[Potential drug interactions in patients over 64 age attended in Primary Health Care]

The aim of the study was to identify the presence of possible drug interactions in patients over 64 years of age in Primary Health Care during 2017, as well as to study the pharmacological groups most frequently associated with these interactions.

An observational and descriptive study was carried out in Las Fuentes Norte Primary Health Care in 2017 belonging to the Zaragoza II Health Sector. The study population were all patients over 64 years of a quotas of a Primary Care center in Zaragoza. The Bot PLUS 2.0 computer program was used to identify drugs most frequently associated with the presence of potential drug interactions. Other variables studied were gender, age, multiple medications, prescription drugs, and severity of drug-drug interactions.

The study included 58.78% women, and a total of 60.9% patients had taken 5 or more drugs. A total of 915 drug-drug interactions that involved 254 patients (67,6%) were identified, of which 40.08% were relevant, 14.08% moderate, and 44.5% mild. The number of interactions were associated with age, multiple medications, and number of prescriptions (P<.001).

Despite the high prevalence of potential drug-drug interactions found in the present study, only 4 pharmacological groups (oral anticoagulants, diuretics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and proton pump inhibitors) were responsible for the majority of them.