Polypharmacy in elderly hospitalised patients in Slovakia

Wawruch, Martin; Zikavska, Martina; Wsólová, Ladislava; Kuželová, M; Tisonova, J; Gajdošík, Ján; Urbánek, Karel; Kristová, Viera

doi:10.1007/s11096-007-9166-3

Cited by 46 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Some of them include comorbidities, low subjective health, over the counter drug usage [22][23][24] . In our study, we considered the following factors namely age, sex, duration of hospital stay, number of comorbidities and complexity of the procedure.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns, Predictors and Outcomes of Polypharmacy among Elderly Perioperative Patients in the General Surgical Department of a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Saldanha¹,

Raj²,

Devi³

et al. 2017

pharmaceutical-sciences

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns, Predictors and Outcomes of Polypharmacy among Elderly Perioperative Patients in the General Surgical Department of a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Saldanha¹,

Raj²,

Devi³

et al. 2017

pharmaceutical-sciences

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“…A survey of community-dwelling elderly showed that more than 90% of those aged 65 years or more used at least one drug weekly and more than 40% took five or more (5). Among hospitalized elderly, the prevalence of polypharmacy ranged from 20% to 60%, reflecting different criteria used to select patients and collect medication data (6)(7)(8). Although polypharmacy has no generally accepted definition, most often it is defined by cut-offs, in terms of the number of medications taken, ranging from two to ten (9)(10)(11)(12).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polypharmacy, length of hospital stay, and in-hospital mortality among elderly patients in internal medicine wards. The REPOSI study

Nobili¹,

Licata²,

Salerno³

et al. 2011

Eur J Clin Pharmacol

279

195

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Purposes: We evaluated the prevalence and factors associated with polypharmacy and investigated the role of polypharmacy as a predictor of length of hospital stay and in-hospital mortality. Methods: Thirty-eight internal medicine wards in Italy participated in the Registro Politerapie SIMI (REPOSI) study during 2008. One thousand three hundred and thirty-two in-patients aged ≥65 years were enrolled. Polypharmacy was defined as the concomitant use of five or more medications. Linear regression analyses were used to evaluate predictors of length of hospital stay and logistic regression models for predictors of in-hospital mortality. Age, sex, Charlson comorbidity index, polypharmacy, and number of in-hospital clinical adverse events (AEs) were used as possible confounders. Results: The prevalence of polypharmacy was 51.9% at hospital admission and 67.0% at discharge. Age, number of drugs at admission, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, heart failure, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were independently associated with polypharmacy at discharge. In multivariate analysis, the occurrence of at least one AE while in hospital was the only predictor of prolonged hospitalization (each new AE prolonged hospital stay by 3.57 days, p<0.0001). Age [odds ratio (OR) 1.04; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.01-1.08; p=0.02), comorbidities (OR 1.18; 95% CI 1.12-1.24; p<0.0001), and AEs (OR 6.80; 95% CI 3.58-12.9; p<0.0001) were significantly associated with in-hospital mortality. Conclusions: Although most elderly in-patients receive polypharmacy, in this study, it was not associated with any hospital outcome. However, AEs were strongly correlated with a longer hospital stay and higher mortality risk. © 2011 Springer-Verlag

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“…A search in PubMed yielded more than 2000 hits on "polypharmacy" (October 2007). Polypharmacy has been used as an indicator to select patients for research projects, for quality assurance tasks, for example medication reviews, and for describing extensive drug use among patients (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Janus face of polypharmacy – overuse versus underuse of medication

Viktil¹,

Blix²,

Reikvam³

2009

Nor J Epidemiol

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As modern guidelines may recommend several drugs for a single medical condition, it follows that many patients, especially if co-morbidity is present, use a number of medications. Also, an aging population implies more morbidity and consequently will have the result that many patients use many drugs -a situation often referred to as polypharmacy. Polypharmacy has been linked to negative health outcomes such as adverse drug reactions, interaction problems, poor patient adherence, and hospitalisations. Such experiences have led to the attitude that efforts should be made to reduce polypharmacy. However, this approach might prevent patients from obtaining optimal treatment. There is no universal definition of polypharmacy and measuring of a reduction in polypharmacy becomes problematic. Because polypharmacy is an imprecise term it should be used with caution in research as well as in patient management. Moreover, studies have shown that undertreatment occurs frequently also among patients using many drugs. This is the Janus face of polypharmacy: too many drugs should be avoided, but the individual patient should receive the appropriate drugs that have the potential to reduce morbidity and improve quality of life. It is the individual drugs themselves, along with patient specific factors, and not a fixed number of drugs, that we should pay attention to.

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Polypharmacy in elderly hospitalised patients in Slovakia

Cited by 46 publications

References 30 publications

Patterns, Predictors and Outcomes of Polypharmacy among Elderly Perioperative Patients in the General Surgical Department of a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Patterns, Predictors and Outcomes of Polypharmacy among Elderly Perioperative Patients in the General Surgical Department of a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Polypharmacy, length of hospital stay, and in-hospital mortality among elderly patients in internal medicine wards. The REPOSI study

The Janus face of polypharmacy – overuse versus underuse of medication

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