Polypharmacy, potentially inappropriate medications, and drug-drug interactions in older COVID-19 inpatients

Abstract

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of polypharmacy, potentially inappropriate medications, and drug-drug interactions on in-hospital mortality in older COVID-19 inpatients.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted using electronic medical data from a tertiary hospital in Chengdu from December 2022 to January 2023. The 2019 AGS/Beers criteria was used to evaluate the potentially inappropriate mediation (PIM) status of older COVID-19 inpatients (age ≥ 65 years), the drug-drug interactions were evaluated on Medscape, and multivariate logistic regression was used to identify the risk factors associated with in-hospital mortality.

Results

A total of 206 older COVID-19 inpatients were included in the study. The mean number of drugs per day was 13.04. The prevalence of PIM use based on the 2019 AGS Beers Criteria was 66.99%. The prevalence of drug-drug interactions was 61.65%. Logistic regression demonstrated that age ≥ 80 (OR: 10.321, 95% CI: 1.649, 64.579, P = 0.013), renal insufficiency (OR: 4.740, 95% CI: 1.366, 16.447, P = 0.014), long-term hospitalization (OR: 6.637, 95% CI: 1.030, 42.779, P = 0.046), severe pneumonia (OR: 50.230, 95% CI: 5.180, 487.041, P = 0.001) were influencing factors associated with in-hospital mortality in older COVID-19 inpatients.

Conclusions

The polypharmacy, potentially inappropriate medications, and drug-drug interactions were seen in many older COVID-19 inpatients.