Drug prescriptions of patients treated in a geriatric outpatient ward of a university hospital: a descriptive cross-sectional study

The scope of this study was to evaluate drug prescriptions for elderly patients in the geriatric outpatient ward of a hospital. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in a university hospital, with the application of a questionnaire. Patients aged >60 years were interviewed about their drug prescriptions and a total of 208 patients were interviewed. The average number of drugs used per person was 3.8 and the drugs most used were for the cardiovascular system (37%). 406 potential interactions were identified in 140 patients (67.3%), and duplicate therapy was found in two prescriptions. The potentially inappropriate drug most used for the elderly was nifedipine (2.4%). Data from this study support the relevance of the issue of drug use among the elderly, thus reinforcing the importance of the evaluation of the process of the prescription of drugs for this population.