This study aims to verify the use potentially inappropriate medication in elderly people (PIM), and of safer pharmacotherapy choices in the municipal standard lists of drugs of the primary health care. A cross-sectional, multicenter, exploratory, quantitative study was conducted in the 12 municipalities that belong to the Ourinhos micro-region, Sao Paulo, Brazil, from May to July 2009. We used as technical consultation of documents (municipal standard lists of drugs). The Beers criteria was used to identify PIM. A high prevalence of PIM was found, with PIM representing 19.6% to 29.6% of the total number of drugs in the municipal standard lists. The PIM that acts in the nervous system were the most prevalent, followed by drugs that act on the cardiovascular system and skeletal muscle system, respectively. The number of PIM presenting safer pharmacotherapy alternatives in the standardized list studied ranged from 50.0% to 84.2% of the PIM, with a mean value of 73.2%. These results indicate the need to adopt strategies as the implementation of clinical protocols for prescription to the elderly, changes in the medic education and multiprofessional follow-up of the elderly patients, to avoid the prescription of PIM to this range of the population.
Drug Therapy; Drug Repositioning; Health of the Elderly; Aged; Drug Utilization; Public Heath.
