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. 2022 Jul 18:13:935764.
doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.935764. eCollection 2022.

Increasing Trends of Polypharmacy and Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Lung Cancer Patients in China: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Study

Fangyuan Tian  1   2 , Zhaoyan Chen  1 , Xi Chen  3 , Mengnan Zhao  1
Affiliations

Increasing Trends of Polypharmacy and Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Lung Cancer Patients in China: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Study

Fangyuan Tian et al. Front Pharmacol. .

Abstract

Objectives: Polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) use are frequent in older lung cancer patients. This study aimed to examine the trends of polypharmacy and PIM use and explore risk factors for PIM use based on the 2019 Beers criteria in older Chinese lung cancer outpatients with multimorbidity. Methods: A repeated cross-sectional study was conducted using electronic medical data consisting of the prescriptions of older lung cancer outpatients in China from January 2016 to December 2018. Polypharmacy was defined as the use of five or more medications. The 2019 Beers criteria were used to evaluate the PIM use of older cancer outpatients (age ≥65 years), and multivariate logistic regression was used to identify the risk factors for PIM use. Results: A total of 3,286 older lung cancer outpatients and their prescriptions were included in the study. The prevalence of polypharmacy was 14.27% in 2016, 16.55% in 2017, and 18.04% in 2018. The prevalence of PIM use, according to the 2019 Beers criteria, was 31.94% in 2016, 35.78% in 2017, and 42.67% in 2018. The two most frequently used PIMs in older lung cancer outpatients were estazolam and tramadol. The logistic regression demonstrated that age 75 to 79, polypharmacy, irrational use of drugs, and lung cancer accompanied by sleep disorders, anxiety or depression, or pain were positively associated with PIM use in older lung cancer outpatients. Conclusion: The prevalence of polypharmacy and PIM use in older lung cancer outpatients with multimorbidity was high in China, and polypharmacy and PIM use increased over time. Further research on interventions rationing PIM use in the older lung cancer patient population is needed.

Keywords: lung cancer; older; outpatient; polypharmacy; potentially inappropriate medication.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Trends in older lung cancer outpatients with multimorbidity. (A) Prevalence of polypharmacy and PIM use. (B) Number of medications and diseases. (C) Rate of rational prescriptions. (D) Prescription expenditure.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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