Author:
Shin Woo-young,Go Tae-Hwa,Kang Dae Ryong,Lee Sei Young,Lee Won,Kim Seonah,Lee Jiewon,Kim Jung-ha
Abstract
AbstractPolypharmacy and its rising global prevalence is a growing public health burden. Using a large representative nationwide Korean cohort (N = 761,145), we conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study aiming to identify subpopulations of patients with polypharmacy and characterize their unique patterns through cluster analysis. Patients aged ≥ 30 years who were prescribed at least one medication between 2014 and 2018 were included in our study. Six clusters were identified: cluster 1 mostly included patients who were hospitalized for a long time (4.3 ± 5.3 days); cluster 2 consisted of patients with disabilities (100.0%) and had the highest mean number of prescription drugs (7.7 ± 2.8 medications); cluster 3 was a group of low-income patients (99.9%); cluster 4 was a group of high-income patients (80.2%) who frequently (46.4 ± 25.9 days) visited hospitals/clinics (7.3 ± 2.7 places); cluster 5 was mostly elderly (74.9 ± 9.8 years) females (80.3%); and cluster 6 comprised mostly middle-aged (56.4 ± 1.5 years) males (88.6%) (all P < 0.001). Patients in clusters 1–5 had more prescribed medications and outpatient visit days than those in cluster 6 (all P < 0.001). Given limited health care resources, individuals with any of the identified phenotypes may be preferential candidates for participation in intervention programs for optimal medication use.
Funder
National Health Insurance Service
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Cited by
6 articles.
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