A cross-sectional study published in Journal of General Internal Medicine evaluated the contribution of obesity to polypharmacy among older adults using nationally representative data from the 2021–2023 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). The study included 1,944 adults aged ≥65 years, representing approximately 53.2 million U.S. older adults. Researchers found that 41.8% of older adults experienced polypharmacy, corresponding to nearly 22 million individuals.
The prevalence was significantly higher among individuals with obesity compared with those without obesity (51.1% vs. 35.9%; p<0.001). Obesity accounted for a considerable proportion of medication burden, with BMI-defined obesity contributing to 14.8% of polypharmacy cases, representing approximately 3.3 million older adults. Waist circumference-defined obesity accounted for an even larger proportion…
