title: Medicine use by the elderly in Goiania, Midwestern Brazil.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the pattern of use of medications use in aged people and associate it with socioeconomic aspects and with the self-rated health.
  
  
  METHODS
  A population-based cross-sectional design study with 934 elderly people from Goiania, Midwestern Brazil, between December 2009 and April 2010. Data were collected through a questionnaire. The dependent variable was the number of medications consumed and the independent variables were sex, marital status, education, type of residence, age, income, and self-rated health. Drugs were classified according to the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification. The inappropriate drugs for the elderly were identified according to the Beers-Fick criteria. The tests used were Chi-square and Fisher's exact test, p was considered significant when < 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The elderly consumed 2,846 medicines (3.63 medications/person). The most commonly consumed were those which act in the cardiovascular system (38.6%). The prevalence of polypharmacy was 26.4% and self-medication was 35.7%. The most used drugs for self-medication were analgesics (30.8%), 24.6% of the elderly consumed drug considered inappropriate. Women, widows, those aged 80 or over and with worse self-rated health were more likely to practiced more polypharmacy. Most self-medication was associated with lower levels of education and worse self-rated health.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The pattern of drug use by the elderly was similar to that found in the elderly in other regions of Brazil. The number of drugs used, the prevalence of self-medication and practice of polypharmacy and inappropriate drug use were within the national average.
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, GO, Brasil. thalytarenata@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Thalyta Renata Araújo
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: Dione Marçal
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Lima
authors.forename: Adélia Yaeko Kyosen
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Nakatani
authors.forename: Lílian Varanda
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.forename: Geraldo Sadoyama
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Leal
authors.forename: Rita Goreti
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Amaral
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001938:Brazil; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019338:Polypharmacy; D012649:Self Concept; D012651:Self Medication; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors