A narrative review highlighting that clinically oriented definitions of polypharmacy are most relevant and that optimizing medication appropriateness improves outcomes in older adults.
The term polypharmacy is imprecise, and its definition is yet subject to an ongoing debate. The clinically oriented definitions of polypharmacy found in this review such as appropriate or necessary polypharmacy are more useful and relevant. Regardless of the definition, polypharmacy is highly prevalent in older adults, particularly in nursing home residents and hospitalized patients. Approaches to increase the appropriateness of polypharmacy can improve clinical outcomes in older adults.
Pazan et al. (2021) studied this question.