%0 Journal Article %T Polypharmacy in Primary Care Practices among Chronic Elderly Patients in Gaza Strip %A Mahmoud Taleb %A Abed Al-Kareem Abed %A Abedel Rahman Dahudi %A Ahmed Najim %A Adham Ahmed %J Pharmacology & Pharmacy %P 291-297 %@ 2157-9431 %D 2014 %I Scientific Research Publishing %R 10.4236/pp.2014.53036 %X


Introduction: The increasing number of elderly, and drug use among the elderly, emphasizes the need for continuous monitoring of drug utilization. Chronic diseases are frequent among the older population; the rate of drug related problems and drug-drug interactions (DDIs) with the medical and financial consequences are enormous. Polypharmacy (PP) is defined as the concomitant use of 5 or more medications. We studied PP among chronic elderly patients in Gaza Strip and its distri- bution among primary health care clinics in different areas. Materials and Methods: This study is a descriptive analytical study, analyzing prescription data from general practices during a 3-month time period, to measure the prevalence of PP and medication errors among chronic elderly pa- tients. Data were collected directly from the prescriptions and medical records, which contain per- sonal data for patients like patient age and gender, included the current illness, drug treatment for the current illness, chronic disease/s and drug treatment for chronic disease/s. SPSS software was used to analyze the obtained data. Results: Percent of major PP was the highest among patients aged 60 - 69 years when compared with other ages categories of study population but not reached to be statisticaly significant (0.012). Major PP was %K Polypharmacy %K Elderly %K Gaza Strip %K Chronic Diseases %K Primary Health Care %U http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=44238