The Australian Team Approach to Polypharmacy Evaluation and Reduction (AusTAPER) hospital study: effect of a collaborative medication review on the number of current regular medicines for older hospital inpatients.

Background And Aims: Potentially harmful polypharmacy is a growing public health concern. This article aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a structured Team Approach to Polypharmacy Evaluation and Reduction (AusTAPER) framework.

Methods: We recruited patients at metropolitan hospitals for a randomised controlled trial with 12 months of follow-up.

Cost-effectiveness analysis of health tapestry, a complex primary care program for older adults: a post-hoc analysis.

Background: We initially reported on the cost-effectiveness of a 6-month randomized controlled implementation trial which evaluated Health TAPESTRY, a primary care program for older adults, at the McMaster Family Health Team (FHT) site and 5 other FHT sites in Ontario, Canada. While there were no statistically significant between-group differences in outcomes at month 6 post randomization, positive outcomes were observed at the McMaster FHT site, which recruited 40% (204/512) of the participants. The objective of this post-hoc study was to determine the cost-effectiveness of Health TAPESTRY based on data from the McMaster FHT site.

Describing primary care patterns before and during the COVID-19 pandemic across Canada: a quasi-experimental pre-post design cohort study using national practice-based research network data.

Objective: The objective was to analyse how the pandemic affected primary care access and comprehensiveness in chronic disease management by comparing primary care patterns before and during the early COVID-19 pandemic.

Design: We conducted a quasi-experimental pre-post design cohort study and reported indicators for the 21 months before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Setting: We used electronic medical record data from primary care clinics enrolled in the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2021.

Prevalence of multimorbidity and polypharmacy among adults and older adults: a systematic review.

Multimorbidity (multiple conditions) and polypharmacy (multiple medications) are increasingly common, yet there is a need to better understand the prevalence of co-occurrence. In this systematic review, we examined the prevalence of multimorbidity and polypharmacy among adults (≥18 years) and older adults (≥65 years) in clinical and community settings. Six electronic databases were searched, and 87 studies were retained after two levels of screening.