Cardiometabolic diseases and active aging - polypharmacy in control

• Autor(a) principal: Santos,Adriana Nancy Medeiros dos
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Nogueira,Dulcineia Rebecca Cappelletti, Gutierrez,Beatriz Aparecida Ozello, Chubaci,Rosa Yuka Sato, Oliveira,Caroline Ribeiro de Borja
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0034-71672020000200168
• topic: Comorbidity; Chronic Disease; Elderly; Polypharmacy; Pharmacological Treatment

ABSTRACT Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of cardiometabolic diseases and their association with polypharmacy in elderly people at the University of the Third Age (Portuguese acronym: UnATI). Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive, analytical study with 121 elderly patients. The prevalence ratio, Pearson’s Chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test were used as measures of association. Results: At the mean age of 68.3, most elderly had at least one cardiometabolic disease (82.6%), of which hypertension was the most prevalent (71.1%), and consumed prescription drugs of continuous use (92.6%). Almost half of the elderly (48.2%) used combinations of drugs, which suggests a high cardiovascular risk. Polypharmacy due to prescription was observed in almost one-third (28.6%) of the sample, associated with the use of antihypertensives (p=0.004), antidiabetics (p=0.000) or lipid-lowering agents (p<0.000). Conclusions: Clinical guidelines recommend changes in lifestyle, but increased pharmacotherapy prevails in practice, which increases the risk of adverse events, especially in old age.