ArticleQuality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation2022
Polypharmacy and trajectories of health-related quality of life in older adults: an Australian cohort study.
Article in Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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
24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Recommendations on deprescribing of bisphosphonates in osteoporosis guidelines: a systematic review.European geriatric medicine · 2023Pooled it
- Prescription and Non-prescription Medication Pill Burdens and Their Associations with Health-Related Quality of Life in Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study.Drugs & aging · 2025Trial
- Health-related quality of life among older adults following acute hospitalization: longitudinal analysis of a randomized controlled trial.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2024Trial
- Health literacy, medication adherence, and quality-of-life scores in Jordanian adults with chronic diseases: a dual analytical study using the long-term conditions questionnaire and the EuroQol five-dimension three-level questionnaire.The Libyan journal of medicine · 2026Article
- Appropriateness over Numbers: Pharmacological Burden and Scalable Medication Review in Older Adults.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Refining MediQuit: an iterative, participatory approach to shared decision-making in deprescribing.Implementation science communications · 2026Article
- Contribution of Obesity to Polypharmacy in U.S. Older Adults.Journal of general internal medicine · 2026Article
- Prescribing cascades potentially associated with harms before and after transition to long-term care facilities.Age and ageing · 2026Article
- Polypharmacy among people diagnosed with colorectal cancer in Australia: a population-based cohort study.The oncologist · 2026Article
- Lifestyle and psychosocial determinants of quality of life in Turkish community-dwelling older adults: a multivariate and hierarchical regression approach.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Association Between Polypharmacy and Socioeconomic and Demographic Factors in Adults Aged 50 Years and Older by Brazilian Macroregions.Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety · 2026Article
- Artificial intelligence-driven risk prediction of polypharmacy in older adults: current advances, clinical applications, and future perspectives.Frontiers in public health · 2026Review
- Longitudinal effects of polypharmacy on cognitive function in people with HIV.AIDS (London, England) · 2026Article
- The association between polypharmacy and quality of life in elderly population in Southern Iran: Bushehr Elderly Health (BEH) Program.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Examining the Effect of Polypharmacy on Quality of Life and Frailty in Older Adults from the Perspective of Community-Based Rehabilitation.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Observational
- Factors associated with health-related quality of life among community-dwelling older adults: the APPCARE study.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Measuring Quality of Life in Deprescribing Trials: A Scoping Review.Drugs & aging · 2024Article
- Investigating the effects of frailty on six-month outcomes in older trauma patients admitted to UK major trauma centres: a multi-centre follow up study.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Relationship between intrinsic capacity and health-related quality of life among community-dwelling older adults: the moderating role of social support.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundHealth-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important outcome measure when considering medical treatment; however, the impact of polypharmacy on trajectories of HRQoL over time is unknown. This study aimed to investigate the association between polypharmacy status and trajectories of HRQoL in older adults.
methodsA longitudinal cohort study of 2181 community-dwelling adults, 65 years and older, who participated in the 2013 to 2017 waves of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. Polypharmacy was defined as the regular use of ≥ 5 prescription medications. Polypharmacy status was categorised into no polypharmacy, in 2013 only (baseline only polypharmacy), in 2017 only (incident polypharmacy) or at both time points (persistent polypharmacy). HRQoL was assessed through the SF-36 questionnaire generating two summary scores: physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS). Linear mixed-effects models stratified according to polypharmacy status and change in comorbidities were used to assess trajectories of HRQoL.
resultsOlder adults with persistent polypharmacy had lowest scores for HRQoL measures from 2013 to 2017. After adjusting for all covariates, those with incident polypharmacy had the steepest annual decline in both the PCS and MCS: - 0.86 in PCS and - 0.76 in MCS for those with decreasing or stable comorbidities, and - 1.20 in PCS and - 0.75 in MCS for those with increasing comorbidities.
conclusionsPolypharmacy was associated with poorer HRQoL, even after adjusting for confounders. Incident polypharmacy was found to be associated with a clinically important decline in HRQoL and this should be considered when prescribing additional medication to older adults.
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.