Profile of medication consumption for the respiratory system by polymedicated older patients and daily medication management

AIM: The ageing of the world population has as a consequence an increased number of older patients with multiple pathologies, such as pulmonary diseases. Multiple pathologies prone elderly to polypharmacy. In Portugal, respiratory diseases accounted for 12.2% of all deaths, a number considered higher than the average number of all deaths in European population (8.2%) (Eurostat, 2019). This work aims to characterize the consumption of medicines from the respiratory system and explore daily medication management and medication adherence by home-dwelling polymedicated patients.Methods: A questionnaire on adherence and managing of medicines were applied to polymedicated elderly patients, in primary care.Results: 47.7% of all the 1089 participants were considered nonadherent. 9.3% of the elderly take medicines from the pharmacological Anatomical Therapeutic Classification (ATC) code group “R-respiratory system”. From these, about 53% of patients take medicines from the sub-group “R03 - drugs for obstructive airway diseases”. It was observed that difficulties in managing schedules and medicines, such inhalers were potentially relevant medication nonadherence-related factors.Conclusions: This study provides relevant information concerning the management of medicines by elderly patients that can be relevant for the development of strategies to improve the prescription of medicines in elderly patients. Implementation Science/Service Development Research Ideas on Respiratory Conditions and Tobacco Dependency Abstract Declaration of Interest Declaration of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.Funding: This work was financially supported by the project AIMedOlder [PTDC/MED-FAR/31598/2017], funded by FEDER, through COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031598), and by national funds (OE), through FCT/MCTES.” References and Clinical Trial Registry Information