Aten Primaria. 1999 May; 23(8): 455-60.

[The consumption of drugs and natural remedies in the older population of a rural area]

Gri E, VÃ¡zquez F, Barroso A, Cantero M, Monjo M, Juncosa S, Planes A, Ribas A.

Area BÃ¡sica de Salud Santa EugÃ¨nia de Berga, Institut CatalÃ de la Salut, Barcelona.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the knowledge about medical treatment on people with more than 70 years old, specifically, the understanding, reason for prescription and dosage. To describe the use of natural remedies in the rural environment. To correlate the medication and the natural remedies consumption with health's self-perception. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Health Center of Santa EugÃ¨nia de Berga. Barcelona. PATIENTS: Covered people aged 70 or more, not in an institution, selected by systematic sampling obtained from an updated age and sex register. MEASUREMENTS: A standard questionnaire was used, gathering aspects about medicine and natural remedies consumption and health's self-perception. RESULTS: The average of medicines was 3.08 (SD 2.5) for person. Therapeutics groups most prevalent were cardiovascular and nervous system drugs. The patients remembered correctly the reason of the prescription of the 77% of the medicines and the dosage of the 85%. The 25% of patients needed assistance of some family for to take the medication. We have found statistical significance between health's self-perception and the number of consumed drugs. The 47% of aged population used natural remedies. CONCLUSIONS: The knowledge of medical treatment of our elderly people is satisfactory. We detect in our study a high rate of polymedication. It is necessary, if possible, to rationalize and to reduce the number of drugs. It is useful to revise and to update periodically the elderly people medication. The natural remedies is included on the people's pharmacology and its use is important.