Introduction:

Falls and bone fractures are important causes of morbidity and mortality in the elderly. Its etiology is multicausal, including inadequate prescriptions and osteoporosis. The aim was to identify the clinical and pharmacological characteristics of a group of older adults diagnosed with fractures in Colombia.

Methods:

Cross-sectional study that analyzed the prescriptions made one month before the fracture, during hospitalization and discharge. Patients aged 60 years and over were selected, assisted in three reference centers in Colombia. The quality of the prescriptions was analyzed using the STOPP criteria.

Results:

220 pa- tients with fractures were included, with a mean age of 75.3±10.3 years and 68.2 % were women. Hip fracture was the most frequent (37.7 %) and in-hospital mortality was 2.3 %. Prescription of calcium/vitamin D supplements and antiabsortive therapy at discharge was 23.7 % and 12.1 %, respectively. Prescriptions potentially inappropriate to discharge were identified in 11.6 % of patients and having five or more comorbidities was associated with greater probability of having them (OR:9.44, 95 % CI: 2.16-41.20).

Conclusions:

Medical staff generally do not formulate antiosteporotic medications as secondary prevention or improve the quality of prescriptions for fractured patients once they are hospitalized and discharged, so it is necessary to develop pharmacological strategies to help prevent new episodes of falls and fractures.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in English     · English ( pdf )