Risk Factors for Polypharmacy in Older Adults in a Primary Care Setting:A Cross Sectional Study

1000 patients who were 65 years old or older and applied to Melek Hatun family practice center either in person or through a relative between 01 December 2014 and 01 August 2017 were enrolled in the study. All patients were seen either in our center or in their homes, and informed consents were obtained. Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) consisting of detailed history and examination, drug consumption information, Body Mass Index (BMI), Waist Circumference (WC), Timed Up & Go test (TUG), Clock Drawing Test (CD), Activities of Daily Living and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living scales (ADL & IADL), Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Tinetti Gait and Tinetti Balance scores (TG &TB), 30 items Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) was performed for each subject[8-16]. Additional tests like blood examinations or ECG were performed on the basis of necessity. Metabolic Syndrome (MS) was diagnosed according to WHO criteria [17].

Data were evaluated by PASW 17. The amount of medicines that the patient used everyday (Daily Drug Consumption-DDC) were dependent variable. Relationships between DDC and other continuous variables were examined by Pearson's correlation. For categorical independent variables, t-tests were performed. The variables which were found associated with DDC were controlled for confounding variables by linear regressions. To avoid collinearity problems, variables that were strongly interrelated (like CD and MMSE) were not added to the regression model together. For all analyses, the level of significance was assumed as 0.05.