Aging Research Center, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet & Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Center for Alzheimer Research, Division for Neurogeriatrics, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Stockholm, Sweden.
PLoS One. 2018 Mar 29;13(3):e0194892. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0194892. eCollection 2018.
Polypharmacy is common among older adults. However, little is known about the composition of polypharmacy: which are the most frequently used drugs, and how much do these drugs contribute to the overall prevalence of polypharmacy.
A total of 822,619 Swedes aged ≥75 years was identified from the Total Population Register. Through record-linkage with the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register and the Social Services Register we could analyze concurrent drug use in the entire population (both individuals living in the community and institution) on the 31 December 2013.
The prevalence of polypharmacy (≥5 drugs) was 45%. The most frequently used drugs were cardiovascular drugs, analgesics, and psychotropics. By excluding the ten most frequently used drug classes or compounds, the prevalence of polypharmacy was reduced by 69% and 51% respectively. The majority of the users of either one of the 10 most frequently used drugs concurrently used at least 4 other drug classes (66%-85%).
Almost half of the individuals aged ≥75 years are exposed to polypharmacy in Sweden. A handful of drugs make a large contribution to the overall prevalence of polypharmacy and the majority of drugs prescribed to persons aged ≥75 years are used in combination with other drugs. This highlights the high use of drugs, and the need to consider other concurrent drug treatments when prescribing for older adults.
老年人普遍存在多种药物治疗的情况。然而，对于多种药物治疗的组成部分，即最常使用的药物有哪些，以及这些药物在多大程度上导致了多种药物治疗的总体流行程度，我们知之甚少。
从总人口登记册中确定了总共 822619 名年龄≥75 岁的瑞典人。通过与瑞典处方药物登记册和社会服务登记册的记录链接，我们可以分析 2013 年 12 月 31 日整个人群（包括居住在社区和机构中的个体）的同时用药情况。
多种药物治疗（≥5 种药物）的患病率为 45%。最常使用的药物是心血管药物、镇痛药和精神药物。如果排除十种最常使用的药物类别或化合物，多种药物治疗的患病率分别降低了 69%和 51%。这十种最常使用的药物中的任何一种药物的使用者，有 66%-85%的人同时使用至少四种其他药物类别。
瑞典有近一半年龄≥75 岁的人存在多种药物治疗的情况。少数几种药物对多种药物治疗的总体流行程度有很大贡献，并且为≥75 岁的人开具的大多数药物都与其他药物联合使用。这突出表明药物的使用量很高，在为老年人开处方时需要考虑其他同时进行的药物治疗。
