ArticleJournal of pharmaceutical policy and practice2023
Differences in healthcare service utilization in patients with polypharmacy according to their risk level by adjusted morbidity groups: a population-based cross-sectional study.
Article in Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cancer Screening Among Older Adults Above 75 Years of Age According to Health Status: A Population-Based Study.Journal of general internal medicine · 2026Article
- 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
- Ten-year population-based assessment of multimorbidity burden progression in a regional cohort of 5.5 million adults.NPJ digital medicine · 2026Article
- Polypharmacy, multimorbidity, and socioeconomic inequalities in a Spanish region: a population-based cross-sectional study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Multimorbidity measurement strategies for predicting hospital visits.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Defining, identifying and addressing problematic polypharmacy within multimorbidity in primary care: a scoping review.BMJ open · 2024Article
- Potential Applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Managing Polypharmacy in Saudi Arabia: A Narrative Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPatients with polypharmacy suffer from complex medical conditions involving a large healthcare burden. This study aimed to describe the characteristics and utilization of primary care (PC) and hospital care (HC) and factors associated in chronic patients with polypharmacy, stratifying by adjusted morbidity groups (AMG) risk level, sex and age, and comparing with non-polypharmacy.
methodsCross-sectional study conducted in a Spanish basic healthcare area. Studied patients were those over 18 years with chronic diseases identified by the AMG tool from Madrid electronic clinical record, which was the data source. Sociodemographic, sociofunctional, clinical and healthcare utilization variables were described and compared by risk level, sex, age and having or not polypharmacy. Factors associated with healthcare utilization in polypharmacy patients were determined by a negative binomial regression model.
resultsIn the area studied, 61.3% patients had chronic diseases, of which 16.9% had polypharmacy vs. 83.1% without polypharmacy. Patients with polypharmacy (vs. non-polypharmacy) mean age was 82.7 (vs. 52.7), 68.9% (vs. 60.7%) were women, and 22.0% (vs. 1.2%) high risk. Their average number of chronic diseases was 4.8 (vs. 2.2), and 95.6% (vs. 56.9%) had multimorbidity. Their mean number of annual healthcare contacts was 30.3 (vs. 10.5), 25.9 (vs. 8.8) with PC and 4.4 (vs. 1.7) with HC. Factors associated with a greater PC utilization in patients with polypharmacy were elevated complexity, high risk level and dysrhythmia. Variables associated with a higher HC utilization were also increased complexity and high risk, in addition to male sex, being in palliative care, having a primary caregiver, suffering from neoplasia (specifically lymphoma or leukaemia) and arthritis, whereas older age and immobilization were negatively associated.
conclusionsPolypharmacy population compared to non-polypharmacy was characterized by a more advanced age, predominance of women, high-risk, complexity, numerous comorbidities, dependency and remarkable healthcare utilization. These findings could help healthcare policy makers to optimize the distribution of resources and professionals within PC and HC systems, aiming for the improvement of polypharmacy management and rational use of medicines while reducing costs attributed to healthcare utilization by these patients.
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