One in four Korean patients aged 45 or older is taking five or more medications on a long-term basis, with cases of simultaneously taking 10 or more drugs also rising rapidly, heightening the need for systematic management.
According to the "Healthcare Quality" statistics submitted by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) to the Ministry of Health and Welfare on Tuesday, the proportion of patients aged 45 or older who received chronic prescriptions of five to nine drugs stood at 26.0% as of 2024. This means roughly one in four such patients takes multiple types of medications over extended periods.
Chronic prescription is defined as receiving prescriptions for 90 days or more per year, or four or more times annually. Antibiotics for acute conditions such as the common cold and dermatological agents were excluded.
The ratio has climbed every year from 23.5% in 2020. Along with population aging, the rise in patients with chronic illnesses has driven a rapid spread of polypharmacy. By gender, the rate was 26.6% for women and 25.4% for men, with women slightly higher.
Cases of taking even more medications are also on the rise. The proportion of patients prescribed 10 or more different drugs increased steadily from 13.9% in 2021 to 15.6% in 2022 and 17.0% in 2023, reaching 17.6% in 2024, approaching 18%.
The actual number of patients has also surged. According to the National Health Insurance Service, as of June last year, 1,717,239 patients had been diagnosed with at least one chronic condition such as hypertension or diabetes and had taken 10 or more drugs for 60 days or longer, up 52.5% from 2020.
Behind the increase in polypharmacy users is the aging of the population. As the elderly population grows and chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular conditions appear in combination, drug prescriptions have also increased.
Korea also ranks high in international comparisons. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), as of 2021, the polypharmacy prescription rate among Korean patients aged 75 or older was 64.2%, far exceeding the OECD average of 50.1%.
The concern is the risk of side effects. Taking multiple drugs simultaneously increases the likelihood of adverse reactions due to drug-to-drug interactions. As medication regimens become more complex, issues of "non-adherence," in which patients fail to take their drugs properly, also follow.
HIRA stressed the need for systematic management, saying, "When multiple drugs are taken simultaneously, the risk of side effects such as adverse drug reactions and non-adherence can increase."
