Influence of Polypharmacy on the Quality of Life in Stable Kidney Transplant Recipients

Background: Kidney transplant recipients are frequently treated for other medical conditions and experience polypharmacy. The aim of our study was to evaluate quality of life in relation to medicines' burden in these patients.

Methods: We studied 136 unselected patients with mean post-transplant time of 7.2 ± 4.6 years. Quality of life was evaluated using a validated Polish version of the Kidney Disease Quality of Life-Short Form questionnaire. Data concerning the type (generic name) and number of currently prescribed medications were collected by interview survey. The participants were divided into 3 groups: group 1, patients with a maximum of 4 different medications (n = 37); group 2, patients with 4 to 9 medications (n = 76); and group 3, patients receiving at least 10 different medications (n = 23).

Results: The number of medicines taken regularly ranged from 2 to 16. Patients with ≥10 drugs had the highest body mass index and lowest estimated glomerular filtration rate. Patients treated with ≥10 drugs, compared to patients from the 2 other groups, had presented lower subscales results concerning the physical functioning (65.9 vs 84.5 in group 1 and 83.4 in group 2, P < .001 for both comparisons), pain (57.2 vs 82.7 and 76.5, respectively, P < .001 for both), social function (66.8 vs 82.1 and 80.4, respectively, P = .04 for both), and energy/fatigue (54.8 vs 67.7, P = .03 and 65.4, P < .05). Multivariate regression analysis revealed that the number of drugs independently influenced physical functioning, pain, and social function subscales.

Conclusions: Polypharmacy is associated with lower quality of life in patients after successful kidney transplantation. The negative impact of polypharmacy is particularly seen regarding physical functioning and pain severity.