Abstract
Background: Polypharmacy in the elderly increases the risk of drug interactions, inappropriate drug use, and many other adverse health events. Objectives: to determine the rate of polypharmacy and some related factors in elderly type 2 diabetes patients treated as outpatients at Nghe An Endocrinology Hospital. Subjects and methods: A cross- sectional description on 310 elderly type 2 diabetes patients treated as outpatients at Nghe An Endocrinology Hospital from October 2022 to April 2023. Research subjects were interviewed according to a uniform medical record form. Polypharmacy is defined as the simultaneous use of 5 or more drugs in a day, including prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Results: In 310 study subjects, the mean age was 70.7±6.2; females accounted for 63.9%. There was 77.6% of patients have used many drugs within the last 1 month. The average number of drugs that the patient took was 7.7±2.9 (drugs). The rate of using some drugs such as insulin (96.1%), statin (87.7%), and metformin (85.5%) accounted for the highest rate. Older age, female gender, the average number of chronic diseases co-morbid with ≥ 3 diseases, and mean duration of diabetes ≥ 10 years have a statistically significant relationship with the rate of SDT. Conclusion: The rate of using multiple drugs in elderly diabetic patients treated at Nghe An Endocrinology Hospital is quite high, especially in elderly patients, females, the more co-morbidities, and a longer duration of diabetes.