ArticleJournal of the American Geriatrics Society2021
Polypharmacy among older adults with dementia compared with those without dementia in the United States.
Article in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
52 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 75 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impact of medication management interventions on healthcare utilisation in people with dementia: a systematic review with meta-analysis.Age and ageing · 2026Pooled it
- Global prevalence of polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate medication in older patients with dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Pooled it
- Long-term effects of collaborative dementia care on quality of life and caregiver well-being.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Trial
- Effect of collaborative dementia care on potentially inappropriate medication use: Outcomes from the Care Ecosystem randomized clinical trial.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2023Trial
- Implementation of pharmacists' services into the care trajectory of older adults with neurocognitive disorder in multidisciplinary primary care clinics: A mixed-methods study.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2026Article
- Theoretical impact of a mobile team dedicated to patients with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias on medication exposure in community-dwelling older patients (MEMORIAS study).BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Polypharmacy in people with dementia: a nationwide Danish study.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2026Article
- Network analysis as a tool to illustrate the population-level complex prescribing to community-dwelling people living with dementia.International journal of population data science · 2026Article
- Exposome influences: a multi-omics perspective on the combined toxic effects of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in Alzheimer's disease.Frontiers in toxicology · 2026Review
- Decision-Making and Downstream Outcomes of the Gabapentinoid-Diuretic Prescribing Cascade.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Falls and Fractures Among Medicare Beneficiaries Concurrently Receiving Anti-Dementia Drugs and Potentially Risky Medications.Medical care · 2025Article
- Using Medication Dispensation Data to Identify Clusters with Similar Prescribing Patterns in Older Adults Living with Dementia.Drugs & aging · 2025Article
- Household Wealth and Potentially Inappropriate Medications in Persons With Dementia: Role of Comorbidities and Caregivers.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2025Article
- Polypharmacy and Potentially Inappropriate Medications in Adults ≥75 Years of Age by Dementia and Frailty Status: The ARIC Study.Mayo Clinic proceedings · 2025Article
- Multiple chronic conditions and polypharmacy in cognitively unimpaired older adults are associated with subsequent cognitive decline: results from the national alzheimer's coordinating center data.Archives of gerontology and geriatrics · 2025Article
- Triadic Primary Care Encounters Managing Medications Among Individuals With Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia: Patient, Caregiver, and Clinician Perspectives.The Gerontologist · 2025Article
- Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use Among Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Attending Primary Care-Based Memory Clinics.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Initiation and Persistence of Antipsychotic Medications at Hospital Discharge Among Community-Dwelling Veterans With Dementia.The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry · 2025Article
- Prevalence of Reported Dietary Supplement Use in 2019 Older Adult (≥ 55 Years) National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center Participants With Normal Cognition, Mild Cognitive Impairment or Dementia.Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association · 2025Article
- Deprescribing considerations for central nervous system-active polypharmacy in patients with dementia.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND/
objectivesIn older persons with dementia (PWD), extensive medication use is often unnecessary, discordant with goals of care, and possibly harmful. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and medication constituents of polypharmacy among older PWD attending outpatient visits in the United States.
designCross-sectional analysis. SETTING AND
participantsPWD and persons without dementia (PWOD) aged ≥65 years attending outpatient visits recorded in the nationally representative National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), 2014-2016. MEASUREMENTS: PWD were identified as those with a diagnosis of dementia on the NAMCS encounter form and/or those receiving an anti-dementia medication. Visits with PWD and PWOD were compared in terms of sociodemographic, practice/physician factors, comorbidities, and prescribing outcomes. Regression analyses examined the effect of dementia diagnosis on contributions by clinically relevant medication categories to polypharmacy (defined as being prescribed ≥5 prescription and/or nonprescription medications).
resultsThe unweighted sample involved 918 visits for PWD and 26,543 visits for PWOD, representing 29.0 and 780 million outpatient visits. PWD had a median age of 81 and on average had 2.8 comorbidities other than dementia; 63% were female. The median number of medications in PWD was eight compared with three in PWOD (p < 0.001). After adjustment, PWD had significantly higher odds of being prescribed ≥5 medications (AOR 3.0; 95% CI: 2.1-4.3) or ≥10 medications (AOR 2.8; 95% CI: 2.0-4.2) compared with PWOD. The largest sources of medications among PWD were cardiovascular and central nervous system medications; usage from other categories was generally elevated in PWD compared with PWOD. PWD had higher odds of receiving at least one highly sedating or anticholinergic medication (AOR 2.5; 95% CI: 1.6-3.9).
conclusionIn a representative sample of outpatient visits, polypharmacy was extremely common among PWD, driven by a wide array of medication categories. Addressing polypharmacy in PWD will require cross-cutting and multidisciplinary approaches.
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