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OBJECTIVE:To analyze medication use and associated factors among the elderly. METHODS:A population-based cross-sectional study was carried out with a sample of 400 elderly people aged over 60 living in the urban area covered by the Family Health Strategy program in Recife, Northeastern Brazil in 2009. Individuals were selected by systematic random sampling and household data were collected. Demographic, socio-economic, lifestyle factors including nutrition practices and health variables were evaluated. Medication use was the independent variable. Univariate and multivariate statistical analysis were performed. RESULTS:The prevalence of medication use was 85.5%. Polypharmacy (> 5 drugs) occurred in 11% of cases. Of the 951 drugs reported, 98.2% were prescribed by doctors and 21.6% were considered unsafe for the elderly. The most commonly prescribed groups were: cardiovascular drugs (42.9%), central nervous system agents (20.2%) and drugs with an effect on the digestive tract and metabolism (17.3%). The use of polypharmacy was associated with education (p = 0.008), self-reported health (p = 0.012), self-reported chronic disease (p = 0.000) and the number of doctor appointments per year (0.000). CONCLUSIONS:The results of this study indicate a high proportion of medication use among the elderly, including of those considered unsuitable, and inequality among groups of elderly individuals regarding the use ofmedication, when education, number of doctor appointments and self-reported health are considered .

Background: Non-adherence to treatment is an important and often unrecognized risk factor that contributes to reduced control of blood pressure (BP). Objective: To determine the association between treatment adherence measured by a validated version in Portuguese of the 8-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8) and BP control in hypertensive outpatients.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out with hypertensive patients older than 18 years, treated at six of the Family Health Strategy Units in Maceió (AL), through interviews and home blood pressure measurements, between January and April 2011. Adherence was determined by MMAS-8 version translated for this study. The patients were considered adherent when they had a score equal to 8 at the MMAS-8. Results IntroductionIn patients with systemic arterial hypertension (SAH), nonadherence is an important and often unrecognized risk factor that contributes to the reduced control of blood pressure (BP), leading to the development of other cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, renal failure and cerebrovascular accident 1 .Studies comprehending five decades have estimated that 20% to 50% of patients do not take their medications as prescribed 2 . According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in developed countries, non-adherence of patients with chronic diseases is around 50%, being probably higher in developing countries 3 .Although the prevalence and implications of non-adherence on clinical outcomes have been increasingly acknowledged, the true impact of measures known to be effective in BP control, such as cost-free pharmacotherapy given at outpatient clinics, provided by the Brazilian Public Health System (SUS), particularly through the Family Health Strategy, is still ignored 4 . Thus, the systematic diagnosis of non-adherence is crucial to investigate its impact on clinical outcomes.In this context, the most widely used method of adherence assessment is the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS 4-item version) 5 . Recently, a new eight-item scale (MMAS-8), which has greater reliability (a = 0.83 vs. = 0.61) 6 , created with the objective of determining adherence to antihypertensive treatment, was developed from the MMAS-4 and supplemented with additional items designed to address several aspects of adherence behavior. In Brazil, studies evaluating non-adherence with the new scale are still recent and scarce 7 .The present study aimed to determine the relationship between adherence measured from a validated version in Portuguese of the MMAS-8 and BP control in hypertensive outpatients treated by the Family Health Strategy teams. MethodsStudy design, setting and period A cross-sectional study was carried out by applying a structured interview to hypertensive patients treated by the Family Health Strategy teams. Study PopulationWe selected patients with confirmed diagnosis of hypertension who were treated at the USF, aged 18 or older and who used antihypertensive medications. Patients with secondary h...

Overall, ADRs were not common events among high-risk pregnant women and no adverse pregnancy outcomes following these events were observed.