Table 3 Factors influencing rate of polypharmacy in older patients with multilevel adjusted final models

 Age, median (IQR)

0.99 (0.96–1.02)

1.00 (0.96–1.04)

0.99 (0.94–1.04)

 Gender

 Female

1.49 (1.11–1.99)*

1.76 (1.17–2.65)*

1.08 (0.53–2.19)

 Ethnicity

Reference: Malay

 Chinese

0.94 (0.58–1.53)

0.93 (0.50–1.74)

1.65 (0.23–1.63)

 Indian

1.11 (0.56–2.18)

1.21 (0.53–2.77)

0.45 (0.06–3.29)

 Other

2.16 (0.49–9.52)

1.02 (0.35–3.02)

4.20 (0.62–28.24)

 Education level

 Primary

1.61 (1.12–2.32)*

1.68 (1.00–2.83)

1.69 (0.61–4.67)

 Secondary

1.44 (0.93–2.23)

1.85 (0.99–3.46)

1.73 (0.59–5.05)

 Tertiary

1.08 (0.47–2.5)

1.62 (0.51–5.17)

0.60 (0.07–5.34)

 Multimorbidity

 Yes

14.21 (8.46–23.88)*

36.37 (17.39–76.09)*

5.54 (2.03–15.13)*

 Experience

1.01 (0.97–1.05)

1.02 (0.96–1.09)

1.00 (0.96–1.06)

 Working hours

1.00 (0.97–1.03)

0.97 (0.92–1.02)

1.01 (0.97–1.04)

 Gender

 Female

1.14 (0.63–2.04)

0.64 (0.32–1.29)

0.83 (0.27–2.55)

 FMS

 Yes

2.81 (0.79–9.91)

4.66 (1.11–19.5)*

–

 Place of graduation

 Local

1.16 (0.76–1.78)

0.96 (0.52–1.80)

0.78 (0.31–1.97)

 Workload

0.99 (0.97–1.00)

0.98 (0.97–1.00)

0.98 (0.96–1.01)

 Sector

 Public

6.37 (1.17–34.71)*

–

–

Operation day per week

 Six

1.35 (0.50–3.62)

1.31 (0.76–2.24)

2.22 (0.17–29.28)

 Seven

2.73 (0.88–8.45)

1.80 (0.20–16.27)

4.44 (0.29–67.57)

 Practice with FMS

 Yes

1.56 (0.63–3.84)

0.93 (0.41–2.09)

7.68 (0.72–82.32)

 Practice type

 Solo

3.09 (0.94–10.11)

2.91 (0.16–53.1)

4.36 (0.98–19.31)

 Urban location

 Yes

0.74 (0.33–1.64)

0.78 (0.44–1.41)

0.82 (0.19–3.50)