Evaluation of Drug Use Status, Rational Drug Use Level and İnteraction Status Between Drugs of Patients Who Have a Chronic Disease and Apply to The Education Family Health Center(FHC) to Prescribe Drugs

Şems Azra Kaya Göktaş, Mücahit Göktaş, Seçil Arica

Keywords: Chronic disease, Rational Drug Use, Drug interaction

Background:
Rational drug use(RDU) is the ability of patients to reach the drug that is suitable for their clinical needs, in the required dose, for the necessary time and in a cost effective way. As a result of irrational drug use, unnecessary health expenditures increase and many undesirable drug reactions can be seen.

Research questions:
Is the RDU level of the patients admitted to the FHC sufficient and what are the factors affecting it?

Method:
It was planned to include 252 individuals over the age of 18.A questionnaire and RDU scale, consisting of questions such as the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants, chronic disease, drug use histories, atc. were administered face-to-face.Those who get 35 points and above from the scale are considered to have sufficient RDU level.The data obtained from the study were analyzed with the SPSS-25 statistical program.

Results:
172 people have participated in our study so far,64.5% of the participants are women,58.1% graduating from primary school and 83.1% are married.48.8% of the individuals were using 4 or more drugs.When we look the drug interactions 31.4%of them have high levels and 2.3% of them have very high levels of interactions.The RDU scores of 64% of the participants were 35 and above.The RDU scores of women were found to be significantly higher than that of men(p=0.02).The mean age of those with polypharmacy was found to be significantly higher(p=0.01).As the level of education increased, the RDU scores of the individuals increased significantly(p=0.00), while the rate of polypharmacy decreased(p=0.07).There weren’t significant relationship between RDU score and marital status, monthly income and smoking(p>0.05).

Conclusions:
It was determined that polypharmacy and interactions between drugs were high in patients who applied to FHC;An inverse relationship was found between education and polypharmacy, and a direct relationship was found between the level of RDU.Family physicians have an important role in educating patients

Points for discussion:
The RDU level of the patients admitted to the FHC and the factors affecting it.

The relationship between patients' polypharmacy status and drug interactions

What can we do as family physicians to solve these problems?