Randomised controlled trials that comprised patients aged 65 years or older and included an intervention delivered by a pharmacist (or had a pharmacist as a member of the intervention team) and had at least one outcome measure of suboptimal prescribing (overuse, misuse or underuse) were eligible for inclusion. Explicit or implicit methods for measuring suboptimal prescribing were eligible. Studies were excluded if patients were selected according to a specific pre-existing condition or if one drug or drug class was the focus of the intervention.
The setting was USA for more than half of the included studies. More than half of the studies included interventions initiated by pharmacists; other studies described interventions in which the pharmacist was a part of the multidisciplinary team. Most studies focused on reducing the overuse and misuse of medications. Suboptimal prescribing was measured by various methods, most frequently Medication Appropriateness Index (MAI).
The authors did not state how many reviewers performed the selection.