Drugs and Constipation in Elderly in Nursing Homes: What Is the Relation?

Table 3

Variables associated with constipation. The analyses were performed with either number of drugs (Analysis 1), anticholinergic effect (Analysis 2), or groups of drugs (Analysis 3) as independent variables in backward logistic regression analyses.

Independent variables	Constipation
	Analysis 1		Analysis 2		Analysis 3
	OR (95% CI)	𝑃 value	OR (95% CI)	𝑃 value	OR (95% CI)	𝑃 value
Number of drugs^1	1.04 (0.94–1.15)	0.43
Drugs with markedly anticholinergic effect^1 (𝑛=17)			3.69 (0.78–17.53)	0.10
Benzodiazepine derivatives (N05BA) (𝑛=53)					2.80 (1.12–7.04)	0.03
Other antidepressants (N06AX) (𝑛=42)					3.07 (1.09–8.68)	0.03
Vitamin B12 (B03BA) (𝑛=33)					0.39 (0.16–0.93)	0.03
Levothyroxine sodium (H03AA) (𝑛=26)					0.27 (0.10–0.72)	0.01
Propionic acid derivatives (M01AE) (𝑛=13)					7.00 (0.75–65.08)	0.09
Natural opium alkaloids (N02AA) (𝑛=17)					5.00 (0.95–25.94)	0.06
Age^1	1.00 (0.95–1.05)	0.94	0.99 (0.95–1.04)	0.70	1.01 (0.96–1.06)	0.78
Gender (female)^1	1.66 (0.86–3.21)	0.13	1.53 (0.81–2.91)	0.19	1.80 (0.89–3.61)	0.10
Activity of daily living	0.73 (0.63–0.85)	<0.001	0.72 (0.63–0.84)	<0.001	0.71 (0.60–0.84)	<0.001
Intake of fluids (glass/day)	—	—	—	—	0.90 (0.81–1.01)	0.07
Hypothyroidism (𝑛=20)	0.19 (0.07–0.56)	<0.01	0.26 (0.09–0.71)	<0.01	—	—
Diabetes (𝑛=266)	—	—	—	—	0.35 (0.14–0.88)	0.02
S-creatinine^2(𝑛=254)	0.54 (0.27–1.10)	0.09	—	—	—	—

Age and gender have been included in all analyses regardless of significance. ¹ Number of drugs and anticholinergic effect have been included in the respective analyses regardless of significance. ² Serum Creatinine above reference values (90 and 105 μmol/L for women and men, resp.). —Has not been included in the final analyses.