SynthesisBritish journal of clinical pharmacology2018
The relationship between frailty and polypharmacy in older people: A systematic review.
Synthesis in British journal of clinical pharmacology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 3 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 203 papers, 10 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.
Spread and Scale of a Polypharmacy App to Improve Health Outcomes of Older Adults Living in New Brunswick Nursing Homes: an Effectiveness-Implementation Hybrid Type 2 Study Design for a Stepped Wedge Cluster Randomized Trial
Feasibility of a Multidisciplinary Intervention Programme Carried Out by Nursing and Physical Activity and Sports Sciences Students to Improve Frailty and Other Related Variables in Older Adults Living in Nursing Homes.
Designing a Multicomponent Intervention for Improving Frailty. A Pilot Study in the Basque Country
Who cites it
203 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Applying the Bradford Hill Criteria to Assess the Independent Causal Roles of Aging and Medication in Frailty Progression: A Systematic Review.Drugs & aging · 2026Pooled it
- Effectiveness of physiotherapy techniques on depressive symptoms in older adults: a systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Association between Drug Therapy and Risk of Incident Frailty: A Systematic Review.Annals of geriatric medicine and research · 2024Pooled it
- Prevalence of Polypharmacy and Potentially Inappropriate Medications Use in Elderly Chinese Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Pooled it
- Associations Between Anticholinergic Medication Exposure and Adverse Health Outcomes in Older People with Frailty: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Drugs - real world outcomes · 2021Pooled it
- Association between hearing loss and frailty: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC geriatrics · 2021Pooled it
- A systematic review of the evidence for deprescribing interventions among older people living with frailty.BMC geriatrics · 2021Pooled it
- Evaluation of Time to Benefit of Statins for the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Events in Adults Aged 50 to 75 Years: A Meta-analysis.JAMA internal medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Current evidence on the impact of medication optimization or pharmacological interventions on frailty or aspects of frailty: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- The relationship between frailty and polypharmacy in older people: A systematic review.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2018Pooled it
- Trial
- High-throughput signal detection of hepatotoxic drug-drug interactions in hospitalized elderly patients: an NLP-driven pharmacovigilance study.Annals of medicine · 2026Article
- Association between Pre-Admission Polypharmacy and Functional Status at Discharge in Patients with Acute Stroke: A Retrospective Observational Study.JMA journal · 2026Article
- Frailty is associated with lower-limb osteoarthritis incidence over six-years regardless of sex and type of frailty index in the Canadian longitudinal study on aging.Osteoarthritis and cartilage open · 2026Article
- Frailty transitions and their association with mortality in older adults.Internal medicine journal · 2026Article
- Article
- Frailty, polypharmacy, deprescribing, and 23-hour activity: insights from a mouse model.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2026Article
- Assessing frailty in hemodialysis patients: utility of a self-rated visual analogue scale and the role of routine parameters in clinical prediction.BMC nephrology · 2026Article
- Aging with burden: multimorbidity, depression and quality of life in older adults residing in long-term care facilities in South Africa.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Prevalence of frailty, multimorbidity, and polypharmacy and their association with health outcomes in hospitalized older adults: a prospective multicenter cohort study.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
143 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
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimsFrailty is a complex geriatric syndrome resulting in decreased physiological reserves. Frailty and polypharmacy are common in older adults and the focus of extensive studies, although little is known about the impact they may have on each other. This is the first systematic review analysing the available evidence on the relationship between frailty and polypharmacy in older adults.
methodsSystematic review of quantitative studies. A comprehensive literature search for publications in English or Spanish was performed on MEDLINE, CINAHL, the Cochrane Database and PsycINFO in September 2017 without applying restrictions on the date of publication. Studies reporting any relationship between frailty and polypharmacy in older adults were considered.
resultsA total of 25 publications were included, all of them observational studies. Evaluation of Fried's frailty criteria was the most common approach, followed by the Edmonton Frail Scale and FRAIL scale. Sixteen of 18 cross-sectional analyses and five of seven longitudinal analyses demonstrated a significant association between an increased number of medications and frailty. The causal relationship is unclear and appears to be bidirectional. Our analysis of published data suggests that polypharmacy could be a major contributor to the development of frailty.
conclusionsA reduction of polypharmacy could be a cautious strategy to prevent and manage frailty. Further research is needed to confirm the possible benefits of reducing polypharmacy in the development, reversion or delay of frailty.
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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.