Updates in nutrition and polypharmacy

Medications have the potential to affect nutritional status in negative ways, especially as the number of medications increase. The inter-relation between polypharmacy and malnutrition is complex and not fully delineated in previous studies. More research has been done and compiled in the last year, which helps to clarify this relationship. This review brings together the most recent literature with the previous research to help healthcare providers to better assess and manage medication therapy in older adults.

Recent evidence confirms a synergistic negative effect of polypharmacy and malnutrition on outcomes of older adults. In addition, several drug classes, including common antihypertensive agents, acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, multivitamins, proton pump inhibitors, HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins), antiplatelet agents and metformin, have been implicated in important drug-nutrient interactions. These are reviewed in detail here. Ongoing research endeavors are described.

Healthcare practitioners can use this review to identify potentially inappropriate medications and patients at highest risk of experiencing a medication-related adverse reaction in order to systematically deprescribe these high-risk medications.