Prevalence and Factors Associated with Polypharmacy among Elderly Persons.

Background: Polypharmacy especially in elderly is a challenging public health problem all over the world that leads to increased hospitalization, poor quality of life and represents an economic burden especially in developing countries like Egypt. Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of polypharmacy and identify associated factors among elderly persons. Method: A descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted from August to December 2017, in Benha city, Qalubiya Governorate, Egypt. Study population is 60 years elder and over. They were interviewed by the researcher using a standardized valid questionnaire. Results: A total of 300 elderly persons were enrolled. Approximately 67%aged between 60 and 70 years, 73.7%of them live with their families, and 51.7% of them had a monthly income more than 2000 LE, 80% of them was non-smokers, and 85.3% of them reported using five or more medications. Logistic regression revealed that the significant predictors of polypharmacy use were sex (adjusted Odds Ratio (aOR), 0.1; 95% CI 0.04-0.28, p <0.001), residence (aOR, 3.29; 95% CI 1.18-9.14, p = 0.02), monthly income (aOR, 0.33; 95% CI 0.13-0.18, p = 0.02) and co-morbidity (aOR, 2.56; 95% CI 1.75-3.74, p <0.001). On the other hand, polypharmacy was not significantly associated with age (aOR, 0.84; 95% CI 0.34-2.07, p =0.71), smoking (a OR, 0.83; 95% CI 0.23-2.88, p =0.77), educational level (a OR, 1.19; 95% CI 0.62-2.29, p =0.59) or marital status (aOR, 0.71; 95% CI 0.47-1.07, p=0.1) Conclusion: The prevalence of polypharmacy was 85.3%. Sex, residence, monthly income and co-morbidity were significant predictors of polypharmacy.