title: [Use of medication in elderly people don't institutionalized].
abstract: Misuse of drugs in the elderly is a rampant public health problem. We conducted a cross-sectional study using a self-administered survey to assess drug use and inadedequate prescription among noninstotunilazed elderly patients in the city of La Plata, Argentina in 2009. The total number of respondents was 215. The average number of drugs used per person was 3.19 ± 2.02, polypharmacy was present in 24.1 % of subjects. Potentially inappropriate medications (MPI) were given in 25.5 %, 31.9 % and 30.0 % of the patients, according to Beers criteria, Priscus list, and STOPP criteria, respectively. This research found that potentially inappropriate prescribing is common and there is a growing need for a list of potentially inappropriate medications, as appropriate to each situation, that considers situations where treatment is suboptimal.
authors.affiliation: Cátedra de Farmacología Aplicada, Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina. regueiromartin@gmail.com
authors.forename: Martín
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Regueiro
authors.forename: Nicolás
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mendy
authors.forename: Martín
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cañás
authors.forename: Hugo Osvaldo
authors.initials: HO
authors.lastname: Farina
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nagel
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D057970:Inappropriate Prescribing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male