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Evolution of Drug Utilization in Nursing Homes in Belgium
| Jonas De Wolf1,3*, Tinne Dilles1, Robert Vander Stichele2 and Monique M Elseviers1,2 | |
| 1University of Antwerp, Centre for Research and Innovation in Care, Wilrijk, Belgium | |
| 2University of Ghent, Heymans Institute of Pharmacology, Ghent, Belgium | |
| 3Antwerp University Hospital, Department of Intensive Care, Edegem, Belgium | |
| Corresponding Author : | De Wolf Jonas University of Antwerp, D.R.331 Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium Tel: +32-03-265-25-04 Fax: +32-3-265-25-01 E-mail: jonas.dewolf@uantwerp.be |
| Received September 10, 2014; Accepted October 03, 2014; Published October 07, 2014 | |
| Citation: De Wolf J, Dilles T, Vander Stichele R, Elseviers MM (2014) Evolution of Drug Utilization in Nursing Homes in Belgium. Clin Pharmacol Biopharm 3:124. doi:10.4172/2167-065X.1000124 | |
| Copyright: © 2014 De Wolf J, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
Abstract
In 2005, the PHEBE study highlighted the problem of polypharmacy and the emerging use of psychotropic medication in nursing home residents (PHEBE 1). In 2011, new collected data were compared (PHEBE 2).
The total mean number of prescriptions in PHEBE 1 was 8.4, containing a mean of 7.6 for chronic medication only. For PHEBE 2 this was 8.6 for total and 8.1 for chronic medication. In both investigations (2005-2011, resp.) the main categories were ‘Nervous system’ (88.3-89.2%), followed by ‘Cardiovascular system’ (78.0-84.8%) and ‘Alimentary tract and metabolism’ (81.1-83.2%).
This study found that polypharmacy remains a major problem in residential care. The use of chronic medication further increased with a high consumption of psychotropic medication, beta-blockers and laxatives.
