Polifarmácia em idosos e a associação com doenças crônicas e perdas funcionais ; Polyfarmacy in the elderly and the association with chronic diseases and functional losses

Objective: to characterize the use of drugs of cronic use in population composed of elderly people ages 60 years or more in association with chronical diseases and functional losses. Methodology: this is a cross sectional observational study, grounded on surveyed information by the EPIDOSO Project (phase 2), based on surveys established in the CEE (Centro de Estudos do Envelhecimento), which belongs to the discipline of Clinical Preventive Medicine (UNIFESP). It´s about a middle class population, with individuals in both genders residents in Vila Clementino. The Great Geriatric Evaluation has been use for the data collection and with this instrument, 1002 elderly were interview. The data were transferred to an electronic spreadsheet (Excel®2003) and the statistical evaluations were arranged using the SPSS software 20,0 version. The dependent variable is the polypharmacy (use of 5 or more medicines) and logistic regression models were devise in order to evaluate the association between the use of polypharmacy and the independent variables. Results: the average age was 73 years old, being 67.2% females, with predominance of coupled (52.4%), with 8 years or more of study (66.1%). The prevalence of the medicine use was 92.7%. The average rates were use of medicine = 4.8, number of diagnosis = 8.7 and compromised activities of daily living (ADL) = 3.0. The polypharmacy was verified in 50.0% of the elderly and, among women, 53.8% has this habit. Within the interviewees, the most prevalence disease was the Arterial Hypertension (71.9%) and the medications operating in the cardiovascular system were the most used (34.6%). The risk factors to polypharmacy were: females (OR 1.42; CI 95% 1.06-1.91); not engaged in remunerated activities (OR 2.06; CI 95% 1.47-2.89); have 4 to 7 diseases (OR 3.57; CI 95% 1.74-7.32), have 7 or more compromised ADL (OR 1.82; CI 95% 1.23-2.69). The variables with more correlation with the use of five or more medicines are: females, bigger amount of health problems, not gainfully employed, have ...