Determinación de polifarmacoterapia en pacientes geriátricos de un consultorio del médico de la familia en cienfuegos

a cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted at the "l4 de julio" family physician′s office in the municipality of rodas, cienfuegos province, during november, 1998, aimed at carrying out a characterization of polypharmacotherapy among non-hospitalized geriatric patients. those patients aged 60 or over who were taking 2 or more drugs were included. a survey including variables such as age, sex, total number of drugs taken by each patient, and the pharmacological group to which the drug belongs was done. data were processed by the epinfo 6.0 statistical processor. a high number of patients were under polypharmacotherapy within the universe of aged people. patients were taking 137 drugs. the average of drugs taken by each one was 3.11. the selected groups accounted for more than the half of the total of drugs used some possible causes of this phenomenon are analyzed.