Polypharmacy Exposure, Aging Populations, and COVID-19: Considerations for Healthcare Providers and Public Health Practitioners in Africa

Jamaji C. Nwanaji-Enwerem, Edward W. Boyer and Ayobami Olufadeji
Additional contact information
Jamaji C. Nwanaji-Enwerem: Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health, Emory Rollins School of Public Health, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
Edward W. Boyer: Department of Emergency Medicine, Division of Medical Toxicology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Ayobami Olufadeji: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Department of Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 19, 1-7

Abstract: Given the continent’s growing aging population and expanding prevalence of multimorbidity, polypharmacy is an increasingly dire threat to the health of persons living in Africa. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated these issues. Widespread misinformation, lack of vaccine access, and attempts to avoid being infected have resulted in increases in Africans’ willingness to take multiple prescription and nonprescription medications and supplements. Issues with counterfeit pharmaceuticals and the relatively new recognition of emergency medicine as a specialty across the continent also create unique challenges for addressing this urgent public health need. Experts have called for more robust pharmaceutical regulation and healthcare/public health infrastructure investments across the continent. However, these changes take time, and more near-term strategies are needed to mitigate current health needs. In this commentary, we present a nonexhaustive set of immediately implementable recommendations that can serve as local strategies to address current polypharmacy-related health needs of Africans. Importantly, our recommendations take into consideration that not all healthcare providers are emergency medicine trained and that local trends related to polypharmacy will change over time and require ever-evolving public health initiatives. Still, by bolstering training to safeguard against provider availability biases, practicing evidence-based prescribing and shared decision making, and tracking and sharing local trends related to polypharmacy, African healthcare providers and public health practitioners can better position themselves to meet population needs. Furthermore, although these recommendations are tailored to Africans, they may also prove useful to providers and practitioners in other regions facing similar challenges.

Keywords: pandemic; geriatrics; African; medicine; policy; shared decision making; registry; surveillance; pharmaceuticals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/19/10263/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/19/10263/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:19:p:10263-:d:646280

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().