Geographic region and racial variations in polypharmacy in the United States.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Medications can have unintended effects. High medication use populations may benefit from increased regimen oversight. Limited knowledge exists concerning racial and regional polypharmacy variation. We estimated total medication distributions (excluding supplements) of American black and white adults and assessed racial and regional polypharmacy variation.

Methods

REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) cohort data (n = 30,239 U.S. blacks and whites aged ≥45 years) were analyzed. Home pill bottle inspections assessed the last two weeks' medications. Polypharmacy (≥8 medications) was determined by summing prescription and/or over-the-counter ingredients. Population-weighted logistic regression assessed polypharmacy's association with census r

SUBMITTER: Cashion W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4437208 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature