International Journal of Research and Review DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijrr.20210528 Vol.8; Issue: 5; May 2021 Website: www.ijrrjournal.com Original Research Article E-ISSN: 2349-9788; P-ISSN: 2454-2237 International Journal of Research and Review (ijrrjournal.com) 202 Vol.8; Issue: 5; May 2021 A Community Based Study on the Consequence of Polypharmacy in the Quality of Life among Geriatric Population Preetha G 1 , Sachin Manoj 1 , Ansu Thomas 1 , Deena John 1 , A. R. Shabaraya 2 1 Student, Department of Pharmacy Practice, Srinivas College of Pharmacy, Mangalore, Karnataka, India - 574143 2 Professor & Head, Department of Pharmacy Practice, Srinivas College of Pharmacy, Mangalore, Karnataka, India - 574143 Corresponding Author: Preetha G ABSTRACT Polypharmacy is defined by the World health organization as “the administration of the many drugs at an equivalent time or the administration of an excessive number of drugs”. Polypharmacy is frequent among elderly as they often suffer from chronic diseases with concomitant pathologies. Polypharmacy is related to adverse outcomes including mortality, falls, adverse drug reactions, increased length of stay in hospital and readmission to hospital soon after discharge. The risk of adverse effects and harm increases with increasing numbers of medications. It is associated with decreased quality of life, self-rated health, mobility and functional ability as well as increases in hospitalizations, physiological distress, use of health care resources, mortality and costs. The study was prospective and observational and was conducted between the geriatric population in Mangalore. A total of 150 subjects were included in this study and the case reports were analyzed. Patient demographic details, patient drug chart and the medication-related quality of life (MRQoL) of the patients were analyzed. The subjects were selected according to the selection criteria and included individuals aged 60 years and above under a drug therapy with five or more drugs in numbers. Out of the identified subjects, 79 were male (52.7%) and 71 were female (47.3%). Out of this 150 subjects with polypharmacy, 44 individuals (22.7%) had major drug interactions. Patient safety is the most important aspect of health care system since the medicine can cure illness and at the same time harm the patient if not appropriately used. Clinical pharmacist can play a key role in promoting better medication use, ensuring that patients receive appropriate pharmacotherapy thus helps in minimizing the risk of unfavorable outcomes of pharmaco- therapy. Keywords: Polypharmacy, Quality of Life, Geriatrics, Drug Interactions, Clinical Pharmacist. INTRODUCTION A drug is important to prevent, cure and alleviate symptoms to improve patient’s quality of life. The complex drug regimen leads to side effects, drug interactions and complicates the overall health of patient. Geriatrics has been defined as the chronological age of 65 years old or elder, while those from 65 through 74 years old are referred to as early elderly and those over 75 years old as late elderly 1 . Polypharmacy is defined by the world health organization as “the administration of excessive number of drugs or the administration of many drugs at the same time”. Polypharmacy is common, resultant phenomena with duplicate or interacting medications 2 . Inappropriate drug therapy can result in poor outcomes for the patients which is true for elderly patients due to overall poor health status. It leads to substantial morbidity and mortality,