Peculiarity of drugs use for different indications in the elderly

Abstract

Background. The elderly have more drug related problems than younger patients due to impaired physiological functions, reduced renal and hepatic clearance. Elderly patients can be ill in more than one or two diseases and several drugs could be used. It is important not only to administer right drug but also to follow their use and detect adverse drug reactions and other negative consequences [1, 2]. Patients need to use drugs regularly as disease treatment is continued for a long time. Elderly patients do not always remember all prescribed medications and have dosing problems also [3]. The aim of the study. To explore drugs use in a group of the elderly and to find the main drug related problems. Methods. Thirty patients older than 65 years who agreed to be questioned answered to open and structured questions. Data about 168 drugs used by the patients were included in the analysis. A face validity of questionnaire was performed prior interview. Data about drugs were collected in a pharmacy in 2014 July – October. Drugs were grouped by indication and drug related problems were compared by gender. Drug use only for symptoms of disease and forgetfulness to use drug when prescribed were assessed as noncompliance. Categorical data were expressed as numbers (%) and were compared using the χ2 test; quantitative data were expressed as mean ± SD (standard deviation) and were compared using Student’s t-test. Data were processed using the IBM SPSS 20.0 software. Results. Seven men (age mean ± SD, 79.3±9.5 year) and twenty three women (age mean ± SD, 77.7±5.9 year) were questioned (p=0.594). The most often drugs were used for hypertension (25.1%), heart diseases (15.7%), neurological disorders (14.1%), movement disorders (11.0%). Analysis results showed that drugs did not have positive effect in 17.9% (30 cases) of all indications and 13.7% (23 cases) of diagnosis were partially controlled. The main drug relatef[...].