Determination of the relationship between rational drug usage and considerations of life quality-fall risk in use in hospitality in geriatric clinic

Background and aim: As the organ functions decrease with aging, there is an increase in the number of chronic diseases. Studies show that prescribed drug number increases by aging. Multidrug use causes side effects, drug interaction risk, treatment cost, hospitalization requirement, medical treatment nonconformity rates and related problems. We aimed in this study, to investigate the relationship between inappropriate drug use rates and quality of life-risk of falls in Geriatric Service. Materials and Methods: We included into our study 342 patients (65 years and over) hospitalized at Geriatric Service, Faculty of Medicine Gaziantep University. We performed participants START/STOPP criteria, SF-36 Life Quality Scale and Hendrich II Fall Risk Scale. However, we looked at the age, sex, number of chronic illnesses, medications, hospitalizations in the last one year. Results: Median age of participants was 72.0±6.4, sex ratio was %55.0 female and %45.0 male. According to the STOPP criteria, we found that the number of patients using at least one inappropriate drug was 88 (25.7%). According to the START criteria, at least one drug use that was neglected in the patients was found to be 225 (65.8%). Conclusions: In conclusion, this study showed that the majority of patients over 65 years have chronic illnesses, and polypharmacy together whit this condition. Polypharmacy causes increase in adverse events and wrong uses of drugs. We believe that prevention of inappropriate drug use will increase life quality of patients and will decrease the risk of falls with the number of hospitalizations.