Pharmaceutical care for elderly patients in a large hospital

Abstract

The aging process is often associated with the presence of multiple comorbidities and, consequently, with the presence of polypharmacy. Furthermore, older individuals usually have conditions that demand particular
attention in health care, such as the presence of cognitive impairment, physiological changes, and the need for social support, which can compromise the autonomy of these individuals. The present study aimed to describe the clinical and sociodemographic profi le of older patients followed up in a large hospital located in the city of São Paulo, SP, Brazil, the clinical-assistance activities developed in pharmaceutical care and points to be improved. This is a cross-sectional study, with data collection in computerized institutional
systems, retrospectively, from June 2018 to July 2021. Sociodemographic and  care variables related to pharmacotherapeutic follow-up were considered, where the mean age of the study population was 79 ±7 years old, with low schooling and female prevalence. An average of 5 ±2.5 comorbidities were observed per patient, using approximately 13 ± 3.4 medications and a mean pharmacotherapeutic follow-up time of 12 ±10.8 months, with a predominance of 10 months. The main points of pharmaceutical intervention were related to adherence to treatment, poor awareness about pharmacotherapy, prescriptions duplicity, and inadequate storage of medicines, among others, for which strategies were developed to solve these problems, with an emphasis on health education actions, development of medication chart and request
for home glucose and blood pressure self-monitoring. In addition, the limitations found due to the lack of records of interventions with the medical team and information on loss to follow-up indicate the opportunity to improve pharmaceutical records.