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Updated: May 10, 2026

High-throughput and Comprehensive Drug Surveillance Using Multisegment Injection-Capillary Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry
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Time Windows Used When Identifying Current Drug Use and Polypharmacy.

Sabrina Giometto1, Mette Reilev2,3,4, Martin Thomsen Ernst2

  • 1Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.

Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety
|May 9, 2026
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Defining drug use and polypharmacy requires careful consideration of time windows and definitions. Longer time windows up to 300 days are needed for accurate drug use assessment, and multiple polypharmacy definitions are recommended.

Keywords:
current drug usepolypharmacyprevalenceregistry datatime window length

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Area of Science:

  • Pharmacovigilance
  • Drug Utilization Research
  • Health Services Research

Background:

  • Estimating current drug use and polypharmacy prevalence is crucial for healthcare.
  • No consensus exists on optimal time windows for defining these metrics.
  • Varying definitions can significantly impact study outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore how different time window lengths affect current drug use prevalence estimates.
  • To investigate the impact of various definitions on polypharmacy prevalence estimates.
  • To evaluate criteria for predicting polypharmacy.

Main Methods:

  • A drug-utilization study using Danish population-based registries (2020-2022).
  • Assessed current drug use in adults (≥18) and polypharmacy in older adults (≥65).
  • Employed simulations to evaluate polypharmacy prediction criteria.

Main Results:

  • Current drug use prevalence increased with time window length; plateaus observed between 120-300 days for most drugs.
  • Polypharmacy prevalence varied widely (21%-92%) based on definition (e.g., number of ATC groups).
  • Optimal polypharmacy prediction required ≥2 dispensations for ≥5 drugs within a year (sensitivity 0.93-1.0, specificity 0.72-1.0).

Conclusions:

  • Time windows <120 days are insufficient for baseline drug use assessment in Denmark.
  • Polypharmacy estimates are highly sensitive to the definition used.
  • Utilizing multiple definitions is recommended for robust polypharmacy studies.