Evalution of patients registered to Ankara City Hospital home care unit for inapropriate medication use

Objective: The most important demographic phenomenon of the century we live in is the aging of the population. Organ functions decrease with aging and chronic diseases increase with it. This situation requires the use of multiple drugs in the elderly. It is important to determine and evaluate the use of potentially inappropriate drugs in elderly patients. In this study, it was aimed to determine the use of multiple drugs in patients aged 65 and over registered in Ankara City Hospital Home Health Unit, to determine whether the drugs are suitable according to 2015 AGS Beers Criteria and 2019 AGS Beers criteria, to determine whether there are clinically significant differences between the two versions. Materials and Methods: Our research is a retrospective type study with descriptive features. The universe is composed of all patients aged 65 and over who are registered at the Ankara City Hospital Home Health Unit. The data collection template created for our study was filled in by looking at the patient files. Data were collected between 01.09.2019 and 01.11.2019. 659 patient files registered in Ankara City Hospital Home Health Unit were scanned. Some of the participants in our study were excluded due to reasons such as death and missing information in the patient file, and data of 493 patients were analyzed. Data obtained for statistical evaluation IBM SPSS Statistics 22 program was used. Results: The study included 493 patients, 354 (%71,8) of whom were female. The average age was 83.74 ± 7.68. The average number of diagnosed diseases was 4.77 ± 1.80, and the most common diseases were hypertension, generalized anxiety disorder, and diabetes mellitus. At least one drug used by 490 patients and the mean number of drugs was 7.02 ± 2.87. The most commonly used drug groups were nervous system and cardiovascular system drugs. Polypharmacy was detected in 306 (%62,4) patients and excessive polypharmacy in 91 (%18,6) patients. PIM status was determined in 211 patients according to 2015 and 2019 Beers criteria. PIM status was determined in 358 active substances according to the 2015 Beers Criteria and 383 active substances according to the 2019 Beers Criteria. The most common incompatibility was found in the antipsychotic quetiapine according to both versions. The frequency of PIM was higher in patients with polypharmacy compared to both versions. Conclusion: The proportion of PIM among the patients in proportion to the polypharmacy is also almost half, and the presence of polypharmacy increases the frequency of PIM status. Although the number of patients was equal in terms of determining the PIM status of 2015 and 2019 AGS Beers Criteria, incompatibility was found in more active substances in 2019 version. Keywords: Polypharmacy, Beers Criteria, Inappropriate Drug Use, Home Health