2022 Volume 5 Issue 1 Pages 1-6
Polypharmacy involves problems related to not only the use of many medications but also improper drug administration. The questionnaires used at the time of admission were retrospectively investigated to determine the number of drugs that patients would like to reduce. Most patients wanted to reduce the number of drugs prescribed to them. The target patients were those who visited the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology and met the criteria during the hospitalization period from August 1, 2020 to November 30, 2020. In all, we selected 313 patients: 68 in the drug reduction group and 245 in the non-drug reduction group. We investigated the extent of desired reduction and the patient background factors for both groups. Multivariate analysis revealed significant differences between the groups in family management with an adjusted odds ratio of 2.62 (95％ CI 1.30-5.29, P < 0.01) and in the number of drugs with an adjusted odds ratio of 1.20 (95% CI 1.09-1.31, P < 0.01). Analysis of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve（AUC）was carried out for all the cases. The cutoff for self-management was six points (AUC = 0.73, 95% CI 0.64-0.81, P < 0.01). Patients on polypharmacy who are taking more than six drugs, especially family-managed patients, often wish to reduce the number of medications and prescribe it from a pharmaceutical point of view. This aspect needs to be reviewed further.
