Comorbid conditions and drug use with or without prescription among patients aged over 65 that admi̇tted to family medicine clinic

OBJECTIVE: he aim of this study is to determine the multimorbidity rates and to investigate comorbid conditions among individuals that admitted to our family medicine clinics; and to examine these patients' prescription drug use and OTC drug use. METHODS: Within this study which was designed in a cross-sectional method; people 65 years and older that admitted to two clinics belong to AUFM Family Medicine Department (University Clinic and Dogu Garaji Clinic) were conducted face-to-face questionnaire between January 2016 - June 2016. RESULTS: We have reached at a total of 240 patients aged 65 and over. 58% of the patients (n = 140) were female; 42% (n = 100) were male. The average age of the patients was 71.02 (min.:65; maks.:87; SD: 5.39). The average number of the patients' chronic diseases was 3.61 (min: 0, max: 12; SD: 2.06); the multimorbidity rate (chronic disease count ≥ 2) was 85% (n = 204) (86% in women, 83% in men). The most common disease among both sexes and all age groups was hypertension (HT) with a rate of 71.7% ( n = 172). The second frequent seen disease was diabetes mellitus (DM) (40%; n = 96); and the third frequent seen disease was hyperlipidemia (HPLD) (31.3%; n = 75). The most common three comorbid diseases among patients with hypertension were DM (44%), HPLD (37.8%) and ASKVH (32%), respectively. The average number of the drugs that partipicants were using daily was 4.26 (min.:0; max: 15; SD: 2.82). In our study, the rate of polypharmacy (the number of medications used daily ≥ 5) was found 42% (n = 100) (38% in women, 47% in men). The rate of OTC drug use was 20% (n = 48) (21% in women, 18% in men). Patients were using the OTC drugs most frequently with the proposal of a 'pharmacist' (34%; n = 16). The rate of natural / herbal products use among participants was 34.6% (n = 83) (39% in women, 28% in men). The most commonly used products were sage (22%; n = 27), lime (18%; n = 22) and ginger (6%; n = 8), respectively. Patients stated that they use these products most often for 'flu / common cold' (21%; n = 18). CONCLUSION: Multimorbidity, comorbidity, polypharmacy, OTC drug use and the use of herbal products is very high among the elderly patients which constitute an important part of the patient burden in the family medicine clinics. In this case, family physicians should take into consideration of these conditions which will directly affect the clinical decision making process for the elderly patients'health care. Key words: Family medicine, comorbidity, multimorbidity, polypharmacy, over-thecounter (OTC) drug use, the use of herbal products