Project: Identifying Key Prescribing CASCADes in the Elderly: A Transnational Initiative on Drug Safety

Acronym	iKASCADE (Reference Number: GNP-172)
Project Topic	Prescribing cascades occur when a health care provider misinterprets the side effect of a drug as a new medical condition and prescribes a second, potentially unnecessary, harmful drug to address the side effect. Identifying and interrupting prescribing cascades represents an important, actionable, strategy to improve health of older adults. Adverse events are generally more common in women than in men. To inform tailored interventions, there is a need to understand potential sex and gender differences in how cascades develop and are managed. In this transnational study, an interdisciplinary team of experts in sex, gender and ageing will respond to this critical gap by applying a sex and gender lens to complementary health data from four countries. Specifically, we plan to evaluate whether men and women develop prescribing cascades in the same way, and if there are differences in how they present with adverse event(s) from a prescribing cascade. We will use administrative and clinical data on older adults to calculate sex-stratified prevalence rates for three prescribing cascades prioritized by our collaborating partners. We will also interview prescribers, patients and caregivers to explore how socially constructed gender roles contribute to the experience, presentation and management of prescribing cascades. Findings will improve our understanding of how adverse drug events are different between older women and men and inform the development and dissemination of tailored knowledge translation products to reduce the frequency and impact of prescribing cascades.
Network	GENDER NET Plus
Call	1st Joint Call on Gender and UN Sustainable Development Goals

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
1	University of Toronto	Coordinator	Canada
2	University College Cork	Partner	Ireland
3	Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (National Institute of Rest and Elderly Care)	Partner	Italy
4	Clalit Research Institut	Partner	Israel