ArticleThe journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences2022
Dose-Response Relationships Between Polypharmacy and All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality Among Older People.
Article in The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Personality traits and polypharmacy: meta-analysis of five samples.Psychology & health · 2025Pooled it
- Association between Pre-Admission Polypharmacy and Functional Status at Discharge in Patients with Acute Stroke: A Retrospective Observational Study.JMA journal · 2026Article
- Development and Validation of an XGBoost-SHAP Model for Predicting Adverse Outcomes in Elderly Cardiovascular Patients With Polypharmacy: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Pharmacology research & perspectives · 2026Article
- Gout-Related Medication Use After Initiating Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter 2 Inhibitors in Patients With Gout and Type 2 Diabetes: Population-Based Target Trial Emulation Studies.Diabetes care · 2026Article
- Morbidity, mortality, and health outcomes following emergency department visits for fentanyl-related overdoses: A retrospective cohort study.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2026Article
- Identifying observable medication use time in administrative databases: a tutorial using nursing home residents.American journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Does polypharmacy affect epigenetic aging in older people? Evidence from a longitudinal epigenome-wide methylation study.Clinical epigenetics · 2025Article
- Polypharmacy, anticholinergic burden and oral microbiome among U.S. middle-aged and older adults: a representative national survey.Journal of oral microbiology · 2025Article
- Physicians and hospital pharmacists' knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards polypharmacy in older patients with chronic diseases.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Association between polypharmacy and 2-year outcomes among Chinese older inpatients: a multi-center cohort study.BMC geriatrics · 2024Article
- Comparison of anticholinergic burden with chronic polypharmacy on functional decline and mortality in Korean older people: a retrospective nationwide cohort study.BMC geriatrics · 2024Article
- Polypharmacy in Older Adults: The Hazard of Hospitalization and Mortality is Mediated by Potentially Inappropriate Prescriptions, Findings From the Moli-sani Study.International journal of public health · 2024Article
- Polypharmacy, chronic kidney disease, and mortality among older adults: A prospective study of National Health and nutrition examination survey, 1999-2018.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- The impact of high-risk medications on mortality risk among older adults with polypharmacy: evidence from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.BMC medicine · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAlthough medicines are prescribed based on clinical guidelines and expected to benefit patients, both positive and negative health outcomes have been reported associated with polypharmacy. Mortality is the main outcome, and information on cause-specific mortality is scarce. Hence, we investigated the association between different levels of polypharmacy and all-cause and cause-specific mortality among older adults.
methodThe English Longitudinal Study of Ageing is a nationally representative study of people aged 50+. From 2012/2013, 6 295 individuals were followed up to April 2018 for all-cause and cause-specific mortality. Polypharmacy was defined as taking 5-9 long-term medications daily and heightened polypharmacy as 10+ medications. Cox proportional hazards regression and competing-risks regression were used to examine associations between polypharmacy and all-cause and cause-specific mortality, respectively.
resultsOver a 6-year follow-up period, both polypharmacy (19.3%) and heightened polypharmacy (2.4%) were related to all-cause mortality, with hazard ratios of 1.51 (95% CI: 1.05-2.16) and 2.29 (95% CI: 1.40-3.75) respectively, compared with no medications, independently of demographic factors, serious illnesses and long-term conditions, cognitive function, and depression. Polypharmacy and heightened polypharmacy also showed 2.45 (95% CI: 1.13-5.29) and 3.67 (95% CI: 1.43-9.46) times higher risk of cardiovascular disease deaths, respectively. Cancer mortality was only related to heightened polypharmacy.
conclusionStructured medication reviews are currently advised for heightened polypharmacy, but our results suggest that greater attention to polypharmacy in general for older people may reduce adverse effects and improve older adults' health.
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