Consumo de medica？？o crónica: Avalia？？o da prevalência no norte de Portugal

introduction: it is necessary to know the chronic prescription, with a view towards the implement of measures to control, to prevent their complications and to optimise the available resources. the aims of that study were: to determine the proportion of adult patients chronically-medicated in the north of portugal; to characterise the consumption, as far as the type and number of medicines are concerned, and to analyse their association with age, gender, professional situation, marital status and type of family. methodology: transversal analytical study with gather of data through questionnaires. random sample of 45 doctors？ patients of health centres from the north of portugal. variables studied were consumption of chronicle medication, type of medicines, number of medicines, demographic variations. used test chi-squared, a=0,05. results: consumption？s prevalence = 58,1%. average number of medicines per patient = 2,94. the most used medicines were those from the cardiovascular and nervous system groups. there was found an association between chronicle consumption and females, elder ages, jobs (retired or housekeepers) and single-element families. the average number of medicine rises with the age. there is a relation between the age and most of the studied pharmacological groups. discussion: this study allowed confirming, in a bigger population, the results in literature and reinforces the necessity of optimising the prescription of medicines.