Association of polypharmacy with falls among older Chinese inpatients: A nationwide cohort study

Aim Polypharmacy is prevalent among older adults and has been mainly reported to be associated with falls among community-dwelling or nursing home residents. Our study aimed to investigate the relationship between polypharmacy and falls among older Chinese hospitalized patients. Methods A nationwide prospective cohort study included 9062 participants in six hospitals from China aged ≥65 years, with a 1-year follow-up period. Baseline polypharmacy and other health-related variables were collected when older inpatients were recruited on hospital admission. Polypharmacy was defined as patients who have taken five medications or more. Well-trained nurses assessed falls by telephone at follow up. We used multivariate logistic regression analysis to examine the association between polypharmacy and the risk of falls based on cross-sectional analyses and longitudinal analyses. Results Of 9062 participants, the mean age was 72.42 years (SD= 5.69), and 5228 (57.69%) were men. After fully adjusted for age, sex, education, depression, cognitive impairment, low handgrip strength, frailty, various hospitals, and nutritional status, the cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses showed that inpatients with polypharmacy had an increased risk of falls (OR 1.37, 95%CI 1.17–1.56 for the cross-sectional association; OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.01–2.03 for the longitudinal association, respectively), compared with those without polypharmacy. In addition, subgroup analyses of the association between polypharmacy and 1-year falls, or history of falls was unchanged. Conclusions Polypharmacy was prevalent among older Chinese hospitalized patients and was an independent risk factor of 1-year falls, suggesting that clinicians should make a comprehensive assessment of medications, and deprescribing strategies should be implemented to reduce unnecessary medications for decreasing the rate of falls. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2021; 21: 810–817.