ArticleJournal of the American Medical Directors Association2017
Polypharmacy Is Associated With Higher Frailty Risk in Older People: An 8-Year Longitudinal Cohort Study.
Article in Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07127692 (Exploratory Study on the Prevalence of Sarcopenia-Promoting Medicines in Patients With Sarcopenia and Falls), which is not on this map. Cited by 88 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Exploratory Study on the Prevalence of Sarcopenia-Promoting Medicines in Patients With Sarcopenia and Falls
Who cites it
88 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 197 citations in OpenAlex.
- Interventions to improve medicines optimisation in frail older patients in secondary and acute care settings: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials and non-randomised studies.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2022Pooled it
- A systematic review of the evidence for deprescribing interventions among older people living with frailty.BMC geriatrics · 2021Pooled it
- The relationship between frailty and polypharmacy in older people: A systematic review.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2018Pooled it
- Trial
- Trial
- Baseline Prevalence of Polypharmacy in Older Hypertensive Study Subjects with Elevated Dementia Risk: Findings from the Risk Reduction for Alzheimer's Disease Study (rrAD).Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2020Trial
- Monitoring and Intervention Technologies to Manage Diabetic Older Persons: The CAPACITY Case-A Pilot Study.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2020Trial
- The association between polypharmacy, frailty and disability-free survival in community-dwelling healthy older individuals.Archives of gerontology and geriatricsTrial
- Multicomponent nursing interventions and frailty-related outcomes in older adults: An integrative review of primary studies and evidence syntheses.International journal of nursing studies advances · 2026Review
- Frailty transitions and their association with mortality in older adults.Internal medicine journal · 2026Article
- Advanced Drug Delivery Strategies in Geriatric Patients with Polypharmacy: Integrating Pharmacokinetics, Personalized Medicine, and Emerging Technologies.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Medication Reduction is Associated with Improved Activities of Daily Living and Muscle Strength in Post-Stroke Patients with Polypharmacy.JMA journal · 2026Article
- Polypharmacy and Dynapenia in Older Adults Undergoing Rehabilitation After Fracture or Elective Orthopedic Surgery.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Article
- Traumatic brain injury and mortality in older adults with and without pre-injury dementia.Age and ageing · 2025Article
- Development and testing of an electronic frailty index using Canadian electronic medical record data in primary care.BMC primary care · 2025Article
- Association between polypharmacy and the risk of requiring long-term care among community-dwelling older residents: A retrospective cohort study.Journal of general and family medicine · 2025Article
- Relationships between physical frailty, depressive symptoms, and cognitive ability among community-dwelling older adults in India.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Polypharmacy and associated factors in older adults living in communities: a comparative study using the Social Frailty Score and Kihon Checklist.Journal of rural medicine : JRM · 2025Article
- The commonly used antibiotic streptomycin reduces protein synthesis and differentiation in cultured C2C12 myotubes.Physiological reports · 2025Article
- Realigning diabetes regimens in older adults: a 4S Pathway to guide simplification and deprescribing strategies.The lancet. Diabetes & endocrinology · 2025Review
28 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo investigate whether polypharmacy is associated with a higher incidence of frailty in a large cohort of North Americans during 8 years of follow-up.
designLongitudinal study, follow-up of 8 years.
participantsA total of 4402 individuals at high risk or having knee osteoarthritis free from frailty at baseline. MEASUREMENTS: Details regarding medication prescription were captured and categorized as 0-3, 4-6, and ≥7. Frailty was defined using the Study of Osteoporotic Fracture index as the presence of ≥2 out of (1) weight loss ≥5% between baseline and the subsequent follow-up visit; (2) inability to do 5 chair stands; and (3) low energy level according to the Study of Osteoporotic Fracture definition. Cox's regression models calculating a hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), adjusted for potential confounders, were undertaken.
resultsDuring the 8-year follow-up, from 4402 participants at baseline, 361 became frail. Compared with participants taking 0-3 medications, the incidence of frailty was approximately double in those taking 4-6 medications and 6 times higher in people taking ≥7 medications. After adjusting for 11 potential baseline confounders, participants using 4-6 medications had a higher risk of frailty of 55% (HR = 1.55; 95% CI 1.22-1.96; P < .0001), whereas those using more than 7 drugs were at approximately 147% (HR = 2.47; 95% CI 1.78-3.43; P < .0001). Each additional drug used at the baseline increased the risk of frailty at the follow-up of 11% (HR = 1.11; 95% CI 1.07-1.15; P < .0001).
conclusionsPolypharmacy is associated with a higher incidence of frailty over 8-year follow-up period. Our data suggest evidence of a dose response relationship. Future research is required to confirm our findings and explore underlying mechanisms.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.