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Taking many medicines may increase a person's risk of being hospitalized, according to a new study.

Researchers found that patients with a single illness who take many drugs are significantly more likely to be admitted to hospital. However, those with multiple conditions who take many medicines have a near-normal risk of admission.

Taking many drugs, dubbed "polypharmacy," is becoming more common as there are more elderly people and as more people are being diagnosed with multiple health conditions.

"The commonly-held assumption that polypharmacy is always hazardous and represents poor care is misleading. Our work shows that we need more sophisticated approaches to assessing the appropriateness of each patient's set of medicines," lead author Dr. Rupert Payne who works at the Cambridge Center for Health Services Research said in a news release.

After analyzing primary care data from 180,815 Scottish adult with long-term clinical condition, researchers found for patients with only a single medical condition taking 10 or more medications was associated with a more than three-fold increase in the chance of having an unplanned hospitalization compared to patients who took only one to three medicines.

However, patients with six or more medical conditions who took 10 or more medications only increased their chance of admission by 1.5 times compared to the group taking one to three medicines.

"This work is highly relevant to the development and assessment of prescribing skills in general practice where the majority of long-term clinical care is undertaken and where doctors often prescribe drugs for long periods of time. It is particularly important at times when doctors are caring for older patients and those with multiple medical conditions in whom multiple medications are often used," said Payne.

The findings are published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.