LAUSR

Polypharmacy can affect children as well as adults. Although the definition is different, >5 medicines for adults and ≥2 medicines for children, the consequences of inappropriate polypharmacy remain, with increased adverse drug reactions and hospitalisations and potential for drug– drug interactions. Here we report the results of a survey of healthcare professionals (HCP) towards paediatric polypharmacy working in the UK. A crosssectional survey was undertaken over 1 month (November to December 2020). It was designed using Microsoft Forms and consisted of 12 questions: a mixture of multiplechoice, free text and fivepoint Likert scale questions. The survey was accessed via a weblink and promoted via email, Twitter, the General and Adolescent Paediatric Research Collaborative UK and Ireland network and the Neonatal and Paediatric Pharmacists Group. Participants were asked to complete the survey if they were an HCP with a role in caring for children. They were also asked to forward the link to other colleagues (snowball sampling), hence no denominator could be determined. Overall, 332 HCPs, from 73 UK hospitals, completed the survey. Of those responding, consultant grade doctors represented the largest group (51%, 170/332), followed by pharmacists (15%, 51/332) and then paediatric trainees (14%, 48/332). The most common thresholds for inappropriate polypharmacy are shown in figure 1. In addition to numerical responses some gave free text responses that related the clinical context of the prescriptions to whether they would have concerns about inappropriate polypharmacy or not, for example,