Polypharmacy in the elderly: A multicenter study

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the polypharmacy issue and its correlations with socio-economic variables in Turkish elderly patients.

Design: Cross-sectional

Setting: Outpatient clinics of the medical schools, departments of physical medicine and rehabilitation from 12 provinces.

Participants: A total of 1430 elderly in different geographical regions of Turkey during January 2007 to January 2008 were included.

Measurements: Patients were interviewed using a questionnaire that included demographic characteristics, current medical diagnosis, and pharmaceuticals that are used by elderly. Demographical parameters were gender, age, marital status, number of children, level of education, province, and status of retirement.

Results: The mean number of drugs was found to be higher in the females. There was a significant difference among age groups, marital status groups, and the number of children categories. The distribution of the number of drugs among education levels did not differ significantly, whereas the distribution of the number of drugs between the status of retirement and presence of chronic disease differed significantly.

Conclusions: Polypharmacy is correlated with various factors including age, sex, marital status, number of children, status of retirement, and presence of chronic medical conditions but not educational status in our study group.