Browsing by Subject "iäkäs"

The number of home-dwelling aged is increasing in Finland. Rational medication use is one of the factors, which ensures the good functional abilities needed for independent or assisted living at home. No timely research on the medication use of the home-dwelling aged in Finland is published. Research on their medication use makes it possible to identify the drug related problems. Identifying drug related problems and rationalizing or deprescribing medications belong to risk management which aims at avoiding adverse drug events that might impair functional abilities. The aim of this Master's Thesis was to describe the medications used by the home services assisted home-dwelling aged, to study the prevalence of potentially inappropriate medication use (PIM) and clinically significant (SFINX Class D) drug-drug interactions and to study anticholinergic and serotonergic loads of medications used. Additionally, correlation between the use of PIMs according to Beers criteria and functional abilities measured by RAVA™ was studied. This study was conducted as a part of a larger interventional and randomized study in Town of Lohja, 'Development of a Coordinated, Community-Based Medication Management Model for Home-Dwelling Aged in Primary Care'. The cross-sectional baseline data was collected in autumn 2015. The study cohort (n=188) consisted of home-dwelling aged who were assisted by home services aged 65 or older and living in Lohja. They were randomized into intervention (n=101) and control groups (n=87). Majority of them were women (69%) and their mean age was 83 years. The mean number of medications used was 13. Data on prescription drugs (both regular and irregular) was collected from their medication lists. Most severe, class D drug interactions were checked out from reports of SFINX database. Potentially inappropriate medication (Beers 2015), anticholinergic load and serotonergic load were checked out from reports of Salko database. Medications were analyzed in both groups separately. RAVA evaluation was conducted by home care nurses and practical nurses. Pearson's correlation coefficient was calculated to analyse the associations between the amount of potentially inappropriate medication and functional ability in addition on crosstabs. The most commonly used drug classes were central nervous system medications (n=184, 98 %) and cardiovascular medications (n=176, 94 %). The most common drug was paracetamol (n=155, 82 %). Benzodiazepines and related drugs was used by 43 % (n=80) and antipsychotics 17 % (n=32) participants. At least one anticholinergic medication (two or three points) according to Salko database was used by 27 % participants; 13 % had concomitantly more than one serotonergic drugs. Prevalence of the clinical significant drug-drug interaction was 8 %. Almost four out of five had potentially inappropriate medications according to the Beers 2015 criteria of which the most common drug was pantoprazol (n=60, 21 %). The number of the PIMs used by the study participants did not correlate between the functional ability measured by RAVA class (Pearson correlation coefficient 0.024). Aged among home care services are highly medicated and the potentially inpropriate medication use is common. Coordinated models and interprofessional medication reviews are needed to ensure rational and safe medication therapy of the aged. However, correlation between functional ability measured by RAVA class and Beers medicines use was not shown.