PRESCRIBED MEDICATION AND NUTRITION OF SOCIAL CARE PATIENTS IN CRETE,GREECE

Objective: The aim of this study was to make a systematic registration of a group of 354 social care indigent patients in relation to: their pharmaceutical needs: the conditions for which it was prescribed, its cost, and details of prescriptions. In addition patients' eating patt erns relating to and knowledge of how to use their medication was asse ssed. They were compared to a control group of 153 Social Security pat ients. Subjects: The Social Care indigent patients were of low income, consisting of groups such as unmarried mothers with their children an d Greeks emigrants coming back home from other countries (Albania, Rus sia, Georgia, Ukraine, Romania etc.). The socio-demographic profiles o f this group reveal an unemployment rate of 74% and an illiteracy rate of 18%. As regards marital status, 20% are bachelors and 12% divorcee s. Results: The results of the study indicated no significant differen ce between the two groups in the mean cost of prescription (40 ECU for Social Care patients vs 32 ECU for Social Security patients), in the mean number of medication per prescription (2.6 vs 2.6 respectively), in the percentages of the Daily Defined Doses and the cost of the vari ous categories of drugs. For both groups, the most common drugs were t hose for the Cardiovascular system (30% vs 26%), Gastrointestinal syst em (17% vs 27%) and Nervous system (16% vs 18%). The most common diagn osis was Hypertension (10% vs 8%) and the most common drugs were Ranit idine (3% vs 2%), Diclofenac (3% vs 3%), Salbutamol (3% vs 3%) and Par acetamol (2% vs 2%). Significant differences between Social Care patie nts to Social Security patients respectively were found regarding: kno wing how to take their medication correctly (47% vs 77%), knowing for how long treatment needed to be taken (21% vs 43%), requesting informa tion from the pharmacist (39% vs 68%), knowledge of dietary instructio ns regarding medication (17% vs 41%) and in smoking more than 20 cigar ettes per day (15% vs 3%). Conclusions: The results indicated that the Social Care patients, in comparison with the patients of the Social S ecurity, need more education and more help in the area of the proper u se of drugs and in the personal contact that this procedure involves.