Study on Prevalence and Predictors of Polypharmacy in Geriatric Patients at a Private Corporate Hospital

A prospective study on predictors of polypharmacy in Geriatrics was conducted in the General Medicine department of a 750 bedded multi-specialty private hospital in South India. A total of 124 geriatric patients were enrolled in the study of which 59 % were male patients and 41 % were female patients. The analysis of results of the study conducted revealed that 54.73 % of population were prescribed with 6-10 drugs, 37.09 % with 11-15 drugs and 5.64 % with 16-20 drugs. Our study assessed Potentially Inappropriate Medications (PIM) as per Beers Criteria. The results revealed that the PIM use was observed in 48.3 % patients. The analysis also revealed that the association between the number of drugs and number of PIM was statistically significant. Similarly the association between the number of co-morbidities and number of drugs was statistically significant.