Investigation on medicine usage among elders in urban community of Guiyang city

Objective To study the medicine usage and adverse drug reaction in the elderly in urban community of Guiyang city.Methods Using multistage sampling,3229 people aged 60 years and over were selected from urban communities in Guiyang,and inquired about demographic status,chronic disease history,medicine usage,and adverse drug reaction status.Data were analyzed with Chi-square test by SPSS 10.0 software.Results The rate of medicine usage among the elderly was 52.0%,and there were significant difference for medicine usage in different sex,age groups and education(P<0.05).The rate of adverse drug reaction was 5.1%,and among the subjects of female,living without spousce and unreasonable medication,the incidence of adverse drug reaction was 6.0%,6.7% and 16.1%,respectively.Conclusion The rate of medicine usage is high among the elderly in Guiyang,and adverse drug reaction is common in the elderly.Strengthening survey and intervention of medicine is important to improve health condition of the elderly.