Utilización de los servicios sanitarios por los pacientes polimedicados

Resumo

Objective. To know the use of health services by polymedicate patients. Design. Observational descriptive transversal study. Location. Primary care. Participants. Population: polypharmacy patients from Arturo Eyries health center (Valladolid). Inclusion criteria: patients included on the CONCYLYA polypharmacy (PM) register from the first October to the 31 of December 2014; older than 14 years that met the criteria of PM (“five or more active principles prescribed chronically for at least 3 months”) Variables. Sex, age, number of drugs, diseases and prescribers; and use of health services. Results. 2.722 (16,6%) people from health center were PM. Average age: 70,2 years (SD 12,4). 61,5% female and 38,5% male. Average number of drugs: 7,22 (SD 2,08). 61,5% of the PM had two or more prescribers. Average number of diseases: 4,93 (SD 1,78). 22,7% were attended in the Emergency Hospital and 19,9% were hospitalized. The higher number of drugs, diseases and prescribers are the greater the use of emergency service and hospital admissions (p <0.005). Average number of consultations to specialized attention was 3,88 (SD 4,4). The most consulted specialties were ophthalmology, traumatology and cardiology. Average number of consultations to the family doctor was 7,63 (SD 5,70) and nursing 8,54 (SD 5,71). Conclusions. Polypharmacy has important impact on the use of health services, increasing the number of visits to the emergency services, the number of hospital admissions and the assistance to primary and specialized care consultations.