Abstract
Objective This study is designed to assess the polypharmacy use by elderly patients having multimorbidity in Kirkuk, Iraq Methodology. This descriptive cross sectional study conducted over one year period (1 January - 31 December, 2017) with 105 adults (75 females and 30 males) aged ≥65 years, who attended outpatient clinic of the Geriatric Medicine Department in Azadi Teaching Hospital in Kirkuk Province in Iraq. Patients with ≥2 considered as multimorbidity subjects and patients taking >5 medications considered as polypharmacy subjects. Data were collected directly from the patients by face-to-face interview technique Results The mean age was 70.49±3.88 years. The most common diseases were Hypertension and diabetes mellitus (n: 105, 100%). It was determined that (n: 95, 90.5%) of patients aged 65 to 74 years and (n: 10, 9.5%) of patients aged 75 to 82 years had multimorbidity, the difference between the two age groups was statistically significant. The mean number of drugs used by participants was 7.3±1.1 drug/ day, the highest polypharmacy was 6,7 and 8 drugs per day (n: 31, 29.52%), (n: 30, 28.57%) and (n: 30, 28.57%) respectively. There was a statistical significant increase in polypharmacy with the increase in the multimorbidity. Conclusion The prevalence of polypharmacyin multimorbid elderly patients was very high.
Highlights
Data collected includes demographic data: age, sex, residency and body mass index, data included questions about the current health problems, a list of the medications in use.Patients with ≥2 considered as multimorbidity subjects and patients taking >5 medications considered as polypharmacy subjects
Participants had a mean number of chronic illnesses of 2.7 per patient, Table 1 details the number and ratio of chronic diseases
This study shows that the rate of multimorbidity was common (n: 95, 90.5%) in patients aged 65 to 74 years which is in agreement with a study done in Barcelonain 2019 by Marina ea al showed that the number of patients having multimorbidity aged 65–79 years was higher thanthose aged 80–94 years for both sexes [14]
Summary
This study is a cross sectional and descriptive study, conducted with 105 adults (75 females and 30 males) aged≥65 years, who attended outpatient clinic of the Geriatric Medicine Department in Azadi Teaching Hospital in Kirkuk Province in Iraq, over one year period between (1 January -31 December, 2017). Data were collected directly from the patients by face-to-face interview technique. Data collected includes demographic data: age, sex, residency and body mass index, data included questions about the current health problems, a list of the medications in use.Patients with ≥2 considered as multimorbidity subjects and patients taking >5 medications considered as polypharmacy subjects. The study was approved by the Medical Ethical Committee, Knowledge Management and Research Section Training and Human Development Department, Kirkuk Health Directorate; the reference number of the approval is 31626 in 7/10/2019.
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