Abstract
Abstract Elderly patients with cardiovascular events are characterized by high drug consumptions. Whether high drug consumptions are related to physical activity is not known. In order to examine whether physical activity is related to drug consumption in the elderly, patients older than 65 years (n = 250) with a recent cardiovascular event were studied. Physical activity was analyzed according to the Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE) score and related to drug consumption. PASE score was 72.4 ± 45.0 and drug consumption was 8.3 ± 2.2. Elderly patients with greater comorbidity took more drugs (8.7 ± 2.1) and are less active (PASE = 64.4 ± 50.6) than patients with Cumulative Illness Rating Scale severity score higher than 1.8 than those with a score lower than 1.8 (76.3 ± 41.4, p < 0.05, and 8.0 ± 2.0, p = 0.006, respectively). Multivariate analysis correlation confirmed that PASE score is negatively associated with drug consumption (β = −0.149, p = 0.031), independently of several variables including comorbidity. Thus, physical activity is inversely related to drug consumption in elderly patients with cardiovascular events. This inverse relationship may be attributable to the high degree of comorbidity observed in elderly patients in whom poor level of physical activity and high drug consumption are predominant.
Highlights
Epidemiologic studies clearly demonstrate that cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in most countries [25]
Prevalence of comorbidity was high in this population considering the 80.8 % prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD), 12.0 % of stroke, 42.4 % of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), 56.8 % of diabetes, 4 % of chronic heart failure (CHF), and 13.6 % of renal failure
Our study demonstrates that physical activity is inversely related to drug consumption in elderly subjects with cardiovascular events undergoing cardiac surgery
Summary
Epidemiologic studies clearly demonstrate that cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in most countries [25]. A rise in cardiovascular disease mortality rates is expected in developing countries over the 25 years due to the increase of the aging population [25]. The vast majority of people aged ≥65 years is characterized by a condition of comorbidity and disability [6, 32]. Both conditions lead to a frailty state and, to high drug consumption [5, 29]. Subjects represent 13 % of the US population, but receive 34 % of all drug prescriptions [31]. In the UK, elderly patients take on average two to five prescription medications on a regular basis (4±1), and polypharmacy occurs in 20–50 % of patients [19]
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