Pattern of drug use among elderly patients in public and private hospitals in Dar-as Salaam.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the use of potentially inappropriate medications in the elderly patients (> or = 65 years of age) according to the 2002 Beers criteria.

METHOD: This was a retrospective and prospective study that was carried between December 2006 and June 2007. During this period, a total of 514 prescriptions of elderly patients were collected and examined for the pattern of drug use. The study involved reviewing prescriptions of patients who are 65 years old and above. Patients were those who were attending the clinics in the selected hospitals during the period of the study. In addition, files of patients who had attended the hospitals for not longer than the past 12 months were reviewed. The hospitals included two public hospitals (Mwananyamala municipal hospital and Muhimbili National Hospital) and two privately-owned hospitals (Aga Khan and Hindu Mandal hospitals) in Dar es Salaam.

RESULTS: The study revealed that 11.4% of medicines prescribed were drugs of concern i.e. medications that should be avoided in elderly patients or which are inappropriate for use in elderly patients according to Beers list. Among these drugs those with high frequency of use were Nifedipine (3.5%), Iron sulphate (2.2%), Chlorpropamide (2%) and Digoxin (1.8%). These drugs were more prescribed in the public hospitals than in private ones. It was also observed that more women (62.3%) are suffering from a number of diseases than males (37.7%). In addition, women received more inappropriate medications (60.7%) than their male counterparts (393%). The common most prevalent diseases were hypertension (22.5%), diabetes mellitus (17.9%), malaria (13.5%), urinary tract infection (4.2%) and anemia (3.7%).

CONCLUSION: Based on the findings, there is a need for both the public and health care professionals to be aware of the harmful drugs in the old age so as to minimize occurrence of side effects.