ArticleJournal of pharmaceutical health care and sciences2019
A nationwide survey of hospital pharmacist interventions to improve polypharmacy for patients with cancer in palliative care in Japan.
Article in Journal of pharmaceutical health care and sciences, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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
8 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Current Status of Drug Prescribing among Older Adults with Advanced-stage Cancer Receiving Home Medical Care in Japan: A Nationwide Study.JMA journal · 2025Article
- The impact of polypharmacy and oral nutritional supplementation on nutritional status in patients residing in a long-term care facility.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- Cancer-Chemotherapy-Related Regimen Checks Performed by Pharmacists of General Hospitals Other than Cancer Treatment Collaborative Base Hospitals: A Multicenter, Prospective Survey.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Multicenter prospective observational study on hospital pharmacist interventions to reduce inappropriate medications.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
- Effectiveness of polypharmacy reduction policy in Japan: nationwide retrospective observational study.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2022Observational
- Evaluation of medication reconciliation process in internal medicine wards of an academic medical center by a pharmacist: errors and risk factors.Internal and emergency medicine · 2022Article
- Use of Chronic Prescription Medications and Prevalence of Polypharmacy in Survivors of Childhood Cancer.Frontiers in oncology · 2021Article
- The Double Burden of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Polypharmacy on Geriatric Population - Public Health Implications.Therapeutics and clinical risk management · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 8 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThere is no nationwide data on polypharmacy in palliative care in Japan. In this study, the research committee of the Japanese Society for Pharmaceutical Palliative Care and Sciences conducted an online survey on polypharmacy and inappropriate prescriptions involving its members who worked as hospital pharmacists.
methodsThe online questionnaire included questions about hospital pharmacist interventions for cancer patients who regularly used six or more drugs during a two-month period from October to November 2017.
resultsOf 2618 hospital pharmacists, 359 responded (13.7%). With regard to cancer patients receiving opioids, 40.9 and 22.3% of the respondents replied that percentages of patients prescribed six or more regular medications were "40-69%" and "70-99%," respectively. Regarding patients on polypharmacy, 73.0% of the respondents reported a low or moderate rate of inappropriate prescriptions, with responses such as "long-term administration of irresponsible or aimless medications", "adverse drug reactions," and "duplication of the pharmacological effect". Furthermore, 24.2, 46.8, and 23.4% of respondents replied that the rates of drug reduction due to pharmacist recommendations were "0", "1-39%", and "more than 40%," respectively. Pharmacist interventions decreased the use of inappropriate medications, including antiemetics, gastrointestinal medications, and hypnotic sedatives, and reduced or prevented adverse drug reactions such as extrapyramidal symptoms, delirium, and sleepiness. Similar results were obtained for cancer patients who did not use opioids. However, the rates of cancer patients on polypharmacy and with reduction of inappropriate medications by pharmacist interventions were significantly higher in cancer patients receiving opioids. Finally, recommendations of board-certified pharmacists in palliative pharmacy contributed to a decrease in the use of inappropriate medications in cancer patients on polypharmacy (
conclusionThis nationwide survey clarified pharmacist interventions for polypharmacy in palliative care in Japan. Our data showed frequent polypharmacy in cancer patients receiving opioids, and benefits of pharmacist interventions, especially by board-certified pharmacists in palliative pharmacy, for reducing inappropriate medications and improving adverse drug reactions.
trial registrationThe study approval numbers in the institution; 0046. Registered November 6, 2017.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.