Drug related problems in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

• Published in: Journal of diabetology Vol. 7; no. 1; p. 1
• Main Authors: Inamdar, SZ, Kulkarni, RV
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2016
• Subjects: Adverse drug reaction; Diabetes; Drug related problems; Elderly
• ISSN: 2078-7685; 2078-7685
• DOI: 10.4103/2078-7685.198422

Ageing serves as a gatew ay for many co morbidities and complications. Elderly patients w ere found to use about three times more drugs than younger patients and therefore are at a higher risk of experiencing drug related problems and are associated w ith an increased risk of hospital readmissions, morbidity, and mortality. Elderly patients w ith type 2 diabetes mellitus as such are susceptible to the occurrence of Drug related problems. To assess Drug related problems in Elderly Patients w ith Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and its possible contributing factors. A survey in Elderly type 2 diabetes inpatients w as carried out in the medicine department of a tertiary care hospital in North Karnataka. The study subjects w ere review ed and assessed w ith a specifically developed checklist tool to identify the occurrence of drug related problem. The mean and standard deviations for collected dat a w ere computed and reported. A total 123 patients w ere studied in w hom a total of 364 drug related problem w ere identified, having mean of 2.96΁2.2 drug related problem per patient, and are categories as related to; Drug w ithout indication 6.05%, Indicati on w ithout drug 7.15%, Drug not appropriate for therapy 3.85%, supra therapeutic dose 0.55%, Additive toxicity 0.82%, therapeutic duplication 1.92%, Adverse drug reactions 2.75%, Drug Interaction 40.93%,and 35.71% of potential inappropriate medications as per Beer′s elderly prescribing criteria. The study reveals a high frequency of drug related problems in the study population, w ith an incidence of 2.96΁2.2 per patient. Majority of the drug related problems are reported w ith drug -drug interactions (40.93%), beers criteria (35.71%), drug w ithout indication (6.05%), and adverse drug reactions. Polypharmacy, characteristics of ageing, intricacy of the diabetes treatment and associated co -morbidity w ere potential risk factors identified for developing drug rel ated problems. Majority of clinical pharmacist recommendations (88%) to resolve drug related problems in study population w ere acknow ledged .