ArticleScientific reports2020
Polypharmacy, hospitalization, and mortality risk: a nationwide cohort study.
Article in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 153 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
153 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effective deprescribing strategies for reducing potentially inappropriate medications and improving economic outcomes in community-based settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC health services research · 2026Pooled it
- Socioenvironmental determinants of polypharmacy in mental health disorders: a systematic review.BMC public health · 2026Pooled it
- Incidence and risk factors of acute kidney injury in patients with polypharmacy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2025Pooled it
- Prevalence of potentially inappropriate medications in people living with HIV: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Pooled it
- Personality traits and polypharmacy: meta-analysis of five samples.Psychology & health · 2025Pooled it
- Pharmacist interventions in Asian healthcare environments for older people: a systematic review and meta-analysis on hospitalization, mortality, and quality of life.BMC geriatrics · 2024Pooled it
- Lists of potentially inappropriate medications for older people in primary care: a systematic review of health outcomes.Cadernos de saude publica · 2024Pooled it
- Exploring medication self-management in polypharmacy: a qualitative systematic review of patients and healthcare providers perspectives.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2024Pooled it
- Impact of medication therapy management (MTM) service model on multi-morbidity (MMD) patients with hypertension: a pilot RCT.BMC geriatrics · 2023Trial
- Characterising pharmacist interventions from person-centred medicines reviews in general practice settings.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2026Article
- Telepharmacological Consultation for Polypharmacy Management in Primary Care: A Qualitative Study of General Practitioners' Experiences With Cross-Sectoral Coordination.Basic & clinical pharmacology & toxicology · 2026Article
- Therapeutic Medication Errors in the Non-Healthcare Facility Setting Associated with Hospital Admission, 2000-2024.Journal of medical toxicology : official journal of the American College of Medical Toxicology · 2026Article
- A Case-Control Study of Virologic Failure Among People Living with HIV Enrolled in a NYC-Based Medicaid Special Needs Plan.AIDS and behavior · 2026Article
- Polypharmacy Among 200 000 Subjects of the Population-Based German National Cohort Study (NAKO), Aged 19-74: A Baseline Analysis.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2026Observational
- Integration of artificial intelligence applications in clinical pharmacy services: A scoping review.Future healthcare journal · 2026Review
- Assessing Associations of Three Types of Higher-Risk Medication Use and Mortality in Older Adults.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2026Article
- When treatment becomes risk: polypharmacy and inappropriate prescribing in cognitive impairment in 2379 consecutive patients from a memory clinic.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Observational
- Prevalence and predictors of potentially inappropriate medication use among older adults with heart failure: a 2023 beers criteria-based evaluation.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Polypharmacy in Adults With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.Arthritis care & research · 2026Article
- Restarting Medications After Deprescribing in Adults Discharged From Hospital to Skilled Nursing.JAMA network open · 2026Article
93 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Polypharmacy is a growing and major public health issue, particularly in the geriatric population. This study aimed to examine the association between polypharmacy and the risk of hospitalization and mortality. We included 3,007,620 elderly individuals aged ≥ 65 years who had at least one routinely-prescribed medication but had no prior hospitalization within a year. The primary exposures of interest were number of daily prescribed medications (1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, and ≥ 11) and presence of polypharmacy (≥ 5 prescription drugs per day). The corresponding comparators were the lowest number of medications (1-2) and absence of polypharmacy. The study outcomes were hospitalization and all-cause death. The median age of participants was 72 years and 39.5% were men. Approximately, 46.6% of participants experienced polypharmacy. Over a median follow-up of 5.0 years, 2,028,062 (67.4%) hospitalizations and 459,076 (15.3%) all-cause deaths were observed. An incrementally higher number of daily prescribed medications was found to be associated with increasingly higher risk for hospitalization and mortality. These associations were consistent across subgroups of age, sex, residential area, and comorbidities. Furthermore, polypharmacy was associated with greater risk of hospitalization and death: adjusted HRs (95% CIs) were 1.18 (1.18-1.19) and 1.25 (1.24-1.25) in the overall and 1.16 (1.16-1.17) and 1.25 (1.24-1.25) in the matched cohorts, respectively. Hence, polypharmacy was associated with a higher risk of hospitalization and all-cause death among elderly individuals.
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