Little is known about the prevalence and relevant factors of polypharmacy in nonagenarian and centenarians.
The aim of this study is to examine the prevalence and associated factors of polypharmacy in a sample of nonagenarians and centenarians living in a rural area of China.
The data were from the 'Project of Longevity and Aging in Dujiangyan' study. Medication use and relevant covariates were obtained by face-to-face interviews. Minor polypharmacy was defined as the concomitant use of two to four medications, whereas major polypharmacy referred to the concomitant use of five or more medications.
We included 859 participants with mean age of 93.7 ± 3.3 years. The number of chronic diseases was 1.4 ± 1.2 per subject, whereas the number of drugs was 0.8 ± 1.4 per subject. The prevalence of minor polypharmacy and major polypharmacy was 16.5% and 3.7% respectively. Illiteracy (odds ratio (OR) 2.93, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.52 to 5.66), cognitive impairment (OR 3.15, 95% CI 1.44 to 6.88), hypertension (OR 2.88, 95% CI 1.46 to 5.67), respiratory disease (OR 2.22, 95% CI 1.08 to 4.58), osteoarthritis (OR 1.24, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.51), and cancer (OR 10.70, 95% CI 1.90 to 126.80) were positively associated with minor polypharmacy. Illiteracy (OR 4.24, 95% CI 1.53 to 11.81), hypertension (OR 3.40, 95% CI 1.22 to 9.49) and cancer (OR 3.40, 95% CI 1.14 to 10.12) were also positively associated with major polypharmacy.
Although most subjects suffer from some chronic diseases, minor polypharmacy and major polypharmacy are not common among nonagenarians/centenarians in rural China.