Table 1.

Study population, intervention, control and outcomes

Population	Consecutive older adults (≥70 years) with multimorbidity (≥3 chronic medical problems) and polypharmacy (≥5 regular drugs for >30 days).
Intervention	Pharmacotherapy optimisation based on the Systematic Tool to Reduce Inappropriate Prescribing through (1) systematic medication review by a physician and a pharmacist, with support of the STRIP Assistant, a software-based tool taking into account the predictable adverse medication effects, advising safe and appropriate therapy using established STOPP/START criteria, monitoring clinically relevant interactions and dosing appropriately in accordance with renal function, (2) drug discussion and adaptation with the prescribing physician, (3) shared decision-making with the patient and (4) generation of a report with specific recommendations for the patient’s general practitioner.
Control	Usual practice and a sham intervention using a questionnaire (Medication Adherence Measure Questionnaire, ©MMAS30–32 *) by a team member (the physician or the pharmacist) to mimic the intervention and improve blinding of the patient and other blinded team members.
Outcomes	Primary: drug-related hospital admission within 1 year after enrolment Secondary: number of any hospitalisations, mortality, number of falls, quality of life, degree of polypharmacy, activities of daily living, patient’s drug compliance, as well as the number of significant drug–drug interactions, drug overuse and underuse and potentially inappropriate medication.

*Use of the ©MMAS is protected by US copyright laws. Permission for use is required. A licence agreement is available from: Donald E Morisky, ScD, ScM, MSPH, Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, 650 Charles E. Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA 90 095–1772, dmorisky@ucla.edu.

START/STOPP, Screening Tool of Older People’s Prescriptions/Screening Tool to Alert to Right Treatment.