Prevalence and predictors of polypharmacy among Korean elderly.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Polypharmacy is widespread in the elderly because of their multiple chronic health problems. The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence and predictors associated with polypharmacy in a nationally representative sample of Korean elderly individuals.

Methods

We used the Korea Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service - National Patient Sample (HIRA-NPS) data from 2010 and 2011. We used information on 319,185 elderly patients (aged 65 years or older) between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2011 from the HIRA-NPS database. We defined 'polypharmacy' as the concurrent use of 6 medications or more per person, 'major polypharmacy' as 11 medications or more, and 'excessive polypharmacy' as 21 medications or more. The frequency and proportion (%) and

SUBMITTER: Kim HA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4051604 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature