Relationship between anticholinergic load and self-perceived health in a population aged 44 years or older

Objective: To investigate the relationship between anticholinergic load (ACL) and self-perceived general health in adults in a medium-sized municipality in southern Brazil. Methods: This cross-sectional study was based on 2015 data from a medium-sized municipality in southern Brazil. All respondents aged 44 years or older who reported using drugs in the 2 weeks before the interview were included (n = 662). The Anticholinergic Drug Scale was used to measure the ACL. Self-perceived health was categorized as positive self-perception (PSP) or negative self-perception (NSP). Crude and adjusted Poisson regression analyses were conducted to investigate the association between ACL and self-perceived health. Results: NSP was found in 50.91% of 662 respondents. Significant ACL, older age, lower economic status, lower education, polypharmacy, and depression correlated with a higher frequency of NSP. Individuals with significant ACL had a prevalence of NSP of 1.27 (95% confidence interval: 1.02 – 1.58), and each additional ACL level represented a 6.10% higher chance of worse self-perceived health, regardless of confounding factors. Conclusions: An association was found between significant ACL and NSP, with an effect dependent on ACL level.