Multimorbidity, medications, and their association with falls, physical activity, and cognitive functions in older adults: multicenter study in Sri Lanka

This study was aimed to examine the prevalence and associations between multimorbidity, polypharmacy, Falls Risk Increasing Drugs use (FRIDs), Anti Cholinergic Burden (ACB), and adverse health outcomes in older adults attending medical clinics. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 704 older adults attending medical clinics in four tertiary care hospitals. The mean (SD) age of study participants was 73 (5.5) years, and the majority were females (58.7%). Patients 305 (43.5%) reported at least one fall after age of 65 while 220 (31.3%) reported falls in the previous 12 months and 90 (12.8%) reported recurrent falls. The prevalence of multimorbidity was 77.4% while polypharmacy was seen in 51.2%. The use of at least one FRID was seen in 70.5% patients while higher ACB was seen in 5.4%. Multimorbidity, polypharmacy, use of FRIDs and ACB were not associated with negative health outcome (p > 0.05). Polypharmacy, however, was associated with high ACB (p < 0.001). This study highlights a high prevalence of multimorbidity and polypharmacy among older people in clinical settings. However, negative associations between drugs and multimorbidity with adverse health outcomes indicate that these relationships are complex, potentially influenced by other factors such as poor drug compliance, which can lead to falls.