Polypharmacy in Older Adults with Cancer: Evaluating Polypharmacy as Part of the Geriatric Assessment

Nightingale, Ginah; Skonecki, Emily; Boparai, Manpreet K.

doi:10.1007/s13670-017-0221-1

Cited by 7 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 108 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…2,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] The medication-related problems that polypharmacy can cause include adverse drug reaction, 9 drug interaction, 7 potentially inappropriate medication use, 10 poor adherence, 12 and early discontinuation of cancer medications. 6,11,13 Further, polypharmacy among cancer patients is associated with risk of fall, frailty, 13 higher risk of hospitalization, 11,14 and poor survival rates. 15,16 Cancer by itself puts patients at high risk of being on multiple medications due to the multiple psychological and physical changes the patients undergo once diagnosed with this serious disease.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polypharmacy and comorbidities among ambulatory cancer patients: A cross-sectional retrospective study

Alwhaibi

Alhawassi

Almalag

et al. 2019

J Oncol Pharm Pract

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction Polypharmacy is prevalent among cancer patients; however, its relationship with comorbidities as well as its other potential factors has not been well studied among this segment of the patient population. Although several studies have described the prevalence of polypharmacy in cancer patients, its prevalence among Middle Eastern cancer patients is largely unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of polypharmacy among ambulatory cancer patients as well as its association with comorbidities. Methods A cross-sectional study using patients’ electronic health records was conducted among ambulatory cancer patients aged ≥ 18 years in a tertiary care hospital. Polypharmacy was defined as the cumulative use of five or more medications. The main outcome was to assess the factors related to polypharmacy among ambulatory cancer patients which was evaluated using a multivariable binary logistic regression model. Results A total of 383 ambulatory cancer patients were included. Of these, approximately 79% had polypharmacy. Polypharmacy was more likely among patients with hypertension (AOR = 3.24; 95% CI: 1.41–7.42), diabetes (AOR = 3.33; 95% CI: 1.39–7.98), asthma (AOR = 8.64; 95% CI: 1.64–45.54), and anxiety (AOR = 3.61; 95% CI: 1.72–7.57). Conclusions Polypharmacy is highly prevalent in the Saudi Arabian oncology patients, especially in those with comorbidities like hypertension, diabetes, anxiety and asthma. Because polypharmacy mostly goes hand in hand with comorbidities, therefore, a multidisciplinary team approach of oncology pharmacist working with other healthcare providers to manage polypharmacy and simplify drug regimens for cancer patients is warranted to optimize the healthcare quality and improve drug safety.

show abstract