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Profile of drug utilization in the elderly living in Porto Alegre, Brazil

Fabiana TÔRRES FAGGIANI1, Guilherme SCHROETER1, Sandro LUZ PACHECO1, Antônio Carlos ARAÚJO DE SOUZA2, Maria Cristina WERLANG1, Geraldo ATTÍLIO DE CARLI3, Fernanda BUENO MORRONE1

  1. 1Faculty of Pharmacy, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
  2. 2Geriatrics and Gerontologic Institute, Hospital São Lucas, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
  3. 3Faculty of Pharmacy and Geriatrics and Gerontologic Institute, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

Volume 5, Issue 4 · pp. 179–184 · PUBLISHED 2007 · DOI:

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ABSTRACT

Objective: To describe the profile of drug utilization in the elderly living in Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. Methods: An observational and cross-sectional population-based study to investigate the characteristics of the population, sources of information and types of drugs used by the elderly was performed. Four hundred and eighty patients were recruited from data supplied by the City Hall of Porto Alegre. The elderly were interviewed individually during the period from January to May 2006 by trained interviewers. A validated pharmacotherapy questionnaire was used for data collection and data were tabulated and analyzed by the SPSS 11.5 computer program. Results: Of the 480 patients interviewed, 13.8% did not use any medication. Cardiovascular system drugs represented the pharmacological class most used by the elderly (64.0%). When ill, 71.9% of these individuals visited the doctor, while 36.9% self-medicated. For the majority (50.2%), drugs were identified by their labels. Only 41.2% of the elderly understood medical prescriptions and 68.3% of the patients studied obtained the necessary information for the appropriate use of therapy from their doctors. Conclusions: The present study suggests that a pharmaceutical care program for the treatment, prevention, and use of medications may provide a higher efficiency to elderly drug therapy.

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    FAGGIANI, F. T., SCHROETER, G., PACHECO, S. L., SOUZA, A. C. A. D., WERLANG, M. C., CARLI, G. A. D., & MORRONE, F. B. (2007). Profile of drug utilization in the elderly living in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Pharmacy Practice, 5(4), 179–184.