use among older adults attending memory clinics, with dementia or CI. The secondary objective of this study will be to compile a list of commonly implicated PIMs and to investigate factors that may be associated with using PIMs in this population. Methods and analysis: - Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid EMBASE, Scopus, Cochrane library, EBSCOhost CINAHL, and Ovid International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA) will be systematically searched by a researcher (RS) with the help of a librarian. All databases will be searched from inception to May 05, 2023. Cross-sectional, cohort, randomized clinical trials (RCT), quasi-experimental, and case-control studies will be included if they assess PIMs use among older adults with dementia and/or CI. A step-by-step guide by Pai et al will be followed when conducting this systematic review (SR). The PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses) checklist will be followed for reporting this SR. Discussion: The findings from this SR/MA will identify the pooled prevalence of PIMs, providing a more precise estimate of the true prevalence of the PIMs, polypharmacy, hyper-polypharmacy in older adults with dementia and/or CI who are attending memory clinics at primary, secondary, or tertiary healthcare settings by considering the results of multiple studies.