Abstract

Prevalence of polypharmacy and its associated factors among elderly cardiovascular patients who were on follow-up at the chronic care clinic of Hiwot Fana comprehensive specialized hospital in Eastern Ethiopia

Author(s): Shambel Nigussie*, Fekade Demeke

Introduction: It is critical to understand the rate of polypharmacy in cardiovascular patients because this issue is becoming more prevalent and has been linked to possibly inappropriate prescribing practices and detrimental health outcomes, especially in older cardiovascular patients.

Objective: To assess the prevalence of polypharmacy and its associated factors among elderly cardiovascular patients who were on follow-up at the chronic care clinic of Hiwot Fana comprehensive specialized hospital in Eastern Ethiopia.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 364 patients aged 65 years and above on treatment follow-up for cardiovascular disease. A data abstraction sheet was used to gather the data. The method of convenience sampling was employed. For coding, cleaning, and analysis, the collected data was first entered into Epi data statistical program version 3.1 and exported to statistical package for social sciences version 22. To identify factors related to the prevalence of polypharmacy, multivariable logistic regression analysis was employed.

Results: A total of 325 patients’ medical records were included in the analysis. The prevalence of polypharmacy was 20.7%. Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors 163 (50.1%), beta blockers 117 (36%), aspirins 90 (27.7%), and calcium channel blockers 87 (26.7.32%) were the frequent prescribed cardiovascular drugs. Patients who were 77 years or older had a 1.12 times higher likelihood of having polypharmacy than patients who were 65 to 70 years old. Presence of comorbidities along with cardiovascular diseases were found to be significant factor associated with polypharmacy. Polypharmacy was higher among patients who had a higher number of comorbidities. Patients who had lived with cardiovascular diseases for five or more years were 2.17 times more likely to have polypharmacy. In addition, patients who had received treatment for their cardiovascular diseases for longer years were more likely to have polypharmacy.

Conclusion: The results of the present study demonstrate that polypharmacy is low relative to prior studies across the world. Being of advanced age, having comorbidities along with cardiovascular diseases, having three and above comorbid diseases, living with cardiovascular diseases for five and above years since diagnosis, and taking cardiovascular drugs for five and above years duration were associated with higher odds of polypharmacy.