ArticleBMJ quality & safety2024
Longitudinal cohort study of discrepancies between prescribed and administered polypharmacy rates: implications for National Aged Care Quality Indicator Programs.
Article in BMJ quality & safety, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Methodological evaluation of the psychometric properties of medication-related quality indicators in residential aged care homes: a systematic review.International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care · 2026Pooled it
- Comparison of existing polypharmacy measures to a measure incorporating all modes of administration: an observational study using routinely collected data.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2026Observational
- Prescribing cascades potentially associated with harms before and after transition to long-term care facilities.Age and ageing · 2026Article
- Engagement in Medication Communication During Transitions of Care for Rural Aged Care Residents and Family Caregivers: A Qualitative Study.Journal of clinical nursing · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPolypharmacy is frequently used as a quality indicator for older adults in Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACFs) and is measured using a range of definitions. The impact of data source choice on polypharmacy rates and the implications for monitoring and benchmarking remain unclear. We aimed to determine polypharmacy rates (≥9 concurrent medicines) by using prescribed and administered data under various scenarios, leveraging electronic data from 30 RACFs.
methodA longitudinal cohort study of 5662 residents in New South Wales, Australia. Both prescribed and administered polypharmacy rates were calculated biweekly from January 2019 to September 2022, providing 156 assessment times. 12 different polypharmacy rates were computed separately using prescribing and administration data and incorporating different combinations of items:
resultsPolypharmacy rates among residents ranged from 33.9% using data on administered
conclusionWe found notable discrepancies between polypharmacy rates for prescribed and administered medicines. We recommend a review of the guidance for calculating and interpreting polypharmacy for national quality indicator programmes to ensure consistent measurement and meaningful reporting.
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