A study of used drugs for elderly patients at an oncology hospital

• Autor(a) principal: Correia,Beatriz Lourenço
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Outros Autores: Oliveira,Anabel de, Campos,Laura Teixeira de, Carneiro,Marcela Bechara
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Geriatrics, Gerontology and Aging (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://ggaging.com/details/209
• topic: Aged, pharmaceutical preparations, drug utilization review.

<p><b>OBJECTIVE:</b> Population aging is a global reality and is happening mainly due to improved sanitary conditions and quality of life. Because the elderly consume most of the world's production of drugs and are more sensitive to the effects of certain drug classes, tools were developed to identify inappropriate drugs for this population class or whose use should be evaluated. One of these instruments is the Beers-Fick Criteria, used to assess and intervene in the use of medications in the elderly. There are few publications related to drug therapy in the elderly in Brazil, which demonstrates the need for more researches.<br> <b>METHODS:</b> This is a quantitative, cross-sectional, retrospective, descriptive study, aimed to identify which are the inappropriate drugs prescribed for seniors over 65 years old in an oncology hospital and how often are they prescribed. The instrument used for the selection of the drugs studied was the Beers-Fick criteria.<br> <b>RESULTS:</b> We analyzed 8,860 prescriptions containing inappropriate drugs for seniors made to 1,448 patients, of whom 451 (31,1%) were elderly and the rate of use of these drugs was 28%.<br> <b>CONCLUSION:</b> We conclude that the frequency of prescriptions containing inappropriate drugs for the elderly is high, which leads us to realize the need for development of clinical protocols for prescribing for the elderly to ensure patient safety and rational use of medication.</p>