Table 1.
Baseline characteristics of participants by polypharmacy status
| Polypharmacy status | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall (n = 2181) | No polypharmacy (n = 1351, 61.9%) |
Baseline only polypharmacy (n = 125, 5.7%) |
Incident polypharmacy (n = 245, 11.2%) |
Persistent polypharmacy (n = 460, 21.1%) |
|
| Demographics | |||||
| Age, mean (SD), years | 72.8 (6.3) | 71.9 (6.0) | 74.0 (6.5) | 74.2 (6.8) | 74.2 (6.5) |
| Female, n (%) | 1195 (54.8) | 740 (54.8) | 75 (60.0) | 127 (51.8) | 253 (55.0) |
| High school education or above, n (%) | 1176 (53.9) | 771 (57.1) | 59 (47.2) | 129 (52.7) | 217 (47.1) |
| Comorbidities at 2013, mean (SD) | 1.66 (1.3) | 1.15 (1.0) | 2.14 (1.0) | 1.78 (1.1) | 2.96 (1.4) |
| Comorbidities at 2017, mean (SD) | 1.88 (1.4) | 1.33 (1.0) | 2.13 (1.1) | 2.37 (1.2) | 3.15 (1.5) |
| Medications, mean (SD) | 3.5 (3.1) | 1.8 (1.3) | 7.0 (2.8) | 3.0 (1.2) | 7.5 (2.8) |
| Married, n (%) | 1365 (62.6) | 888 (65.7) | 71 (56.8) | 143 (58.4) | 263 (57.2) |
| Socialises > once a month. n (%) | 1791 (82.1) | 1132 (83.8) | 93 (74.4) | 197 (80.4) | 369 (80.2) |
| SEIFA- IRSAD, mean (SD) | 5.4 (3.0) | 5.6 (3.0) | 4.8 (2.7) | 5.2 (3.0) | 4.7 (2.8) |
| Physical activity ≥ 3 times a week, n (%) | 1090 (50.0) | 781 (57.8) | 50 (40.0) | 118 (48.2) | 141 (30.7) |
| Smoking, n (%) | 131 (6.0) | 73 (5.4) | 7 (5.6) | 21 (8.6) | 30 (6.5) |
| Alcohol intake ≥ 5 days per week, n (%) | 574 (26.3) | 374 (27.7 | 30 (24.0) | 67 (27.3) | 102 (22.2) |
| QoL summary measures | |||||
| PCS | 43.8 (12.7) | 48.1 (10.6) | 38.6 (11.6) | 41.3 (11.9) | 33.3 (12.1) |
| MCS | 50.8 (11.5) | 54.1 (9.7) | 47.1 (11.8) | 49.3 (10.5) | 42.8 (12.6) |
| QoL measures, mean (SD) | |||||
| General health | 63.94 (21.6) | 71.4 (17.9) | 57.8 (21.0) | 59.2 (19.4) | 46.2 (21.0) |
| Mental health | 78.5 (16.2) | 81.8 (14.5) | 75.2 (16.7) | 77.6 (14.6) | 70.4 (18.2) |
| Physical functioning | 68.3 (25.5) | 76.5 (21.3) | 59.2 (24.0) | 64.1 (24.1) | 48.5 (25.8) |
| Social functioning | 80.4 (24.5) | 86.8 (20.6) | 74.7 (25.5) | 77.6 (23.0) | 64.9 (27.9) |
| Vitality | 61.2 (20.0) | 67.0 (17.7) | 55.2 (19.2) | 58.2 (18.4) | 47.4 (19.7) |
| Bodily pain | 63.8 (25.0) | 70.4 (22.2) | 56.5 (24.9) | 60.6 (24.2) | 47.9 (25.3) |
| Role-physical | 60.4 (43.3) | 72.7 (38.7) | 43.3 (42.4) | 53.2 (43.8) | 32.5 (40.4) |
| Role-emotional | 80.1 (35.7) | 87.0 (29.2) | 69.1 (41.2) | 78.2 (36.9) | 63.9 (43.8) |
SEIFA-IRSAD Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas-Index of Relative Socio-Economic Advantage and Disadvantage, SD standard deviation, QoL quality of life, PCS Physical component summary, MCS Mental component summary