MEDICINES USE PATTERN AMONG THE ELDERLY IN SELECTED COMMUNITIES IN OVIA NORTH-EAST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, EDO STATE, NIGERIA
Stella Folajole Usifoh* and Innih Ehinon Christiana
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The ageing process has its dynamics and health challenges in the elderly within the chronologic age of 65 years or lower. In Nigeria, life expectancy is low which is 54.5 years. Aim: To investigate the pattern of medicines use among the elderly in the selected communities. Methods: Convenient sampling of 413 consenting respondents based on 2018 population projection was done with a validated self-administered interview based questionnaire by selecting one highly patronized Pharmacy in each community and sampling from house to house in the rural areas. Data was sorted into the SPSS version 21 for descriptive and inferential analysis. Results: The most prevalent disease condition was hypertension (40.3%) and the most commonly used medications were the anti-hypertensives (51.3%). Average pill burden was 3.3 medications per day. Community Pharmacies (49%) and government hospitals (46.9%) were majorly preferred for medications and health care sourcing respectively. Majority were personally responsible for their medication (49.4%) and health care financing (47.2%) and would love this cost to be free or subsidized (95.7%). There was a significant association between sex (P- value 0.0001), marital status (P -value 0.013) occupation (P value 0.005) and arthritis as well as between diabetes mellitus and occupation (P value =0.049). Conclusion: Most prevalent disease condition among the elders was hypertension (40.3%) and the anti-hypertensives (51.3%) were the most frequently used medications. Community Pharmacy (49%) and government tertiary health care institutions (46.9%) were the most preferred for sourcing medications and health care needs respectively.
Keywords: Elderly, Medications, Aging-associated-Diseases, hypertension, diabetics, arthritis.
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