OBJECTIVES: We aimed to assess medication related quality of life (MRQOL) among elderly patients with polypharmacy at Gondar University Hospital, Gondar, Ethiopia.

METHODS: A prospective cross sectional study was carried out among 150 elder patients in internal medicine and ambulatory wards of Gondar University hospital from March 25 to May 15 2017 using validated scale, Medication-Related Quality of Life Scale version 1.0 (MRQoLS-v1.0 ).

RESULTS: A total of 150 elderly patients with poly pharmacy participated in the study with a mean age 70.06 5.12 and two third of the participants (67.3%) were female. Overall prevalence of poor quality of life due to polypharmacy in the current study was found to be 75.3% of the participants. Regarding severity of impairment in MRQoL, Univariate analysis revealed that frequency of hospital visits (COR=1.34, 95% CI, 1.02-1.77) and number of medications (COR =1.94, 95% CI, 1.33, 2.8) had statistically significant positive association with the likelihood of having sever impairment. The multivariate analysis also showed that one unit increase in the number of hospital visits (AOR =1.45, 95% CI, 1.040-2.024) and medications greater than 5 (AOR =1.91, 95% CI, 1.29, 2.84) increases 1.45 and 1.91 times the likely hood of posing severe impairment of MRQoL, respectively. As far as poor MRQoL quality of life is concerned multivariate analysis didn’t show any significant association between the poor MRQoL, and Sociodemographic and clinical data of patients.

CONCLUSIONS: The overall prevalence of poor quality of life due to poly pharmacy was 75.3% that implies poly pharmacy results poor quality of life in elder patients. Frequency of hospital visit and number of medication was the independent predictors for severe impairment in MRQoL. This study needs further investigation to see the correlation between independent variables and dependent outcomes. Deprescribing aiming at minimizing inappropriate poly pharmacy should be sought by physicians in elderly patients.