Exploring Polypharmacy Burden Among elderly patients with chronic diseases in Chinese community: a cross-sectional study

Background: In the long-term use of multiple medications for elderly patients with chronic diseases, medication problems are prominent, which seriously affects their quality of life. The burden of medications of patients plays a central role in affecting their medication beliefs, behaviors and disease outcomes. Paying attention to the burden of medications of patients may be a solution Its medication issues provide a new perspective. The objective was to use the Chinese version of Living with Medicines Questionnaire-3(C-LMQ-3) to quantify the medicines burden of elderly patients with chronic diseases in the Chinese community, and assess the relevant demographic characteristics of sub-populations with high medicines burden. Methods: : The survey was distributed to elderly ≥60 years with chronic disease using ≥ 5 medicines, C-LMQ-3 scores and domain scores were compared by elderly patient characteristics using descriptive statistics and statistical tests. Results: : A total of 430 responses were analyzed, the participants ranged in age between 60 to 91 years old, and the average age was 73.57 years (SD: 7.87). Most were female (61.7%), had a middle school education (38.5%). Moreover, 54.1% of the participants lived with spouse only, 16.2% with both spouse and children, and 10.0% lived alone. Regression analysis indicated that higher C-LMQ-3 scores were associated with those who were with low education level, 60–69 years-old, using ≥11 medicines, using medicines ≥3 times a day, Income per month(RMB)≤3000，and who having higher monthly self-paid medication(RMB)≥300 (p<0.01). Burden was mainly driven by cost-related burden, concerns about medicines, and the lack of autonomy over medicine regimens. Conclusion: Elderly patients with chronic diseases in mainland China have a heavy burden of multiple medications. Chinese health care providers should focus on evaluating and paying attention to such patients, and formulate relevant intervention strategies to ensure medication adherence and daily medication management of elderly patients with polypharmacy.