2017 Volume 60 Issue 12 Pages 783-790
This study aimed to survey the current situation of polypharmacy and the characteristics of patients under diabetic treatment who prefer a once-weekly oral hypoglycemic agent (OHA). Among 520 outpatients who were receiving diabetic treatment in our hospital (age, 67±11 years; HbA1c, 7.0±0.8 %; Duration of diabetes, 14±9 years), 413 (79 %) were treated with multiple agents. A multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that age (OR 1.03 [1.00-1.05]), diabetes duration (OR 1.05 [1.01-1.08]), HbA1c (OR 1.63 [1.15-2.31]), hypertension (OR 10.25 [5.15-20.41]), and the number of clinical departments (OR 1.93 [1.47-2.54]) were independent predictors of polypharmacy. A questionnaire survey revealed that 73 % of the patients preferred a once-weekly OHA, and that the patients who preferred a once-weekly OHA were significantly younger, were more often male, and used more types of medication for diabetes than those who did not prefer a once-weekly OHA. These findings suggest that polypharmacy is prevalent in diabetic patients. In addition, the percentage of patients who preferred once-weekly OHA was high. Furthermore, this patient group was younger, showed a male predominance, and used several types of diabetes medications.
