ReviewCanadian geriatrics journal : CGJ2018
Medications & Polypharmacy Influence on Recurrent Fallers in Community: a Systematic Review.
Review in Canadian geriatrics journal : CGJ, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 2 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prevalence of potentially inappropriate medications in people living with HIV: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Pooled it
- Prevalence and impact of polypharmacy in older patients with type 2 diabetes.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2022Pooled it
- Prescribing Patterns and Impact of Sedatives in Hospitalized Older Adults: A Secondary Analysis of the MedSafer Study.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2025Trial
- Optimising prescribing in older adults with multimorbidity and polypharmacy in primary care (OPTICA): cluster randomised clinical trial.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2023Trial
- Associations of Polypharmacy, Diuretics and Antipsychotics with Injurious Falls: A Population-Based Cohort Study.Drugs & aging · 2026Article
- Polypharmacy and anticholinergic burden are common but not independently associated with outcomes after emergency laparotomy in older adults.Langenbeck's archives of surgery · 2026Observational
- Lifestyle factors, including physical activity status, associated with fragility fractures and falls: a cross-sectional study.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Mortality and morbidity predictors in older persons with mild traumatic brain injury: A district-wide study.Neurosurgical review · 2026Article
- Retrospective multi-centre cohort study of polypharmacy, the Drug Burden Index and associations with outcomes in older surgical inpatients.Age and ageing · 2025Article
- Patient-Generated Photos: A Means of Gaining Context about Patient Medication Practices.Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Article
- Multimorbidity, medications, and their association with falls, physical activity, and cognitive functions in older adults: multicenter study in Sri Lanka.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Associations Between Cognitive Profiles and Balance in Essential Tremor.Tremor and other hyperkinetic movements (New York, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Association between polypharmacy and 2-year outcomes among Chinese older inpatients: a multi-center cohort study.BMC geriatrics · 2024Article
- Proteinuria Assessment and Therapeutic Implementation in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients-A Clinical Audit on KDIGO ("Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes") Guidelines.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Medication Deprescribing in Patients Receiving Hemodialysis: A Prospective Controlled Quality Improvement Study.Kidney medicine · 2024Article
- Factors influencing healthcare providers' behaviours in deprescribing: a cross-sectional study.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2024Article
- Inpatient Falls: Epidemiology, Risk Assessment, and Prevention Measures. A Narrative Review.HCA healthcare journal of medicine · 2024Review
- Chronic kidney disease and polypharmacy as risk factors for recurrent falls in a nursing home population.Health science reports · 2023Article
- Prevalence and risk factors for falls in community-dwelling older population in Kerala; results from a cross sectional survey.Heliyon · 2023Article
- Comparative Study of the Accuracy of At-Point Clinical Frailty Scale and Morse Fall Scale in Identifying High-Risk Fall Patients among Hospitalized Adults.Annals of geriatric medicine and research · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The purpose of this systematic review is to summarize information about the impact different classes of medications and polypharmacy have on recurrent falls, defined as two or more falls in a 12-month period, in community-dwelling older adults. After adjustment for confounders such as age, gender, weight or depression symptoms, the reviewed studies suggested that older adults who use antidepressants, sedatives or hypnotics and anti-epileptics were more likely to experience recurrent falls than non-users. Polypharmacy (use of four or more prescription medications daily) caused 1.5-2 times higher possibility of recurrent falls in older adults. As a high-risk group, recurrent fallers require meaningful intervention. Medications are believed to be a modifiable risk factor in falls prevention; hence, special consideration should be taken to balance the benefit and harm in initiating, continuing or increasing certain classes of medications in elderly recurrent fallers.
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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.