Drug Use Profile and Mortality in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus

Objective: To analyze the medicine use by hospitalized patients with DM diagnosis and its association with mortality in one year follow up. Methods: Surveillance of all hospitalizations was conducted through the public health system in the mid-sized municipality of Minas Gerais, Brazil, for 18 weeks. Patients were interviewed regarding their socioeconomic, demographic, as well as medication use. Additionally, they were monitored regarding death outcomes. Deceased and survivors were compared using Multivariable analysis with Classification and Regression Tree. Results: During surveillance we identified 96 patients with DM diagnosis hospitalized, among these, 63 were interviewed regarding medication use. A total of 16 patients (28.1%) did reported difficulty in finding medication within the public health system, 22 (34.9%) did not use hypoglycemic drugs, and 25 (39.7%) had low medication adherence. We found high death outcomes during follow-up, when 32 patients had died (33.3%). The variables associated with death were: absence of information regarding the effects of discontinuing medication; dispensary location, polypharmacy; legal age of adulthood and number of children. Conclusions: This investigation describes problems related to the correct use of drugs by patients with DM who may be contributing to the frequent hospitalizations besides the high mortality rate in this population. These findings may prove useful in public policy planning for DM and may lead to a significant reduction in premature death.