ArticlePloS one2019
Trends in polypharmacy and dispensed drugs among adults in the Netherlands as compared to the United States.
Article in PloS one, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 81 citations in OpenAlex.
- Withdrawal of antihypertensive drugs in older people.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Prevalence of adverse drug reactions in the primary care setting: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2021Pooled it
- Withdrawal of antihypertensive drugs in older people.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Trial
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- Identification of Potentially Inappropriate Medications for Adults Below 65 Years: Protocol for a Modified Delphi Study.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Barriers and enablers of elderly care specialists towards deprescribing practices in the nursing homes: a focus group study.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Medication Use and Quality of Life in Older Adults with Personality Disorders.Drugs & aging · 2025Observational
- LASSO logistic regression and cluster analysis in predicting adherence and drug patterns among new users of monotherapy for antihypertensive drugs.Journal of hypertension · 2025Article
- A matched case-control study on polypharmacy and co-medications one year before drug treatment for Alzheimer's disease.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2025Article
- Genome-wide associations spanning 194 in-hospital drug dosage change phenotypes highlight diverse genetic backgrounds in concurrent drug therapy.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2025Article
- Proceedings of the Canadian Medication Appropriateness and Deprescribing Network's 2023 National Meeting.Drug safety · 2024Article
- Comparative Effectiveness of Anti-Hyperlipidemic Drugs Monotherapy in Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease.International journal of general medicine · 2024Article
- Article
- Mendelian randomization as a tool to inform drug development using human genetics.Cambridge prisms. Precision medicine · 2023Review
- Prevalence and risk factors for acquired long QT syndrome in the emergency department: a retrospective observational study.World journal of emergency medicine · 2023Article
- Optimizing polypharmacy management in the elderly: a comprehensive European benchmarking survey and the development of an innovative online benchmarking application.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
- Prevalence and Predicting Risk Factors of Polypharmacy in Azar Cohort Population.Iranian journal of pharmaceutical research : IJPR · 2022Article
- Polypharmacy Pattern in Iran: A Comprehensive Analysis of a Large Prescription Database.Iranian journal of pharmaceutical research : IJPR · 2022Article
- Defining and enhancing collaboration between community pharmacists and primary care providers to improve medication safety.Expert opinion on drug safety · 2022Review
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
background and purposePolypharmacy is becoming increasingly common owing to the ageing population, which can pose problems for patients and society. We investigated the trends in polypharmacy and underlying drug groups among adults in the Netherlands from 1999 to 2014 stratified by age, and compared these with findings from the United States (US).
methodsWe conducted a repeated cross-sectional study using the Dutch IADB.nl prescription database. All patients aged 20 years and older in the period 1999 to 2014 were included. Polypharmacy was defined as the dispensing of five or more chronic drugs at the pharmacological subgroup level. Chi-square tests were applied to calculate the p-value for trends. Changes in prevalences were compared between the Netherlands and the US.
resultsThe prevalence of polypharmacy increased from 3.1% to 8.0% (p-value for trend <0.001) over 15 years, and increased in all age groups. The highest rates were observed in patients aged ≥65 years, but the relative increase over time was higher in the younger age groups. Overall, large increases were observed for angiotensin-II inhibitors, statins and proton-pump inhibitors. The relative increase in polypharmacy was larger in the Netherlands than in the US (ratio of polypharmacy prevalence 2.4 versus 1.8). The Netherlands showed larger relative increases for angiotensin-II inhibitors, statins, proton-pump inhibitors, biguanides and smaller relative increases for antidepressants, benzodiazepines and insulins.
conclusionsPolypharmacy more than doubled from 1999 to 2014, and this increase was not limited to the elderly. The relative increase was larger in the Netherlands compared to the US, which was partly due to larger increases in several guideline-recommended preventive drugs.
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