Turkish Journal of
GERIATRICS

Ankara Fizik Tedavi ve Rehabilitasyon EÄŸitim ve AraÅŸtırma Hastanesi, III. FTR KliniÄŸi, Ankara Musculoskeletal disorders is one of the most frequent and important causes which worsen the life quality by means of chronic pain in geriatric period. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the chronic systemic diseases and related drugs in geriatric patients who referred to our ambulatory service in one year. The second purpose is to determine the distribution of drug use particularly Nonsteroidal Antinflamatory Drugs (NSAID’s) and the musculoskeletal diseases. One hundred and three elderly patients (77 females, 26 males) with a mean age of 71.74± 4.7 years were included to the study. We evaluated the chronic systemic diseases, long term used drugs, NSAID’s use and diagnoses of musculoskeletal diseases. It is found that hypertension (61.2%), diabetes mellitus (19.4%), atherosclerotic heart diseases (17.5%), chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (12.6%), peptic ulcus (9.7%). Drugs for cardiovascular system were most frequently (53.4%) used. It was followed by NSAID’s (32.0%), low-dose salicylates (17.5%) and drugs for osteoporosis (17.5%). The most frequent diagnoses of musculoskeletal diseases were gonarthrosis (35.0%), osteoporosis (19.4%), generalised osteoarhritis (17.4 %) respectively. Hypertension is in more than half of the geriatric patients. Diabetes Mellitus, cardiovascular system disease and respiratory system disease are also in high ratios. In this population, the chronic drug use priorly cardiovascular system drugs is common. Osteoarhritis is the most common diagnose of musculoskeletal diseases in the elderly patients. NSAID’s are frequently used by means of chronic pain. Polipharmacy and multimobidity should take into cosideration in geriatric population. Keywords : Geriatrics, Musculoskeletal system disease, Morbidity, Polypharmacy