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Background: potentially inappropriate prescribing (IP) includes the use of drugs that represent greater risk than benefi t to the patient, the STOPP-START instrument, allows its detection, the aim was to evaluate its utility. Methods: a descriptive cross-sectional study was performed. Randomly selecting records of older adults with at least one chronic degenerative disease, as last query had more than two months and have completed their monthly meeting at least four citations in the last 6 months were analyzed. Results: the fi les from 285 patients were reviewed, females were 60 %, and the mean age was 74 ± 6 years. A total of 1749 prescriptions included 126 different drugs. The prevalence of inappropriate prescribing was 55 % (95 % CI = 49-61) and 87 % polypharmacy (95 % CI = 83-91). The cardiovascular, endocrine and skeletal muscle system diseases had the highest number of prescriptions and inappropriate prescribing. It was detected the omission of one or more drugs listed in 72 % of 75 % specific clinical circumstances. Conclusions: the STOPP-START instrument is useful for detecting inappropriate prescribing. Also, the omission of indicated preventive treatments required for older adults with chronic degenerative diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Objectives: To ascertain the prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) in elderly people attending to family medicine clinics. Material and methods: the study was conducted by using a prospective design in which participants were randomly selected from a family medicine clinic located in Mexico City. The study was run from August to September 2003, and included patients aged sixty years or older, regardless of gender. They should not have cognitive damage, which was ascertained by the Folstein Mini Mental State Examination. Those patients that did not accept to participate and those having incomplete or illegible medical records were excluded. The socio-demographic characteristics test and Carlsson-Dent test were applied. The information about diagnosis, drugs prescriptions, and pharmacological and no pharmacological gastroesophageal protection was obtained from the medical charts and prescriptions. Results: 400 elderly patients were evaluated by using the Carlsson-Dent test. GERD prevalence was 25% (IC 95 % 21-29) the average age of patients with and without GERD was 68 ± 7 years and 70 ± 7 years respectively (p = .002). Women suffered GERD more frequently than men (p = 0.001). GERD diagnosis was not found in any of the reviewed medical charts. Antacids, histamine-2 receptor antagonists (H2 As) and were prescribed in 39% (IC 95 % 34-44) of patients with GERD and in 18% (IC 95 % 15-21) without GERD. Conclusions: Elderly patients attending to primary care facilities often have GERD symptoms, but they are not properly diagnosed or followed up. The Carlsson-Dent questionnaire is an alternative to identify GERD patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]