Comorbidities, polypharmacy, functionality and nutritional status in Turkish community-dwelling female elderly.
OBJECTIVE
Most elderly persons live in developing countries where current geriatric epidemiological data are scarce. We aimed to study major comorbidities, polypharmacy, functional and nutritional status in a Turkish community-dwelling female elderly clinic population.


METHODS
Female geriatrics outpatient clinic patients were assessed cross-sectionally. Patients underwent comprehensive geriatric cassessment, including identification of chronic diseases, drugs, functionality, and nutrition. Comorbidities and drugs were defined by the review of patients' self-reports and current medications. Geriatric depression and cognition were assessed by 30-item geriatric depression scale and Folstein mini-mental-state-examination. Functional status was assessed by the evaluation of activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) scales. Nutritional assessment was performed by mini-nutritional-assessment-short form.


RESULTS
Five-hundred and fifteen patients were included in this study over an 8-year period. Mean age was 73.4 ± 6.9 years. Mean number of chronic diseases was 2.8. 61.1 % had >3 chronic diseases. Most common 3 diagnoses were hypertension (75.3 %), depression (45.5 %) and dementia (39.4 %). Mean number of drugs was 4.8. Polypharmacy was noted as 63.2 and 47.6 % by definitions as >4 or >5 chronic drug use, respectively. Subjects with at least one dependency of ADL and IADL were 23.4 and 64.0 %. Prevalence of poor nutrition was 39.1 %. In patients with at least one ADL or IADL dependency, undernutrition (p < 0.001), dementia (p < 0.001), cerebrovascular accident, Parkinson's disease, diabetes were more prevalent (p < 0.05) and were taking higher number of drugs (p < 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
Polypharmacy and functional dependency seem to be prevalent among female elders in our country. Nutritional status was worse than the other reported urban area of Turkey and also than among males of same region but better than among Iranian counterparts. This study illustrates geographical differences in and between the individual countries and supports the continued need for comprehensive geriatric assessment worldwide.
Division of Geriatrics, Department of Internal Medicine, Istanbul Medical School, Istanbul University, Capa, 34390, Istanbul, Turkey, gbahatozturk@yahoo.com.
Gulistan
G
Bahat
Fatih
F
Tufan
Zumrut
Z
Bahat
Asli
A
Tufan
Yucel
Y
Aydin
Timur Selcuk
TS
Akpinar
Sevilay
S
Nadir
Nilgun
N
Erten
Mehmet Akif
MA
Karan
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D009752:Nutritional Status; D019338:Polypharmacy; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology; D014505:Urban Population