Profile of utilization of drug with anticholinergic activity in older adults living in the community and associated factors

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the anticholinergic burden (AChB) of older people living in the community and determine the associated factors. Methods: The design is a cross-sectional study. The older adults were interviewed in the outpatient clinics of two teaching hospitals in Belo Horizonte and at home. Convenience sampling.The dependent variable was the AChB in identified by the Brazilian Anticholinergic Activity Scale and the independent variables were divided into sociodemographic, clinical-functional and pharmacotherapeutic. The factors associated with AChB were analyzed by multiple logistic regression, significance with p-value of <0.05. The study was approved by a research ethics committee. Results: Among the 344 participants, the most prevalent self-reported diseases were hypertension (69.8%); other cardiovascular diseases (41.4%) and rheumatic diseases (35.5%). The median number of diseases was 3,0. interquartile range-IQR (2.0.-4,0) Most of the interviewees had multimorbidity; defined as two or more comorbidities. Of the 344 older adults, 178 (51.7%) were using drugs with anticholinergic activity and 49 (14.2%) had a AChB ≥3. The median AChB was 2.0 (IQR 1.0-3,0). In the univariate analysis, the factors that showed a positive association with AChB, considering a significance level of 5%, were: female gender, self-reported health perception, multimorbidity, polypharmacy, rheumatic diseases, neuropsychiatric diseases and neoplasm The variables with a p-value of <0.05 remained in the final model: gender, polypharmacy, neuropsychiatric diseases and neoplasm. Conclusion: Older people included in the study showed a high frequency of drugs use, but a percentage of older people with AChB ≥ 3,0 in pharmacotherapy was 14.2%. AChB was positively and independently associated with female gender, polypharmacy, neuropsychiatric diseases and neoplasm.