Research Conducted at Trinity College Dublin Has Provided New Information about Health and Medicine (Are payment methods for prescription drugs associated with polypharmacy in older adults in Ireland? Evidence from the TILDA cohort study)

Insurance Daily News

2020 OCT 16 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Fresh data on Health and Medicine are presented in a new report. According to news reporting out of Dublin, Ireland, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “Polypharmacy is commonly defined as the use of five or more medications, is associated with a range of adverse outcomes and is particularly common in older adults. We sought to examine the relationship between polypharmacy and payment methods for prescription drugs among older adults in Ireland.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Trinity College Dublin, “This is a cross-sectional analysis of data from wave 3 of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Aging, a nationally representative cohort study sample of community-living adults aged 50 years and older in Ireland. We used multivariable logistic regression to model the independent relationship between polypharmacy and drug payment methods. We controlled for a wide range of demographic, socioeconomic and health-related variables. Enrolment in publicly funded schemes which entitle participants to subsidised or free prescription medications was independently associated with increased odds of reporting polypharmacy. Relative to out-of-pocket payment, we found polypharmacy was independently associated with payment via medical card (OR 2.65; 95% CI 2.13 to 3.28), drugs payment scheme (OR 3.83; 95% CI 2.96 to 4.95), long-term illness scheme (OR 4.24; 95% CI 3.06 to 5.87), but not private health insurance (OR 0.82; 95% CI 0.42 to 1.62). Given multiple payment methods available for funding prescription charges in Ireland, there is a significant differential in the upfront costs faced by patients. One implication of our results is that the quantity of medications consumed by an individual may be influenced by payment methods for prescription fees. This could lead to overconsumption of medicines by those who are covered, or underconsumption by those who are not.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “However, our study was limited by an inability to discriminate between appropriate and inappropriate polypharmacy or to account for differential levels of multimorbidity, suggesting further research on this topic is warranted.”

For more information on this research see: Are payment methods for prescription drugs associated with polypharmacy in older adults in Ireland? Evidence from the TILDA cohort study. Bmj Open, 2020;10(10):e036591. (BMJ Publishing Group - http://group.bmj.com/; Bmj Open - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Aine Varley, Dept. of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-036591. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.