Quality assessment of drug use in the elderly

Introduction The objective is to evaluate the quality of medication utiliza tion through the analysis of the pattern of usage, the degree of compliance to essential drug lists, therapeutic value and by drug interactions found among women over 60 years of age. Methods Six hundred thirty-four women enrolled at the Open University of th e Third Age were studied. Data was collected through pattern-oriented teste d questionnaires. The variables examined were related to drugs and to drug utilization. The units of analysis used were the drugs and the individual. Results Of 634 women that participated in the study, 9, 1% did not use drug s. The number of medications taken vary from 1 to 17. The average is 4.0 dr ugs/woman. Among the 2.510 pharmaceutical specialties mentioned by the inte rviewed, 538 different substances Ic-err identified. About 26% of the medic ations were in agreement with the recommendations of the World Health Organ ization and 17% with recommendations of the "Relacao Nacional dr Medicament os Essenciais". Seventeen percent of the drugs are inappropriate for Erse i n seniors; 14,1% of the women may suffer consequences for taking drugs of t he same therapeutic class, and 15,5 % are exposed to interactions. Conclusions The data suggest that the pattern of the medication utilization is considerably influenced by the medical prescription and that their qual ity is harmed by the low selectiveness of the pharmaceutical market.