The Evaluation of the Prevalence of Improper Medication Use in Patients Age of 65 and over in Internal Diseases and Neurology Intensive Care Units in Terms of Stopp-Start Criteria

Abstract

Introduction: Physiological changes are seen in many systems in the body related to aging. Treatment modalities and drug prescribing processes need to be re-evaluated in the geriatric population.

To elaborate on polypharmacy, the number of drugs the individual should use must also be defined effectively.

Various criteria have been developed for prescribing and using drugs for elderly individuals. The most used of these criteria is called the Beers criteria. STOPP and START criteria are other criteria used.

Material and Method: Our study aimed to retrospectively evaluate the prevalence of inappropriate drug use in patients aged 65 and over who were hospitalized in the Internal Medicine and Neurology Intensive Care Units of Ankara Atatürk Training and Research Hospital in terms of STOPP-START criteria.

Results: Study group consists of 168 (58,3%) female and 120 (41,7%) male. A total of 727 diseases were diagnosed in 288 patients. 201 of these were "Cerebrovascular Diseases,” 153 were "Hypertension.” While the most common STOPP criterion main group and single criterion were antiplatelet anticoagulant agent group (35,7%), “Presence of a drug class causing duplication (Aiming optimum level with a single drug before adding a new agent) (23,2%)”, respectively. At the same time, the most common START criterion main group and single criterion were cardiovascular system group (94,5%), and “Statin therapy in patients who are near the end of life or who are not older than 85 years of age, with a history of coronary, cerebral or peripheral vascular disease”, respectively (70,2%).

Conclusion: It is seen that the study results are generally similar to the national literature. There are partisan differences between the study results and the international literature. It is anticipated that these differences can be attributed to the diagnostic criteria used, study group selection, and study design differences.