IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i7p3580-d526724.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Frailty Status and Polypharmacy Predict All-Cause Mortality in Community Dwelling Older Adults in Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Luís Midão

    (UCIBIO REQUIMTE, Faculty of Pharmacy, Porto4Ageing, University of Porto, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal
    Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar, University of Porto, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal)

  • Pedro Brochado

    (UCIBIO REQUIMTE, Faculty of Pharmacy, Porto4Ageing, University of Porto, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal)

  • Marta Almada

    (UCIBIO REQUIMTE, Faculty of Pharmacy, Porto4Ageing, University of Porto, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal)

  • Mafalda Duarte

    (CINTESIS—Center for Health Technology and Services Research, 4200-450 Porto, Portugal
    Higher Education Institute of Health of Alto Ave, 4720-155 Amares, Portugal)

  • Constança Paúl

    (Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar, University of Porto, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal
    CINTESIS—Center for Health Technology and Services Research, 4200-450 Porto, Portugal)

  • Elísio Costa

    (UCIBIO REQUIMTE, Faculty of Pharmacy, Porto4Ageing, University of Porto, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal)

Abstract

European population ageing is associated with frailty, a complex geriatric syndrome, and polypharmacy, both resulting in adverse health outcomes. In this study we aimed to evaluate the impact of frailty and polypharmacy, on mortality rates, within 30 months, using a cohort of SHARE participants aged 65 years old or more. Frailty was assessed using a version of Fried’s phenotype criteria operationalized to SHARE while polypharmacy was defined as taking five or more drugs per day. We found a prevalence of 40.4% non-frail, 47.3% pre-frail and 12.3% frail participants. Moreover, a prevalence of polypharmacy of 31.3% was observed, being 3 three times more prevalent in frail individuals and two times in pre-frail individuals, when compared with non-frail. Individuals with both conditions had shown higher mortality rates. Comparing with non-polymedicated non-frail individuals all the other conditions are more prone to die within 30 months. Polymedicated older and male participants exhibited also higher mortality rates. This work shows polypharmacy and frailty to be associated with a higher risk of all-cause of mortality and highlights the need to decrease ‘unnecessary’ polypharmacy to reduce drug-related issues and also the need to assess frailty early to prevent avoidable adverse outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Luís Midão & Pedro Brochado & Marta Almada & Mafalda Duarte & Constança Paúl & Elísio Costa, 2021. "Frailty Status and Polypharmacy Predict All-Cause Mortality in Community Dwelling Older Adults in Europe," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-13, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:7:p:3580-:d:526724
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/7/3580/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/7/3580/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Virtudes Pérez-Jover & José J. Mira & Concepción Carratala-Munuera & Vicente F. Gil-Guillen & Josep Basora & Adriana López-Pineda & Domingo Orozco-Beltrán, 2018. "Inappropriate Use of Medication by Elderly, Polymedicated, or Multipathological Patients with Chronic Diseases," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-14, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maria Gabriella Melchiorre & Marco Socci & Giovanni Lamura & Sabrina Quattrini, 2024. "The Social Sustainability of the Use of Information and Communication Technologies by Frail Older People Ageing in Place Alone in Italy: Barriers and Impact on Loneliness and Social Isolation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-26, July.
    2. Ana Pereira & Luís Midão & Marta Almada & Elísio Costa, 2021. "Pre-Frailty and Frailty in Dialysis and Pre-Dialysis Patients: A Systematic Review of Clinical and Biochemical Markers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-15, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xiao Chang & Kai Wang & Yuting Wang & Houmian Tu & Guiping Gong & Haifeng Zhang, 2022. "Medication Literacy in Chinese Patients with Stroke and Associated Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-12, December.
    2. Hsiang-Wen Lin & Elizabeth H. Chang & Yu Ko & Chun-Yu Wang & Yu-Shan Wang & Okti Ratna Mafruhah & Shang-Hua Wu & Yu-Chieh Chen & Yen-Ming Huang, 2020. "Conceptualization, Development and Psychometric Evaluations of a New Medication-Related Health Literacy Instrument: The Chinese Medication Literacy Measurement," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-17, September.
    3. Ana Isabel Plácido & Maria Teresa Herdeiro & João Lindo Simões & Odete Amaral & Adolfo Figueiras & Fátima Roque, 2020. "Voices of Polymedicated Older Patients: A Focus Group Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-10, September.
    4. Jeronimo Luengo-Polo & David Conde-Caballero & Borja Rivero-Jiménez & Inmaculada Ballesteros-Yáñez & Carlos A. Castillo-Sarmiento & Lorenzo Mariano-Juárez, 2021. "Rationale and Methods of Evaluation for ACHO, A New Virtual Assistant to Improve Therapeutic Adherence in Rural Elderly Populations: A User-Driven Living Lab," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-11, July.
    5. Javier González-Bueno & Daniel Sevilla-Sánchez & Emma Puigoriol-Juvanteny & Núria Molist-Brunet & Carles Codina-Jané & Joan Espaulella-Panicot, 2021. "Factors Associated with Medication Non-Adherence among Patients with Multimorbidity and Polypharmacy Admitted to an Intermediate Care Center," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-14, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:7:p:3580-:d:526724. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.