Uso de medicamentos e suas potenciais interações com alimentos em idosos institucionalizados

Abstract

Aims: To verify the use of medicines identifying their potential interactions with food/nutrients in institutionalized elderly individuals.Methods: A qualitative and quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted. The data were collected through the analysis of medical charts and prescriptions of elderly individuals from a long-stay institution in Ijuí, Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. The convenience sample included all the elderly individuals institutionalized during the data collection period (September 2015).Results: Of the 30 institutionalized elderly individuals, 29 were using continuous medication with a mean of 8.72±2.56 medicines per individual, totaling 91 different drugs. Twenty-eight (93.3%) individuals used five or more medicines, which indicates polypharmacy among most of the elderly residents. The most commonly used medicines were for the nervous system (35.07%), digestive system and metabolism (31.52%), and cardiovascular system (20.1%). Forty-one (45.05%) drugs could potentially interact with foods, totaling 142 interactions. Potential interactions were verified in all elderly individuals, ranging from two to eight, averaging 4.89±2.00 interactions per elderly. Caffeine was involved in most interactions, potentially interacting with nine (21.95%) different medications, five (12.19%) of which acted on the nervous system.Conclusions: There was a high frequency of polypharmacy among the institutionalized elderly and medicines to treat nervous system conditions were the most common ones. Several potential interactions between drugs and some types of foods/nutrients were verified.