Project code: SDE_NENC_PROJ_5
Applicant: Newcastle University
Data type: Grouped (small numbers hidden)
Project description: The goal of this project is to understand how taking lots of medicines (polypharmacy) and having several long-term health conditions affect people in the North East and North Cumbria.
People are living longer, but this means they often have long-term health problems. Because of this, many need to take more medicines. Taking five or more medicines is called polypharmacy. This can cause problems, especially for older people, such as becoming frail, needing to go to hospital more, or medicines reacting badly with each other. These problems are sometimes called inappropriate polypharmacy.
Some studies have looked at polypharmacy in poorer communities or among people from ethnic minorities. These groups may be at higher risk of taking too many medicines that could cause harm, but we still don’t know exactly how bad the problem is.
This project will focus on understanding how common polypharmacy is in the North East and North Cumbria. It will also look at the link between taking lots of medicines and having more than one long-term health condition. By using data about people’s backgrounds in different areas, the project will study how polypharmacy affects people in disadvantaged communities. The aim is to help those most at risk and suggest ways to make things safer for patients.
Date of agreement: Not applicable, no personal data being processed
Period of data access agreement: Not applicable
