Abstract
ABSTRACT Aims: To estimate the prevalence of polypharmacy among
community-dwelling adults in the UK and determine its association with
mortality, hospitalization, adverse drug reactions and falls at one and
five years. Method: A retrospective cohort study was carried out using
1000 patients aged 75 years and above from the Clinical Practice
Research Datalink. The follow-up periods for one and five years were
January 2010 to December 2010, and January 2010 to December 2014
respectively. Sociodemographic and clinical variables were retrieved
using medical and product codes. The association between polypharmacy
and mortality, falls, adverse drug reactions, and hospitalization was
determined using Cox regression analysis while confounding for age, sex,
Charlson’s Comorbidity Index, potentially inappropriate medicines,
previous hospitalization, and previous falls. Results: The prevalence of
polypharmacy was 47%. Adjusted hazard ratios with their 95% confidence
intervals for polypharmacy and outcomes at five years were mortality
1.60(1.3-2.0), hospitalization 1.49(1.3-1.7), falls 1.49(0.9-2.4), and
adverse drug reactions 0.97(0.5-1.8). The results for the one-year
analysis were mortality 2.37(1.4-3.9), hospitalization 2.47(1.4-4.3),
and falls 0.37(0.03-4.0). The result for adverse drug reactions was
omitted. Conclusion: Polypharmacy was found to be an independent risk
factor for mortality and hospitalization, but not falls or adverse drug
reactions.