ArticleBMC geriatrics2018
Variation of polypharmacy in older primary care attenders occurs at prescriber level.
Article in BMC geriatrics, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Are there socioeconomic inequalities in polypharmacy among older people? A systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC geriatrics · 2023Pooled it
- Trial
- Unwarranted variation in potentially inappropriate medication in general practice: a Danish nationwide register-based cohort study.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Defining, identifying and addressing problematic polypharmacy within multimorbidity in primary care: a scoping review.BMJ open · 2024Article
- Prevalence of polypharmacy in the older adult population within primary care in Portugal: a nationwide cross-sectional study.Archives of medical science : AMS · 2024Article
- Evaluating the impact of a polypharmacy Action Learning Sets tool on healthcare practitioners' confidence, perceptions and experiences of stopping inappropriate medicines.BMC medical education · 2022Article
- Physicians' perceived barriers and enablers for deprescribing among older patients at public primary care clinics: a qualitative study.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2022Article
- Potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs): frequency and extent of GP-related variation in PIMs: a register-based cohort study.BMJ open · 2021Article
- Prevalence of Drug-Related Problems and Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use in Malaysia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of 37,249 Older Adults.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Irrational drug use and its associated factors at Debre Markos Referral Hospital's outpatient pharmacy in East Gojjam, Northwest Ethiopia.SAGE open medicine · 2021Article
- The Double Burden of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Polypharmacy on Geriatric Population - Public Health Implications.Therapeutics and clinical risk management · 2020Review
- An Increasing Trend in the Prevalence of Polypharmacy in Sweden: A Nationwide Register-Based Study.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2020Article
- Influence of Education Level of Older Patients on Polypharmacy, Potentially Inappropriate Medications Listed in Beer's Criteria, and Unplanned Hospitalization: A Cross-Sectional Study in Lahore, Pakistan.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2018Article
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4 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundPolypharmacy is particularly important in older persons as they are more likely to experience adverse events compared to the rest of the population. Despite the relevance, there is a lack of studies on the possible association of patient, prescriber and practice characteristics with polypharmacy. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the rate of polypharmacy among older persons attending public and private primary care clinics, and its association with patient, prescriber and practice characteristics.
methodsWe used data from The National Medical Care Survey (NMCS), a national cross-sectional survey of patients' visits to primary care clinics in Malaysia. A weighted total of 22,832 encounters of patients aged ≥65 years were analysed. Polypharmacy was defined as concomitant use of five medications and above. Multilevel logistic regression was performed to examine the association of polypharmacy with patient, prescriber and practice characteristics.
resultsA total of 20.3% of the older primary care attenders experienced polypharmacy (26.7%% in public and 11.0% in private practice). The adjusted odds ratio (OR) of polypharmacy were 6.37 times greater in public practices. Polypharmacy was associated with patients of female gender (OR 1.49), primary education level (OR 1.61) and multimorbidity (OR 14.21). The variation in rate of polypharmacy was mainly found at prescriber level.
conclusionPolypharmacy is common among older persons visiting primary care practices. Given the possible adverse outcomes, interventions to reduce the burden of polypharmacy are best to be directed at individual prescribers.
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