Joseba Mikel Ibarmia Lahuerta, Paula Arriola Martínez, Ainhoa Burzaco Sánchez, Eva Lizarralde Palacios, Luis Carlos Hinojal Ortega
Objective: To know the number of drugs and the prevalence of adverse drug events (ADEs) in the elderly population from the ambulatory environment. Methods: A prospective study of two months of duration conducted to patients older than 65 years of age, which gathered information about hospital entrances in an internal medicine service. Results: 82.6% (272) of patients entered during this period were older than 65 years. The average drug consumption by the patients was of 4.8 (range: 0-14). ADEs were detected in 71 patients (26.1%). Eight cases were labeled with possible ADEs and 63 patients were described with probable ADEs. A total of 77 ADEs occurred in these 63 patients. ADEs were the cause for a hospital entrance in 23 patients, which represented an 8.4% of the causes for entrance in elderly patients during the period. In fact, 36.5% of ADEs provoked a hospital entrance. Conclusions: The results show excessive drug consumption by the elderly population and the large number of hospital entrances in relation to the undesirable effects induced by medication
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