Use of potentially inappropriate medications by old people in a retiree’s association

Abstract Objective to verify the prevalence of the use of potentially inappropriate medications and polypharmacy by old people. Methods observational, cross-sectional, analytical, quantitative, population-based study in a retirees association. The data were collected from a questionnaire structured and created by the researchers and applied to the household. The association has 2,902 associates and underwent a stratified proportional sampling by gender, delimiting a sample of 203 old people, being 129 women and 76 men. Results the mean age of study participants was 73.1+8.13 years (90%CI:72.2-74.0), ranging from 60 to 95 years. The majority declared being married 110 (54.2%), with elementary education 145 (71.4%) and family income between 2 and 4 minimum wages 100 (49.3%). The most frequent comorbidities were: diabetes mellitus 33 (16.26%), systemic arterial hypertension 137 (67.49%), hypercholesterolemia 24 (11.8%), arthritis/arthrosis 62 (30.54%), osteoporosis 41 (20.2%), depression 27 (13.3%), among others with non-significant values. When analyzing the use of continuous and occasional medications, a median of 6 drugs used by participants was found, with 1 being the minimum number and 18 being the maximum number. The use of polypharmacy was identified in 131 (64.5%) old people and the use of potentially inappropriate medications in 160 (78.8%). Regarding the use of polypharmacy, a significant association was found with: female gender (p=0.004); and having low education (p=0.017), and single marital status (0.027). Conclusions in the context of pharmacoepidemiology, knowledge of the factors associated with the use of medicines may be useful to alert health professionals to the importance of identifying and monitoring the most vulnerable groups of old people in order to avoid the use of potentially inappropriate medications for the age group.