A Community Based Study on the Consequence of Polypharmacy in the Quality of Life among Geriatric Population

Polypharmacy is defined by the World health organization as “the administration of the many drugs at an equivalent time or the administration of an excessive number of drugs”. Polypharmacy is frequent among elderly as they often suffer from chronic diseases with concomitant pathologies. Polypharmacy is related to adverse outcomes including mortality, falls, adverse drug reactions, increased length of stay in hospital and readmission to hospital soon after discharge. The risk of adverse effects and harm increases with increasing numbers of medications. It is associated with decreased quality of life, self-rated health, mobility and functional ability as well as increases in hospitalizations, physiological distress, use of health care resources, mortality and costs. The study was prospective and observational and was conducted between the geriatric population in Mangalore. A total of 150 subjects were included in this study and the case reports were analyzed. Patient demographic details, patient drug chart and the medication-related quality of life (MRQoL) of the patients were analyzed. The subjects were selected according to the selection criteria and included individuals aged 60 years and above under a drug therapy with five or more drugs in numbers. Out of the identified subjects, 79 were male (52.7%) and 71 were female (47.3%). Out of this 150 subjects with polypharmacy, 44 individuals (22.7%) had major drug interactions. Patient safety is the most important aspect of health care system since the medicine can cure illness and at the same time harm the patient if not appropriately used. Clinical pharmacist can play a key role in promoting better medication use, ensuring that patients receive appropriate pharmacotherapy thus helps in minimizing the risk of unfavorable outcomes of pharmacotherapy.