2Hacettepe Üniversitesi, Tıp Fakültesi, Fiziksel Tıp ve Rehabilitasyon Anabilim Dalı ANKARA Introduction: The elderly populates all over the world and in our country, demands of this population from health services are on the rise due to chronic diseases. Prevalance of osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and pain resulting from various musculoskeletal diseases are known to increase with age. Since improving national healthcare services through the enhancement of primary care is a major challenge in many countries; we aimed to investigate the perspective of the general practitioners (GPs) and the problems they encounter while dealing with musculoskeletal problems in the elderly population.
Materials and Method: 159 governmental primary health care centers were randomly chosen and involved in the study. The GPs were questioned on the types of health problems they frequently encounter in the elderly population, the groups of drugs they prefer, whether they perform intraarticular or intralesional injections, the type of drugs they prescribe for osteoporosis, the type of drug groups that satisfy their patients most, drugs that the patients might prefer according to the advice of nonmedics and the drugs that elderly patients tend to use without prescriptions.
Results: The most frequently used drugs for the musculoskeletal problems in the elderly were nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), followed by COX-2 specific NSAIDs, and paracetamol. The drugs that satisfy patients most were COX-2 specific NSAIDs, followed by NSAIDs, corticosteroids and paracetamol. 90.4% of the patients demanded for prescription of the drugs that were adviced by nonmedics. The GPs have observed that NSAIDs, antibiotics, vitamins and mineral preparations, cardiovascular system drugs were used by the patients without prescriptions.
Conclusion: The GPs are frequently involved in the care of elderly patients with painful problems. NSAIDs are the most frequently used medications for musculoskeletal pain problems. A wide range of medications are used by the elderly patients without prescription.
Keywords : General Practitioners; Musculoskeletal Disease; Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal; Pain