title: [Polypharmacy prevalence and potentially inappropriate drug prescription in the elderly hospitalized for cardiovascular disease].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many older adults have multiple medical conditions that require medical attention, exposing them to polypharmacy and to a higher increase in prescribing potentially inappropriate medications. These situations may cause adverse drug reactions, longer hospital stays, and death. The prevalence of polypharmacy in our country is estimated at 55% and inappropriate prescribing of medications of 30%.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the prevalence of polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate drug prescription in older patients hospitalized for cardiovascular diseases.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients older than 70 years from a tertiary level hospital admitted to cardiology and angiology were included, from the period 2013-2014. Fragility status, polypharmacy, and drug prescription based on the Beer's criteria were established. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics. For inferential analysis, cross tabulations with Pearson χ2 were used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  446 patients where included, with female predominance of 56% (mean age 76.6 ± 5.9 years). The prevalence of fragility was 35.7%, polypharmacy 84.5%, and inappropriate prescription of drugs 48.9%. Coefficient correlation between inappropriate prescription of drugs and polypharmacy was p = 0.001.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence of polypharmacy and inappropriate prescription of drugs was higher than reported previously, which shows the situational diagnosis in this tertiary level hospital, considering a population with high cardiovascular risk.
authors: Servicio de Cardiología, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS), Monterrey, N.L.
authors: José Luis
authors: JL
authors: Martínez-Arroyo
authors: Servicio de Geriatría, Unidad Médica de Alta Especialidad (UMAE) n.o 34, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS), Monterrey, Nuevo León.
authors: Alejandro
authors: A
authors: Gómez-García
authors: Servicio de Cardiología, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS), Monterrey, N.L.
authors: Demetrio
authors: D
authors: Sauceda-Martínez