Does polypharmacy (using five or more drugs) increase the rate of falls in older adults?
Polypharmacy (≥5 drugs) is associated with a significantly increased rate of falls in older adults, highlighting the potential need to lower the threshold for detailed medication reviews.
We found almost one-third of the total population using five or more drugs, which was significantly associated with 21% increased rate of falls over a 2-year period. Further exploration of the effects of these complex drug combinations in the real world with a detailed standardised assessment of polypharmacy is greatly required along with pragmatic studies in primary care, which will help inform whether the threshold for a detailed medication review should be lowered.
Dhalwani et al. (2017) studied this question.