Medication and polymedication in Portugal

Abstract

Portugal is a country with a high per capita consumption of medical drugs. High levels of medication implies not only risk to the patient but also a strong burden to the National Health Service (Serviço Nacional de Saúde—SNS). Polymedication, according to many authors, is the consumption of at least five different drugs. Polymedication can have serious consequences to the patient, if it is not well controlled. A project named MAISCINCO was created in order to make the population aware of the risks of polymedication. Our study used the data from the 4th National (Portuguese) Health Survey to estimate the consumption of multiple drugs, in particular polymedication, and to identify groups with greater risk of being polymedicated. We also aimed to represent geographically, at a NUTS II level, the prevalence of the more frequent kinds of drug consumption. As expected from the literature we found that women and older people have greater probability of being polymedicated, and this trend was observed and is similar in all regions. On the other hand, people in Madeira, Açores, and Algarve tend to use less medication.