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Comorbidities, polypharmacy, functionality and nutritional status in Turkish community-dwelling female elderly

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Abstract

Background and aims

Most elderly persons live in developing countries where current geriatric epidemiological data are scarce. We aimed to study major comorbidities, polypharmacy, functional and nutritional status in a Turkish community-dwelling female elderly clinic population.

Methods

Female geriatrics outpatient clinic patients were assessed cross-sectionally. Patients underwent comprehensive geriatric cassessment, including identification of chronic diseases, drugs, functionality, and nutrition. Comorbidities and drugs were defined by the review of patients’ self-reports and current medications. Geriatric depression and cognition were assessed by 30-item geriatric depression scale and Folstein mini-mental-state-examination. Functional status was assessed by the evaluation of activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) scales. Nutritional assessment was performed by mini-nutritional-assessment-short form.

Results

Five-hundred and fifteen patients were included in this study over an 8-year period. Mean age was 73.4 ± 6.9 years. Mean number of chronic diseases was 2.8. 61.1 % had >3 chronic diseases. Most common 3 diagnoses were hypertension (75.3 %), depression (45.5 %) and dementia (39.4 %). Mean number of drugs was 4.8. Polypharmacy was noted as 63.2 and 47.6 % by definitions as >4 or >5 chronic drug use, respectively. Subjects with at least one dependency of ADL and IADL were 23.4 and 64.0 %. Prevalence of poor nutrition was 39.1 %. In patients with at least one ADL or IADL dependency, undernutrition (p < 0.001), dementia (p < 0.001), cerebrovascular accident, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes were more prevalent (p < 0.05) and were taking higher number of drugs (p < 0.01).

Conclusions

Polypharmacy and functional dependency seem to be prevalent among female elders in our country. Nutritional status was worse than the other reported urban area of Turkey and also than among males of same region but better than among Iranian counterparts. This study illustrates geographical differences in and between the individual countries and supports the continued need for comprehensive geriatric assessment worldwide.

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Conflict of interest

The authors report no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article. None of the authors of this manuscript have any financial or personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. None of the co-authors have direct or indirect conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, relating to the subject of our report. There is role of no sponsorship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Geriatrics, Department of Internal Medicine, Istanbul Medical School, Istanbul University, Capa, 34390, Istanbul, Turkey

    Gulistan Bahat, Fatih Tufan, Asli Tufan, Yucel Aydin, Timur Selcuk Akpinar, Sevilay Nadir, Nilgun Erten & Mehmet Akif Karan

  2. Department of Radiation Oncology, Karadeniz Technical University Medical Faculty, 61040, Trabzon, Turkey

    Zumrut Bahat

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  1. Gulistan Bahat
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  2. Fatih Tufan
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Correspondence to Gulistan Bahat.

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Bahat, G., Tufan, F., Bahat, Z. et al. Comorbidities, polypharmacy, functionality and nutritional status in Turkish community-dwelling female elderly. Aging Clin Exp Res 26, 255–259 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-014-0229-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-014-0229-8

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