Analysis of drug-related problems in polymedicated patients over the age of 64 in primary care. A cross-sectional descriptive study.

OBJECTIVE

To identify drug-related problems using the STOPP/START criteria of patients over 64 years polymedicated with 12 or more drugs.

METHOD

Descriptive cross-sectional. We analysed 172 cases randomly selected from the register of 1500 polymedicated patients of the Quality Improvement Programme for Chronic and Polymedicated Patients of the Galician Health Service for the area of Santiago in 2017. Drug-related problems and the negative results associated with medication were recorded. Treatment compliance was assessed by the Morisky-Green-Levine test. Nursing interventions were recorded based on the Programme's nursing report. Bivariate analysis of the data was performed and the association between the variables was estimated by calculating the odds ratio (OR).

RESULTS

The 56.4% of the patients were women. The mean age was 77.34±10.11 years. The most common problem was the likelihood of presenting adverse effects, observed in 64.1% of the patients. Women were more likely to have this problem than men (OR: 1.37; 95% CI: 1.06-1.78). Eighteen percent of the patients were considered non-compliant with the prescribed treatment, according to the Morisky-Green-Levine test. Of the patients, 25.6% had received health education interventions.

CONCLUSIONS

Nurses must periodically re-evaluate patient medication to check adherence to treatment and determine whether it is causing any type of adverse effect, as well as incorporate health education interventions in this field into their activity.