ArticleDrugs - real world outcomes2026
Impact of Pharmacist-Led Polypharmacy Management on Prescribing Patterns in Older Inpatients: A Real-World Study in a Chronic Care Hospital.
Article in Drugs - real world outcomes, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
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.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPolypharmacy is a major challenge in geriatric pharmacotherapy and is associated with increased risks of adverse drug events, functional decline, and increased healthcare costs. Although pharmacist-led medication reviews improve prescription appropriateness, evidence regarding the sustained implementation of such interventions in chronic care hospitals remains limited.
objectiveThis study aimed to evaluate the impact of a stepwise pharmacist-led polypharmacy management program on prescription patterns and medication costs among older inpatients in a chronic care hospital.
methodsWe conducted a single-center, retrospective observational study at a chronic care hospital in Japan, and included all inpatients hospitalized between January 2023 and December 2025. A multidisciplinary polypharmacy management program was introduced in 2024, followed by pharmacist-led comprehensive medication evaluation and management in 2025. The study period was categorized into three phases: preintervention (2023), implementation (2024), and comprehensive management (2025). The primary outcome was the monthly average number of regularly prescribed oral medications. The secondary outcomes included the prevalence of polypharmacy, defined as the concurrent use of ≥ 6 regularly prescribed medications, and hyperpolypharmacy, defined as ≥ 10 medications. The threshold of ≥ 6 medications was adopted because it is used as the criterion for polypharmacy management in the Japanese national healthcare reimbursement system. The threshold of ≥ 10 medications corresponds to our hospital's institutional criterion for identifying patients eligible for pharmacist-led comprehensive medication review.
resultsApproximately 320 inpatients were included monthly during the study period. The average number of prescribed medications decreased from 6.44 ± 3.37 in 2023 to 6.23 ± 3.52 in 2024 and 6.05 ± 3.47 in 2025. Regarding the rate of polypharmacy, the proportion of patients taking ≥ 6 or ≥ 10 medications decreased from 54.3% to 46.5% and from 18.4% to 15.5%, respectively. In contrast, the total annual medication costs showed no significant changes across the 3 years. Analysis according to therapeutic class demonstrated decreased costs for hypnotics/anxiolytics and nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs/paracetamol, whereas antithrombotic drug costs increased. The prescription volume measured by defined daily dose per 100 patients per day (DPD) remained generally stable, although intergroup differences were observed in 2025.
conclusionsPharmacist-led polypharmacy management was associated with changes in prescribing patterns and reductions in medication burden in this chronic care hospital. However, the reductions in the number of medications did not translate into short-term reductions in medication costs. These findings suggest that pharmacist-led interventions in chronic care settings may contribute to reducing medication burden and modifying prescribing patterns beyond simple medication count reduction. These findings also highlight the importance of using multiple indicators when evaluating deprescribing strategies.
Identifiers
42837056What 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.