Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29769020›Full record

ArticleBMC geriatrics2018

The prevalence and determinants of polypharmacy at age 69: a British birth cohort study.

Mark James Rawle, Marcus Richards, Daniel Davis, Diana Kuh

Open access · goldAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

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 31 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
31citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
3.4field-weighted citation impact, top 8% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

31 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 62 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Trial
  3. Trial
  4. Observational
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Observational
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Review
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Observational
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Polypharmacy and trajectories of health-related quality of life in older adults: an Australian cohort study.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2022
    Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Mark James RawleMedical Research Council Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at University College London, 33 Bedford Place, London, WC1B 5JU, England. m.rawle@ucl.ac.uk.
Marcus RichardsMedical Research Council Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at University College London, 33 Bedford Place, London, WC1B 5JU, England.
Daniel DavisMedical Research Council Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at University College London, 33 Bedford Place, London, WC1B 5JU, England.
Diana KuhMedical Research Council Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at University College London, 33 Bedford Place, London, WC1B 5JU, England.
Medical Research Council · GBMRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing · GBUniversity College London · GB

Funding

Medical Research Council MC_UU_12019/1Medical Research Council MC_UU_12019/3Medical Research Council MC_UU_12019/4Wellcome Trust 107467/Z/15/ZWellcome Trust WT107467
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundTo describe the development of polypharmacy and its components in a British birth cohort in its seventh decade and to investigate socioeconomic and gender differences independent of disease burden.

methodsData from the MRC National Survey for Health and Development were analysed to determine the prevalence and composition of polypharmacy at age 69 and changes since ages 60 to 64. Multinomial regression was used to test associations between gender, education and occupational social class and total, cardiological and non-cardiological polypharmacy controlling for disease burden.

resultsAt age 69, 22.8% of individuals were taking more than 5 medications. There was an increase in the use of 5 to 8 medications (+ 2.3%) and over 9 medications (+ 0.8%) between ages 60-64 and 69. The greatest increases were found for cardiovascular (+ 13.4%) and gastrointestinal medications (+ 7.3%). Men experienced greater cardiological polypharmacy, women greater non-cardiological polypharmacy. Higher levels of education were associated with lower polypharmacy independent of disease burden, with strongest effects seen for over five cardiological medications (RRR 0.3, 95% CI 0.2-0.5 p < 0.001 for advanced secondary qualifications compared with no qualification); there was no additional effect of social class.

conclusionsPolypharmacy increased over the seventh decade. Those with lower levels of education had more polypharmacy (total, cardiological and non-cardiological), even allowing for disease burden. Further analysis of future outcomes resulting from polypharmacy should take into account educational and gender differences, in an effort to identify at-risk populations who could benefit from medication reviews.

Indexed as

Educational StatusPolypharmacySocial ClassAgedCohort StudiesEthnicityFemaleHealth SurveysHumansMalePrevalenceRisk FactorsSex FactorsUnited KingdomCardiologyCohortDisease burdenEducationEpidemiologyLife coursePolypharmacySocial classSocioeconomic position

Identifiers

PMID29769020
PMCPMC5956732
OpenAlexW2807286761

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.