Drug Use by the Elderly in Italy

Abstract

Objectives To evaluate drug consumption in the elderly aged 75 years or more living at home. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Old-old (i.e., >75 y) people living in central Turin, a city in northern Italy. Participants Thirty-four general practitioners (GPs), with 50 or more old-old people in their patient list, randomly chosen among the GPs working in the Unità Socio-Sanitaria Locale I (Local Health Unit I) of Turin; 261 old-old people (135 men and 126 women) randomly selected from the practice records. Methods Data were collected by the GP through a structured questionnaire during an office visit and by a social worker in a home interview within 14 days of the GP visit GPs were asked to record every diagnosis and drug currently taken by the patient; social workers were trained in the administration of a structured questionnaire exploring sociodemographic variables, drug use (following the medication inventory strategy), disability, cognitive functions, and depressive symptoms. Results Nearly all subjects (95% of the women and 91% of the men) were taking at least 1 drug. The overall number of drugs recorded was 917 (47.1% for men and 52.9% for women), of which 172 (18.8%) were not reported by the GP but were recorded during the social worker's visit. The mean number of drugs was 3.2 for men and 3.8 for women, with a statistically significant difference (p = 0.02), while the mean number of diagnoses was 2.3 and 2.6, respectively. The study of correlates of drug consumption showed a strong association with number of diagnoses at univariate analysis (p < 0.0001, with a linear correlation coefficient of 0.64). No multivariate model showed a clear superiority over the simple one containing only the number of diagnoses in predicting the total number of drugs taken. Cardiovascular, nervous system, and alimentary tract drugs were the most frequently used. A total of 107 subjects (41%) were taking at least 1 unreported drug. Conclusions Our study shows high drug consumption among old-old people, with nearly 20% of drugs taken not reported by the GP. These results emphasize the need for an essential therapeutic approach in old-old people, prescribing only drugs of scientifically proven efficacy. Furthermore, the GP must make more effort when collecting a drug history from old-old patients.

Polypharmacy in elderly hospitalised patients in Slovakia

“…On the other hand, several studies indicate that increasing age is accompanied by a rise in the number of drugs taken [11,21,28]. In our study, women were more frequently present in the group of patients with polypharmacy, similarly to other relevant studies [19,22,23,28].…”

“…The ten most frequently prescribed pharmacological classes in the analysed group included, in particular, those that influence the cardiovascular system, in line with the findings of other studies on polypharmacy [18,19,[21][22][23]. The high proportion of anti-thrombotic agents, represented predominantly by acetylsalicylic acid, can be considered as positive, since ischemic heart disease was the most frequent diagnosis.…”

Medication burden of Saudi Arabian women receiving antiresorptive therapy

“…In adults in Great Britain, the >75-year age group takes a mean daily drug dosage of 2.5,24 whereas Italians consume a mean dosage of 3.5 drugs daily25 and Danes a mean dosage of four drugs daily 26. In our study, Saudi ≥ 65-year-old women with osteoporosis were taking additional daily medications at a mean of 7.78, which in comparison to the reported literature, is high.…”

Evaluation of polypharmacy and complementary therapy use in patients >=65 years, attending to Family Medicine Outpatient Clinic of Şişli Etfal Training and Research Hospital

“…[14] ‹talya'da yap›lan bir çal›flmada 75 yafl ve üstü ‹talyanlar'›n hemen tümü-nün (erkeklerin %91'i ve kad›nlar›n %95'i) en az bir adet, üçte birinin ise befl veya daha fazla ilaç kulland›¤› saptanm›flt›r. [15] Ülkemizde huzurevinde yaflayan bir grup yafll›da fonksiyonel-kognitif de¤erlendirme ve ilaç kullan›m› ile ilgili yap›lan bir çal›flmada kad›nlar›n %94.4'ünün, erkeklerin %80.4'ünün en az bir ilaç ald›¤› tespit edilmifltir. Befl ve daha fazla ilaç kullanma oran› kad›nlarda %42.6 ve erkeklerde %22.8 olarak bulunmufltur.…”