Abstract
The growth of the aging population leads to the increase of chronic diseases, of the burden of multimorbility, and of the complexity polypharmacy. The prevalence of medication errors rises in patients with polypharmacy in primary care, and this is a major concern to healthcare systems. This study reviews the published literature on the inappropriate use of medicines in order to articulate recommendations on how to reduce it in chronic patients, particularly in those who are elderly, polymedicated, or multipathological. A systematic review of articles published from January 2000 to October 2015 was performed using MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychInfo, Scopus, The Cochrane Library, and Index Medicus databases. We selected 80 studies in order to analyse the content that addressed the question under consideration. Our literature review found that half of patients know what their prescribed treatment is; that most of elderly people take five or more medications a day; that in elderly, polymedicated people, the probability of a medication error occurring is higher; that new tools have been recently developed to reduce errors; that elderly patients can understand written information but the presentation and format is an important factor; and that a high percentage of patients have remaining doubts after their visit. Thus, strategies based on the evidence should be applied in order to reduce medication errors.
Highlights
The older, multimorbid population with chronic conditions is expanding globally, and this inevitably means a growth in complex polypharmacy and associated problems [1]
The aim of this study is to review the published literature on the inappropriate use of medicines and to articulate recommendations on how to reduce it in chronic patients, those who are elderly, polymedicated, or multipathological
We carried out a systematic review of articles published from January 2000 to October 2015 and indexed in MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychInfo, Scopus, The Cochrane Library, and Index Medicus
Summary
The older, multimorbid population with chronic conditions is expanding globally, and this inevitably means a growth in complex polypharmacy and associated problems [1]. The frequency of medication errors is high in patients with polypharmacy in primary care [2]. Medication errors are a major concern to healthcare systems [3] because they can reduce the therapeutic effectiveness and represent an incremental cost [4]. It is common to analyse the role of professionals in medication errors. In the case of primary care, previous studies have underlined the role that patients and their caregivers play in these mistakes [4,5,6]. Patient medication errors usually have minor consequences or none at all but, in some cases, they have serious health consequences, including hospitalization and death [4]
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