Polypharmacy is a risk factor for hospital admission due to a fall: evidence from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

Table 2 Subdistribution hazard ratios (95 CIs) for the association between the number polypharmacy and hospitalization following a fall (N = 6220), England 2012–2018

	Age and gender adjusted		Fully adjusted^a
Polypharmacy	SHR (95%CI)	P Value	SHR (95%CI)	P Value
No medications	1 (Ref)		1 (Ref)
1–4 medications	2.06 (1.38; 3.07)	< 0.0001	1.79 (1.18; 2.71)	< 0.01
5–9 medications (polypharmacy)	2.49 (1.62; 3.82)	< 0.0001	1.75 (1.04; 2.95)	< 0.05
10+ medications (heightened polypharmacy)	5.79 (3.33; 10.1)	< 0.0001	3.19 (1.61; 6.32)	< 0.001

Hospitalization following a fall N = 295, competing event deaths N = 594. ^aAdjusted for age, gender, living alone, education, poor vision, all diagnoses and health conditions, 3+ long-term conditions, 2+ FRIDs, any functional impairment, health behaviours, tests of cognitive function

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