ArticleBMC primary care2023
The effect of polypharmacy on healthcare services utilization in older adults with comorbidities: a retrospective cohort study.
Article in BMC primary care, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers.
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 58 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of Pharmacist Interventions in Improving Medication Use in Hospitalised Older Patients Diagnosed With Cardiovascular Diseases: INFAR Before-and-After Study.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2025Trial
- Toward Holistic Aging in Lebanon: A Mapping of Gerontology and Geriatrics Research Trends, Gaps, and Future Directions.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Exploring the implementation and integration of structured medication reviews in primary care: a qualitative evaluation using normalisation process theory.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- A Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study to Assess the Prevalence of Polypharmacy and Potentially Inappropriate Medications among Elderly Patients in Urban Areas of Western Rajasthan.Indian journal of community medicine : official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine · 2026Article
- Polypharmacy in Older Adults: A Narrative Review of Clinical Risks, Deprescribing Strategies, and Interdisciplinary Management.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Rates of medical service utilisation in people with and without cancer: an Australian cohort study.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026Article
- Patient Activation Among Individuals with Chronic Illness: A Cross-Sectional Study from Jordan.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Prevalence of potentially inappropriate medication use and its association with hospitalization among older adults with chronic disease in the Amhara region, Ethiopia: a multicenter prospective cohort study.Therapeutic advances in drug safety · 2026Article
- Hypertension Control in Bangladesh: Changes, Sociodemographic Variation, and Socioeconomic Inequality from the 2017-18 to 2022 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys.Global heart · 2026Article
- A unifying theory of brain signaling and its possible role in acquired chronic disease.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Association between polypharmacy and hypertension in the Iranian population aged 50 years or older: Iranian Multicenter Osteoporosis Study (IMOS-2021).BMC primary care · 2025Article
- Experiences of individuals undergoing maintenance hemodialysis during the COVID-19 pandemic in China: a qualitative study.BMC nephrology · 2025Article
- Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs) in the Elderly: Molecular Mechanisms of Immunosenescence and Clinical, Nutritional and Therapeutic Implications.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Trends and disparities in mortality due to hypertensive disease and coexisting obesity in the USA: 1999-2023.The Egyptian heart journal : (EHJ) : official bulletin of the Egyptian Society of Cardiology · 2025Article
- Healthcare burden and clinical outcomes of polypharmacy in older adults: a population-based cohort study in South Korea.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2025Article
- Interventions to improve adherence to lipid-lowering drugs: a systematic review and meta-analysis.EClinicalMedicine · 2025Article
- Effects of Primary Healthcare Quality and Effectiveness on Hospitalization Indicators in Brazil.Journal of market access & health policy · 2025Article
- Medications associated with dizziness or hypotension and adverse outcomes: an electronic health record study in older adults with dementia.Age and ageing · 2025Article
- Association of individual and community-level socioeconomic status and education with medication use: a multilevel analysis in the PERSIAN cohort.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Team-based, Multidisciplinary Care in the Emergency Department.Emergency medicine clinics of North America · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOlder adults are more prone to increasing comorbidities and polypharmacy. Polypharmacy is associated with inappropriate prescribing and an increased risk of adverse effects. This study examined the effect of polypharmacy in older adults on healthcare services utilization (HSU). It also explored the impact of different drug classes of polypharmacy including psychotropic, antihypertensive, and antidiabetic polypharmacy on HSU.
methodsThis is a retrospective cohort study. Community-dwelling older adults aged ≥ 65 years were selected from the primary care patient cohort database of the ambulatory clinics of the Department of Family Medicine at the American University of Beirut Medical Center. Concomitant use of 5 or more prescription medications was considered polypharmacy. Demographics, Charlson Comorbidity index (CCI), and HSU outcomes, including the rate of all-cause emergency department (ED) visits, rate of all-cause hospitalization, rate of ED visits for pneumonia, rate of hospitalization for pneumonia, and mortality were collected. Binomial logistic regression models were used to predict the rates of HSU outcomes.
resultsA total of 496 patients were analyzed. Comorbidities were present in all patients, with 22.8% (113) of patients having mild to moderate comorbidity and 77.2% (383) of patients having severe comorbidity. Patients with polypharmacy were more likely to have severe comorbidity compared to patients with no polypharmacy (72.3% vs. 27.7%, p = 0.001). Patients with polypharmacy were more likely to visit the ED for all causes as compared to patients without polypharmacy (40.6% vs. 31.4%, p = 0.05), and had a significantly higher rate of all-cause hospitalization (adjusted odds ratio aOR 1.66, 95 CI = 1.08-2.56, p = 0.022). Patients with psychotropic polypharmacy were more likely to be hospitalized due to pneumonia (crude odds ratio cOR 2.37, 95 CI = 1.03-5.46, p = 0.043), and to visit ED for Pneumonia (cOR 2.31, 95 CI = 1.00-5.31, p = 0.049). The association lost significance after adjustment.
conclusionsThe increasing prevalence of polypharmacy amongst the geriatric population with comorbidity is associated with an increase in HSU outcomes. As such, frequent medication revisions in a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach are needed.
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