[Study of polymedicated patients over 65 years-old in an urban primary care centre]

Abstract

Objective: To identify and characterise the polymedicated population over 65 years-old; and to determine the prevalence of drugs and the diseases in this population subgroup.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: A primary care centre Zaidín-Centro in Granada. Andalusian Public Health Service.

Participants: A total of 305 patients over 65 years-old taking polypharmacy (defined as use of five or more drugs, during a period equal to or greater than six months by any route) selected by stratified sampling by sex, age and number of drugs consumed.

Principal measurements: The analysed variables were sex, age, number of diseases, number of drugs and medical doctor.

Results: The prevalence of polypharmacy in patients over 65 years-old was 33.77%. These patients were using an average number of drugs of 8.7±2.5 and had an average number of diseases of 5.56±1.89. The prevalence of polypharmacy was greater among women, but differences decreased in people more than 85 years old. The antihypertensive pharmacological group was the most commonly used, in accordance with the most frequent disease, arterial hypertension. We found a strong relationship between the number of drugs and the number of diseases (p=0.05).

Conclusions: Chronic use of drugs in the elderly is of considerable magnitude, affecting one out of every three. Polypharmacy in the elderly is a common and serious problem that needs to be reviewed and evaluated continuously.