ReviewCanadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien2022
Interventions to address polypharmacy in older adults living with multimorbidity: Review of reviews.
Review in Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 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
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Interventions to improve the appropriate use of polypharmacy for older people.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Deprescribing Anticholinergic and Sedative Drugs to Reduce Polypharmacy in Frail Older Adults Living in the Community: A Randomized Controlled Trial.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2023Trial
- Multiple Chronic Conditions and Multimorbidity Among Older Adults in Southern Albania: Distribution and Impact on Care Needs, Medication Adherence, and Quality of Life.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- [Why represcribing instead of deprescribing?]Innere Medizin (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- The Multimorbidity Knowledge Domain: A Bibliometric Analysis of Web of Science Literature from 2004 to 2024.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Article
- Barriers to Immunosuppressant Medication Adherence in Thoracic Transplant Recipients: Initial Findings.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- The association between the number of chronic conditions and treatment of patients who are at high risk for future fracture in the Ontario Fracture Screening and Prevention Program (FSPP).Archives of osteoporosis · 2025Article
- Article
- Article
- Defining, identifying and addressing problematic polypharmacy within multimorbidity in primary care: a scoping review.BMJ open · 2024Article
- Treatment Nonadherence among Multimorbid Chronic Disease Patients: Evidence from 3515 Subjects in Indonesia.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Article
- Theoretical Underpinnings of a Model to Reduce Polypharmacy and Its Negative Health Effects: Introducing the Team Approach to Polypharmacy Evaluation and Reduction (TAPER).Drugs & aging · 2023Article
- Exploring the Determinants of Polypharmacy Prescribing and Dispensing Behaviors in Primary Care for the Elderly-Qualitative Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Women's health, hormonal balance, and personal autonomy.Frontiers in medicine · 2023Review
- Team approach to polypharmacy evaluation and reduction: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.Trials · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo summarize evidence from published systematic reviews evaluating the effect of polypharmacy interventions on clinical and intermediate outcomes. It also summarizes the adverse events that may occur as a result of these interventions. DATA SOURCES: A literature search was conducted using the electronic databases MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane Central, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO registration number: CRD42018085767). STUDY SELECTION: The search yielded a total of 21,329 citations, of which 619 were reviewed as full text and 5 met the selection criteria. SYNTHESIS: The polypharmacy interventions were found to produce statistically significant reductions in potentially inappropriate prescribing and improved medication adherence; however, the observed effects on clinical and intermediate outcomes were inconsistent. None of the included reviews reported any significant benefit of polypharmacy interventions for quality-of-life outcomes. Specific to health care utilization and cost, polypharmacy interventions reduced health care resource usage and expenditure. The reviews reported no differences in adverse drug events between polypharmacy interventions and usual care groups. The overall certainty of evidence was reported as low to very low across included reviews.
conclusionPolypharmacy interventions are associated with reductions in potentially inappropriate prescribing and improvements in medication adherence. However, there is limited evidence of their effectiveness for clinical and intermediate outcomes.
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.