The prevalence and determinants of polypharmacy at age 69: a British birth cohort study

To describe the development of polypharmacy and its components in a British birth cohort in its seventh decade and to investigate socioeconomic and gender differences independent of disease burden. Data from the MRC National Survey for Health and Development were analysed to determine the prevalence...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC geriatrics 2018-05, Vol.18 (1), p.118-118, Article 118
Main Authors: Rawle, Mark James, Richards, Marcus, Davis, Daniel, Kuh, Diana
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Aged
Analysis
Cohort analysis
Cohort Studies
Disease burden
Education
Educational Status
Epidemiology
Ethnicity
Female
Gender differences
Geriatrics
Health Surveys - methods
Humans
Male
Outcome and process assessment (Medical care)
Pharmaceuticals
Polypharmacy
Prevalence
Risk Factors
Sex differences
Sex Factors
Social Class
Socioeconomic factors
Socioeconomic position
Socioeconomics
United Kingdom - epidemiology
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Summary:To describe the development of polypharmacy and its components in a British birth cohort in its seventh decade and to investigate socioeconomic and gender differences independent of disease burden. Data from the MRC National Survey for Health and Development were analysed to determine the prevalence and composition of polypharmacy at age 69 and changes since ages 60 to 64. Multinomial regression was used to test associations between gender, education and occupational social class and total, cardiological and non-cardiological polypharmacy controlling for disease burden. At age 69, 22.8% of individuals were taking more than 5 medications. There was an increase in the use of 5 to 8 medications (+ 2.3%) and over 9 medications (+ 0.8%) between ages 60-64 and 69. The greatest increases were found for cardiovascular (+ 13.4%) and gastrointestinal medications (+ 7.3%). Men experienced greater cardiological polypharmacy, women greater non-cardiological polypharmacy. Higher levels of education were associated with lower polypharmacy independent of disease burden, with strongest effects seen for over five cardiological medications (RRR 0.3, 95% CI 0.2-0.5 p 
ISSN:1471-2318
1471-2318
DOI:10.1186/s12877-018-0795-2