Do polypharmacy, potentially inappropriate medications, and anticholinergic burden increase admission to hospital or death in older adult patients?
Polypharmacy, potentially inappropriate medications, and anticholinergic burden are associated with increased hospital admissions in older adults in a dose-dependent manner.
The total number of drugs taken (polypharmacy), number of potentially inappropriate medications and anticholinergic risk changed during follow-up and varied across age groups in this cohort of older adult patients. These indicators showed dose-response relations with admission to hospital, but not with death.
Lu et al. (2015) studied this question.