Polypharmacy Among Internal Medicine Patients

The World Health Organisation Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm has brought our attention to the importance of medication-related harm as a global public health issue. One of the major contributing factors is polypharmacy, the usage of multiple medicines at the same time. People are getting older and living longer with chronic diseases; they need more medications, which frequently leads to polypharmacy. Subsequently, they are at more risk of medication-related harm. The planned project is an epidemiological study on polypharmacy, medication appropriateness, risk factors, and clinical outcomes post-discharge from a hospital for internal medicine patients. The study group hypothesise that pre- and post-admission polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate prescribing is common, especially among older patients, patients with a high comorbidity and frailty burden. Our hypothesis is additionally that preadmission polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate prescribing is associated with higher short- and long-term mortality, a longer primary hospitalization length of stay, and a higher risk of readmission.