Vijayashree Thyagaraj, Anuradha H. V, Sneha C, Srihari G. Kulkarni
BACKGROUND
The geriatric population is increasing as a result of advanced medical facilities. This population also faces a number of medical health challenges. They tend to receive multiple medications often leading to Drug-Drug Interactions (DDIs) Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) and other clinical consequences, which compromises their quality of life if not endangering it as well. There are few Indian studies focusing on this problem. Hence, this study was undertaken with the aim to assess the polypharmacy pattern, proportion of DDIs and adverse drug reactions in the geriatric population in a tertiary care hospital.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This was a cross-sectional study wherein data from 201 geriatric inpatient’s prescriptions were collected. The prescriptions were assessed for demographic details such as age, gender, comorbidities and drugs prescribed. All prescriptions were evaluated for polypharmacy, DDIs and ADRs. DDIs were assessed using Micromedex software. Patients were stratified into groups and DDIs were compared between the groups, gender and also with number of drugs used.
RESULTS
There were 201 patients with a mean age of approximately 70 years. Polypharmacy occurred in 73.63% of them with mean number of drugs being 6.23. The number of drugs used increased significantly with age (p=0.0001). Hypertension was the most common comorbidity. Polypharmacy was strongly associated with hypertension and dyslipidaemia. A total of 129 (64.17%) patients accounted for 425 potential DDIs. The most common drug involved in DDIs was aspirin. A subset analysis of ADRs showed an occurrence of 50.68% with 10.81% being definitely avoidable.
CONCLUSION
Elderly individuals are at increased risk of being on polypharmacy. This comes with the risk of several potential DDIs, which in turn may lead to adverse drug reactions, which results in morbidity. Doctors involved in the care of the elderly should be aware of these facts and exercise caution while adding any new drug.
