Inappropriate drug use and health-related quality of life among the elderly paents aending the Family Medicine clinic of a terary hospital in south-western Nigeria

Abstract

Background and Aim: There is a high incidence of mulple morbidies, the tendency to take many drugs at a me, the use of potenally inappropriate medicaons (PIM), the use of over-the-counter medicaons (OTC's) and doctor-shopping among the elderly. This research studied inappropriate drug use (IDU) paerns and their relaonship with the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in elderly paents.

Methods: This was a descripve cross-seconal study of 322 elderly paents aending the Family Medicine clinic of a terary hospital. The paents were recruited using a systemac sampling method, and their data was obtained using a structured quesonnaire that incorporated Beer's criteria and SF 36 quesons.

Results: The respondents' prevalence of IDU was high (n=284; 88.20%). The frequency of engagement in polypharmacy, the use of OTC drugs, and PIM among the respondents were 177(55%), 137 (42.5%), and 164 (50.9%), respecvely. The overall HRQoL of the respondents was found to be good (>50 scores) in seven out of eight domains. The majority of the respondents who had poor HRQoL (n=81; 89.0%) were observed to also engage in IDU. However, the relaonship was not stascally significant (X2 = 0.080, p = 0.777).

Conclusion and recommendation: A regular medicaon review by aending physicians and educang elderly paents and their caregivers on appropriate drug use is recommended.