OBJECTIVE To analyze the pattern of use of medications use in aged people and associate it with socioeconomic aspects and with the self-rated health. METHODS A population-based cross-sectional design study with 934 elderly people from Goiania, Midwestern Brazil, between December 2009 and April 2010. Data were collected through a questionnaire. The dependent variable was the number of medicati...

OBJECTIVE To measure the effect of nurse practitioner and pharmacist consultations on the appropriate use of medications by patients. DESIGN We studied patients in the intervention arm of a randomized controlled trial. The main trial intervention was provision of multidisciplinary team care and the main outcome was quality and processes of care for chronic disease management. SETTING Patien...

Medication errors are preventable events related to inappropriate medication use that could potentially result in patient harm. Here we present a patient encounter that has exemplified the importance of appropriate communication and the inevitable role of every individual in ensuring appropriate prescription medication use. Multidisciplinary efforts are required to ensure patient safety in toda...

BACKGROUND Medication safety for older persons represents an ongoing challenge. Inappropriate prescriptions--those with a high risk of evidence-based harm--persist in up to 25% of seniors, and account for a significant proportion of avoidable emergency department visits. This project is the sequel to the EMPOWER study, in which a novel consumer-targeted written knowledge transfer tool aimed at ...

OBJECTIVE To assess the use of potentially inappropriate medications among older adults. METHODS This is a population-based cross-sectional study with 1,451 older individuals aged 60 years or more in the city of Pelotas, State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in 2014. We have investigated the use of medications in the last 15 days. Using the Beers criteria (2012), we have verified the use of pot...

Background Medication errors are common and can lead to substantial morbidity. Similarly, inaccurate medication allergy lists can result in increased costs to the system, unnecessary allergy testing, prescription of inappropriate antibiotics, and allergic reactions. We hypothesized that most inpatients tested for penicillin allergy were not allergic and this information was not documented in th...