Assessment of The Use of Poly pharmacy in Geriatric Patients With Multimorbidity In Kirkuk, Iraq

Objective This study is designed to assess the polypharmacy use by elderly patients having multimorbidity in Kirkuk, Iraq Methodology. This descriptive cross sectional study conducted over one year period (1 January 31 December, 2017) with 105 adults (75 females and 30 males) aged ≥65 years, who attended outpatient clinic of the Geriatric Medicine Department in Azadi Teaching Hospital in Kirkuk Province in Iraq. Patients with ≥2 considered as multimorbidity subjects and patients taking >5 medications considered as polypharmacy subjects. Data were collected directly from the patients by face-to-face interview technique Results The mean age was 70.49±3.88 years. The most common diseases were Hypertension and diabetes mellitus (n: 105, 100%). It was determined that (n: 95, 90.5%) of patients aged 65 to 74 years and (n: 10, 9.5%) of patients aged 75 to 82 years had multimorbidity, the difference between the two age groups was statistically significant. The mean number of drugs used by participants was 7.3±1.1 drug/ day, the highest polypharmacy was 6,7 and 8 drugs per day (n: 31, 29.52%), (n: 30, 28.57%) and (n: 30, 28.57%) respectively. There was a statistical significant increase in polypharmacy with the increase in the multimorbidity. Conclusion The prevalence of polypharmacyin multimorbid elderly patients was very high.