Home About us Editorial board Search Ahead of print Current issue Archives Submit article Instructions Subscribe Contact us Login 
  • Users Online:186
  • Home
  • Print this page
  • Email this page
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Year : 2018  |  Volume : 6  |  Issue : 1  |  Page : 40-47

The burden of polypharmacy and pattern of comorbidities among chronic kidney disease patients in clinical practice


1 Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, University of Medical Sciences, Ondo City, Ondo State, Nigeria
2 Department of Internal Medicine, Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Edo State, Nigeria
3 Department of General Surgery, Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria

Correspondence Address:
Dr. Olumuyiwa John Fasipe
Medical Lecturer and Senior Physician, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Basic Clinical Sciences, University of Medical Sciences, Ondo City, Ondo State
Nigeria
Login to access the Email id

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None


DOI: 10.4103/amhs.amhs_11_18

Rights and Permissions

Introduction: The practice of polypharmacy and pattern of associated specific comorbidities/complications among chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients can predispose them to drug-related problems such as drug–drug interactions (DDIs) and adverse drug reactions (ADRs) which may be associated with increased morbidity, mortality, health-care cost, and length and frequency of hospitalization. This can also produce a negative deteriorating and counter-efficient effect on the health and treatment outcome of these patients. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive, prospective study of 18-month duration that was carried out to review the medical case records of consented adult CKD patients attending a Nigerian tertiary kidney care hospital from January 2015 to June 2016. Results: This study involved 123 consented adult CKD patients comprising 82 (66.67%) males and 41 (33.33%) females, with a mean age of 53.81 ± 16.03 years. The most frequently prescribed medications were furosemide (88, 71.6%), enoxaparin (67, 54.47%), lisinopril (65, 52.9%), oral calcium carbonate (63, 51.2%), α-calcidol (62, 50.4%), and erythropoietin (61, 49.6%). Among these CKD patients, the prevalence of polypharmacy and renal replacement therapy was 85.37% and 56.91%, respectively. Most proportion of the respondents 45 (36.59%) had two number of comorbidities with hypertension (103, 83.70%), diabetes mellitus (39, 31.70%), obesity (24, 19.51%), heart failure (11, 8.90%), obstructive uropathy (8, 6.50%), HIV (7, 5.70%), and stroke (5, 4.10%) being the most frequent. Regarding the form of nephrological interventions being offered: Majority of the respondents, i.e., 66 (53.66%), were on maintenance dialysis, followed by 53 (43.09%) on conservative care and 4 (3.25%) on renal transplantation. Conclusion: The prevalence of polypharmacy is significantly high in these CKD patients. The practice of polypharmacy and pattern of associated specific comorbidities can indeed increase the risk of drug-related problems such as DDIs and ADRs. There is a critical need to minimize the number of prescribed medicines for these patients in order to reduce the associated morbidity, mortality, healthcare costs, and frequency and length (duration) of hospitalization.


[FULL TEXT] [PDF]*
Print this article     Email this article
 Next article
 Previous article
 Table of Contents

 Similar in PUBMED
   Search Pubmed for
   Search in Google Scholar for
 Related articles
 Citation Manager
 Access Statistics
 Reader Comments
 Email Alert *
 Add to My List *
 * Requires registration (Free)
 

 Article Access Statistics
    Viewed5179    
    Printed159    
    Emailed0    
    PDF Downloaded590    
    Comments [Add]    
    Cited by others 1    

Recommend this journal