ArticleEuropean journal of clinical pharmacology2011
Polypharmacy, length of hospital stay, and in-hospital mortality among elderly patients in internal medicine wards. The REPOSI study.
Article in European journal of clinical pharmacology, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 127 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
127 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 314 citations in OpenAlex.
- Polypharmacy definition and prevalence in heart failure: a systematic review.Heart failure reviews · 2022Pooled it
- What is polypharmacy? A systematic review of definitions.BMC geriatrics · 2017Pooled it
- Patient-centered care for older adults with multiple chronic conditions: a stepwise approach from the American Geriatrics Society: American Geriatrics Society Expert Panel on the Care of Older Adults with Multimorbidity.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2012Guideline
- Guiding principles for the care of older adults with multimorbidity: an approach for clinicians: American Geriatrics Society Expert Panel on the Care of Older Adults with Multimorbidity.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2012Guideline
- Medication Review and Enhanced Information Transfer at Discharge of Older Patients with Polypharmacy: a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial in Swiss Hospitals.Journal of general internal medicine · 2023Trial
- Implementation of a complex intervention to improve hospital discharge: process evaluation of a cluster randomised controlled trial.BMJ open · 2021Trial
- Polypharmacy and major adverse events in atrial fibrillation: observations from the AFFIRM trial.Clinical research in cardiology : official journal of the German Cardiac Society · 2016Trial
- Patterns of multimorbidity and in-hospital kidney function decline in older adults: a latent class analysis of three acute-care cohorts.Internal and emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Prevalence of polypharmacy: a cross-sectional study in Singapore public healthcare institutions.Singapore medical journal · 2026Article
- Patients' Needs and Expectations for the Application of Prevention of Drug-related Problems Prevention Programs.Journal of research in pharmacy practice · 2026Article
- Polypill Strategies for Cardiovascular Prevention in Older Adults: Evidence, Opportunities, and Implementation Challenges.Drugs & aging · 2025Review
- Guideline-Concordant Antibiotic Treatment for Hospitalised Patients with Community-Acquired Pneumonia and Clinical Outcomes at a Tertiary Hospital in Australia.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Hospital Pharmacists' Attitudes and Intentions Toward Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting in Saudi Arabia: Insights from the Theory of Planned Behavior.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Association of the overlap of cognitive impairment and depression with 6-month mortality in hospitalized older adults: results from the Re.Po.SI register.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- Comparative assessment of rational use of drugs in public and private hospital pharmacies: a multicenter cross-sectional study using INRUD/WHO prescribing indicators.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2025Article
- Functionality and cognition of older adults hospitalized in a university hospital.Revista brasileira de enfermagem · 2025Article
- The impact of polypharmacy on health outcomes in the aged: A retrospective cohort study.PloS one · 2025Article
- Association of polydoctoring and mortality among persons over 85 years with multimorbidity: a prospective cohort study in Japan.BJGP open · 2024Article
- Evaluation of the prevalence and influencing factors on poly-pharmacy among elderly patients - A review.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2024Review
- Drug prescription appropriateness in hospitalized older patients: 15-year results and lessons from a countrywide register.Internal and emergency medicine · 2024Review
67 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposesWe 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.
methodsThirty-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.
resultsThe 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.
conclusionsAlthough 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.
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