The goal of this project is to explore associations between polypharmacy and patient-centered outcomes in a cohort of patients with advanced, life-limiting illness. Understanding the relationship between polypharmacy, symptom burden and quality of life is significant because polypharmacy is an increasingly prevalent and modifiable risk factor among patients with serious illness.
We will compare symptom burden and quality of life by polypharmacy group (low, medium, high) with a mixed effect linear regression model. We will conduct regression-based path analysis to investigate the mediation relationship of symptom burden on the relationship between polypharmacy and quality of life.
Citation: Schenker Y, Park SY, Jeong K, Pruskowski J, Kavalieratos D, Resick J, Abernethy A, Kutner JS. Associations Between Polypharmacy, Symptom Burden, and Quality of Life in Patients with Advanced, Life-Limiting Illness. J Gen Intern Med. 2019 Feb 4. doi: 10.1007/s11606-019-04837-7.