This study aimed to determine the reasons community pharmacists hesitate to propose drug reduction plans and measures to improve this situation, by using qualitative analysis methods. We surveyed community pharmacists of the Kanagawa Pharmaceutical Association using open-ended questionnaires. On examining the responses of 23 participants, we extracted the following seven categories of reasons for their hesitancy to propose drug reduction and generated the relationships among them; “weak relationship between patients and pharmacists,” “patients have a negative attitude about drug reduction,” “pharmacy workload is complicated and busy,” “pharmacists lack knowledge and experience concerning drug reduction,” “lack of collaboration and information exchange with medical institutions,” “lack of collaboration with doctors,” and “doctors lack awareness of drug reduction.” In addition, 65 specific improvement measures were identified in the questionnaire data. Community pharmacists must be well prepared daily and respond instantly when patients need drug reduction.

Aim: Polypharmacy has drawn attention as an important medical issue. However, it is unclear how medication prescriptions changed over time. To combat polypharmacy, important information must be provided by confirming changes in prescriptions over time.

Methods: We retrospectively examined the changes in the prescriptions of patients hospitalized in 2011, 2016, and 2021 at single center. For multiple comparisons, we used the Kruskal-Wallis test and Bonferroni correction or Fisher’s exact test and multiple comparisons with Bonferroni correction.

Results: The year 2011 group had 2,208 cases; the year 2016 group, 2,640 cases; and the year 2021 group, 2,776 cases. A significant increase was observed in the use of hyperlipidemia drugs over an 11-year period (P<0.05). In contrast, a significant decrease was observed in the use of benzodiazepines and continuous use of multiple antithrombotic drugs (P<0.05).

Conclusions: Our findings will help identify possible drug interventions and countermeasures for polypharmacy in different age groups.