Objetive:

to describe the patterns of medicine prescriptions for diabetes mellitus type 2 (dm2) and the comorbidity of patients in five health care institutions in Colombia.

Methodology:

descriptive cross-sectional study carried out checking the medical records of 5098 patients with dm2 treated at the outpatient service centers in five Colombian cities between January 1 and December 31 of 2014. Each patient with dm2 had a record of at least two outpatient appointments registered during the time of this study. The information was collected through electronic surveys. National and international guides on diabetes treatment were used to categorize the medications. The spss® 21 software was used to analyze the data.

Results:

the most frequently prescribed medications were biguanides (59%) and sulfonylureas (28%). The prescription of inhibitors for Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 was 7% and the frequency of prescription of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (ar glp-1) was 2%. The medication with the highest frequency of prescription as monotherapy were biguanides (22%). The most frequent combination was biguanide and sulfonylureas (21%). The second most frequent combination was biguanide with insulin (10%), and other combinations. 27% of patients with dm2 did not receive any pharmacological treatment for diabetes. Regarding the medicines for comorbidity, 52% of patients use at least one type of antihypertensive drug, 39% use at least one type of hypolipidemic drug and 35% uses acetylsalicylic acid.

Conclusions:

biguanides were the most frequently prescribed medication, sulfonylureas came after. One in four patients did not have a record of medicine prescription. The prescription of acetylsalicylic acid to prevent cardiovascular risk was lower than expected.

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