The prevalence of polypharmacy in elderly: A cross section study from Bosnia and Herzegovina

Introduction: We define polypharmacy as a simultaneous usage of five or more drugs, an over usage of medically indicated drugs, or a therapy regime in which at least one type of drug is unnecessary. Since the elderly often suffer from multiple chronic diseases, they generally use multiple drugs. Objective: The aim was to estimate the prevalence of elderly (>65) patients who continuously used five or more drugs, to single out the most frequently used drugs in reference with sex and age, and to identify potentially inadequate drugs. Method: The research was actually a cross section study covering 432 consecutive patients older than 65, who were registered with two family clinic teams at the Banja Luka Health Centre. We examined all electronic medical charts of our target patients and entered data on their age, sex, chronic diagnoses, and continuous therapies into questionnaires designed for the purpose of our study for October-December 2015 period. Results: There were 170 (39.35%) male and 262 (60.65%) female patients. The average age was 73.88 ± 6.5. Furthermore, 189 (43.75%) patients used five or more drugs as follows: 61 (14.1%) patients with five drugs, 44 (10.2%) with six drugs, 49 (11.3%) with seven drugs, 17 (3.9%) with eight drugs, 11 (2.5%) with nine drugs, and 7 (1.6%) patients with ten drugs. We found no statistically relevant difference for patients with polypharmacy between the number of drugs in reference with either sex (p=0.119) or age (p=0.555). Mostly used potentially inadequate drugs were nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and benzodiazepines. Conclusion: Polypharmacy was detected with almost half the target patients. A clinical assessment of a family doctor along with an individual treatment plan based upon medical, functional, and social conditions should be the foundation of the rational drug prescription at family clinic departments.