Background: Inadequate or inappropriate medication treatment is a major risk factor for medication-related diseases. Determining the prevalence of potentially inappropriate prescription and drug-disease interactions in hospitalized patients is an important step to resolving these problems.
Methods: A sample of 500 geriatric patients hospitalized between June 2021 and December 2021 were included in the study. Medication prescribed before (usual medication), during, and at hospital discharge was considered.
Results: The prevalence of prescription of at least one inappropriate drug on hospital admission, during hospitalization, and at discharge was 9.8 %, 3.6%, and 2.4 % respectively. The drugs most frequently implicated in hospital admission were diazepam, digoxin, iron products, chlorpheniramine, and amitriptyline. The significant adverse drug-disease interaction on hospital admission, during hospitalization, and at discharge was 13.0%, 3.2%, and 3.4%, respectively. The variables number of drugs at admission and the number of diseases and the pain item of the COOP/WONCA score were statistically significant.
Conclusions: The study reveals the existence of potentially inappropriate drug prescriptions or potentially adverse drug-disease interaction in hospitalized patients in our environment. Polypharmacy, polypathology, and the presence of chronic pain were associated with potentially inappropriate prescriptions.