Understanding polypharmacy for people receiving home care services: a scoping review of the evidence

Polypharmacy, defined as the concurrent use of five or more medications, is common amongst older adults receiving home care services. The relationship between home care and polypharmacy may be critical to older people's health, but there is little research on this topic.

To understand the extent and type of evidence on individuals receiving home care services and experiencing polypharmacy.

This review followed the Preferred Reporting of Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for scoping reviews. Three databases (MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL) were systematically searched (December 2023) to identify studies with adult participants experiencing polypharmacy and receiving home care.

Twenty-three studies were included. For individuals receiving home care services, the studies reported on the following: (i) prevalence of polypharmacy, (ii) interventions to reduce inappropriate polypharmacy, (iii) perceived role of home care workers, (iv) assessment of health literacy in individuals experiencing polypharmacy, and (v) factors associated with polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs). Polypharmacy and PIMs were found to be associated with older age, female sex, increased frailty, living alone, poor economic situation and inaccuracies within medical records. Improved appropriateness of prescribing can be achieved through interprofessional interventions, efficient use of home care workers and improved health literacy.

This review highlights research on the extent of polypharmacy in home care and ways to address it. Whilst there are suggestions for enhancing medication quality, key gaps remain in research into the experiences of care staff and recipients in managing medications and polypharmacy, which should be addressed.