Polypharmacy Among Internal Medicine Patients

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

Get a concise snapshot of the trial, including recruitment status, study phase, enrollment targets, and key timeline milestones.

Recruitment Status

ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING

Total Enrollment

85942 participants

Study Classification

OBSERVATIONAL

Study Start Date

2023-01-01

Study Completion Date

2024-05-01

Brief Summary

Review the sponsor-provided synopsis that highlights what the study is about and why it is being conducted.

The World Health Organisation Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm has brought our attention to the importance of medication-related harm as a global public health issue. One of the major contributing factors is polypharmacy, the usage of multiple medicines at the same time. People are getting older and living longer with chronic diseases; they need more medications, which frequently leads to polypharmacy. Subsequently, they are at more risk of medication-related harm. The planned project is an epidemiological study on polypharmacy, medication appropriateness, risk factors, and clinical outcomes post-discharge from a hospital for internal medicine patients.

The study group hypothesise that pre- and post-admission polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate prescribing is common, especially among older patients, patients with a high comorbidity and frailty burden. Our hypothesis is additionally that preadmission polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate prescribing is associated with higher short- and long-term mortality, a longer primary hospitalization length of stay, and a higher risk of readmission.

Related Clinical Trials

Explore similar clinical trials based on study characteristics and research focus.

Polypharmacy and Associated Risk Factors and Clinical Outcomes for Surgical Patients Discharged From Hospital

NCT04805151

Polypharmacy General Surgery

ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING

Risk Factors for Polypharmacy in Older Adults

NCT03524560

Polypharmacy

COMPLETED

Reduction of Polypharmacy in Elderly People With Multiple Diseases

NCT05526963

Polypharmacy Multimorbidity

RECRUITING NA

Inappropriate Polypharmacy in Elderly Patients in Primary Care and Deprescribing in Older Patients With Frailty

NCT06470308

Medication Overuse Deprescriptions Polypharmacy +1 more

ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING NA

Bundled Hyperpolypharmacy Deprescribing

NCT05616689

Polypharmacy

COMPLETED NA

Detailed Description

Dive into the extended narrative that explains the scientific background, objectives, and procedures in greater depth.

This is an observational, retrospective, single-centered study using clinical data from the patient's medical record from the hospital, the national prescription database of the Directorate of Health, and the ICD-10 codes from primary care records. For this analysis, medicines will be classified into drug classes based on the first five characters of their WHO Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) code. The prevalence (pre) and incidence (post) of polypharmacy (≥5 or more regular medicines) and hyper-polypharmacy (≥10 regular medicines) will be calculated. Potentially inappropriate prescribing will be assessed in individuals ≥65 years, applying Beers 2019, Start and Stopp 2014, explicit prescribing criteria. The analysis will be restricted to older individuals, as Beers criteria have not been validated in younger age groups. The anticholinergic burden will be assessed for all individuals ≥18 years will be assessed by applying the anticholinergic burden scale, and the PRIME tool will be applied to predict the likelihood of medication-related harm post-discharge. The PRIME tool consists of eight variables drawn from clinical, medication, and psychosocial domains. Applied at the point of discharge, it provides the absolute risk of an individual older adult experiencing medication-related harm during the eight weeks after discharge from acute hospital admission. This stratification is important in order to deliver targeted interventions in resource-limited healthcare settings.

Conditions

See the medical conditions and disease areas that this research is targeting or investigating.

Internal Medicine

Study Design

Understand how the trial is structured, including allocation methods, masking strategies, primary purpose, and other design elements.

Observational Model Type

COHORT

Study Time Perspective

RETROSPECTIVE

Eligibility Criteria

Check the participation requirements, including inclusion and exclusion rules, age limits, and whether healthy volunteers are accepted.

Inclusion Criteria

* Population-based cohort study that included all patients ≥18 years hospitalized in internal medicine ward at Landspitali - The National University Hospital of Iceland during the study period 1st January 2010 and 31st December 2020