Table 3 Validity of PHARAO alerts to detect symptoms associated with medications’ pharmacological properties during a 3-month period, by symptoms experienced by elderly patients
Experienced symptoms | Sensitivity (95% CI) | Specificity (95% CI) | PPV (95% CI) | NPV (95% CI) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
According to clinical data (n) | According to PHARAO alerts | ||||||
Lowest considered level of risk (n)a | PHARAO alert confirmed n (%) | Symptoms not identified by PHARAO n (%) | |||||
Sedation (86) | High (43) | 12 (28) | 74 (86) | 0.14 (0.08–0.23) | 0.95 (0.93–0.97) | 0.28 (0.16–0.44) | 0.89 (0.87–0.92) |
Intermediate (60) | 13 (22) | 73 (85) | 0.15 (0.09–0.25) | 0.93 (0.90–0.95) | 0.22 (0.12–0.34) | 0.89 (0.87–0.91) | |
Low (98) | 20 (20) | 66 (77) | 0.23 (0.15–0.34) | 0.88 (0.85–0.90) | 0.20 (0.13–0.30) | 0.90 (0.87–0.92) | |
Orthostatic symptoms (90) | High (38) | 6 (16) | 84 (93) | 0.07 (0.03–0.15) | 0.95 (0.93–0.97) | 0.16 (0.07–0.32) | 0.88 (0.85–0.90) |
Intermediate (120) | 19 (16) | 71 (79) | 0.21 (0.13–031) | 0.85 (0.81–0.87) | 0.16 (0.10–0.24) | 0.89 (0.86–0.91) | |
Low (155) | 24 (15) | 66 (73) | 0.27 (0.18–0.24) | 0.80 (0.76–0.82) | 0.15 (0.10–0.22) | 0.89 (0.86–0.91) | |
Constipation (25) | High (68) | 9 (13) | 16 (64) | 0.36 (0.19–0.57) | 0.92 (0.89–0.94) | 0.13 (0.07–0.24) | 0.98 (0.96–0.99) |
Intermediate (136) | 13 (10) | 12 (48) | 0.52 (0.32–0.72) | 0.83 (0.80–0.85) | 0.10 (0.05–0.16) | 0.98 (0.96–0.99) | |
Low (249) | 16 (6) | 9 (36) | 0.64 (0.43–0.81) | 0.68 (0.64–0.71) | 0.06 (0.04–0.10) | 0.98 (0.96–0.99) | |
Anticholinergic symptoms (180) | High (48) | 23 (48) | 157 (87) | 0.13 (0.08–0.19) | 0.96 (0.93–0.97) | 0.48 (0.33–0.63) | 0.77 (0.74–0.80) |
Intermediate (130) | 44 (34) | 136 (76) | 0.24 (0.18–0.31) | 0.85 (0.81–0.88) | 0.34 (0.26–0.43) | 0.78 (0.74–0.81) | |
Low (246) | 84 (34) | 96 (53) | 0.47 (0.39–0.54) | 0.71 (0.67–0.75) | 0.34 (0.28–0.40) | 0.81 (0.77–0.84) | |
Serotonergic symptoms (63) | High (11) | 3 (27) | 60 (95) | 0.05 (0.01–0.14) | 0.99 (0.98–0.99) | 0.27 (0.07–0.60) | 0.92 (0.89–0.94) |
Intermediate (14) | 4 (29) | 59 (94) | 0.06 (0.02–0.16) | 0.98 (0.10–0.99) | 0.29 (0.10–0.58) | 0.92 (0.90–0.94) | |
Low (28) | 6 (40) | 57 (90) | 0.10 (0.04–0.20) | 0.97 (0.95–0.99) | 0.21 (0.10–0.41) | 0.92 (0.90–0.94) | |
Total (444)b | High (208) | 53 (25) | 391 (88) | 0.12 (0.09–0.15) | 0.95 (0.94–0.96) | 0.25 (0.20–0.32) | 0.89 (0.88–0.90) |
Intermediate (460) | 93 (20) | 351 (79) | 0.21 (0.17–0.25) | 0.89 (0.88–0.90) | 0.20 (0.17–0.24) | 0.89 (0.88–0.90) | |
Low (776) | 150 (19) | 294 (66) | 0.37 (0.33–0.42) | 0.78 (0.77–0.80) | 0.20 (0.16–0.22) | 0.90 (0.89–0.91) | |