Polypharmacy and Drug Interactions in Geriatric Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus at the Internal Medicine Inpatient Installation at RSUP Dr. M. Djamil Padang

One of the diseases commonly suffered by geriatric patients is diabetes mellitus, more than 95% of diabetics suffer from type 2 DM. Type 2 DM has a 2.28 times higher risk in the elderly and a greater risk of suffering from geriatric syndromes, one of them is polypharmacy which can increase the potential for drug interactions. The purpose of this study was to describe polypharmacy and drug interactions and to analyze the correlation between polypharmacy and drug interactions in geriatric patients with type 2 DM at the Internal Medicine Inpatient Installation at RSUP Dr. M. Djamil Padang in 2021. This type of research is non-experimental using a cross sectional method. Retrieval of data is retrospective originating from the patients medical records. A total of 39 samples included in the inclusion criteria showed that the incidence of drug interactions in patients prescribing polypharmacy was 79.49%, with the highest severity of drug interactions was moderate at 74.46%, and the most pattern of drug interaction mechanisms was pharmacodynamics at 78.72%. In this study it can be concluded that there is a strong and significant corelation between polypharmacy and the potential for drug interactions (p=0.000, r=0.570), which means that the more drugs used, the more potential drug-drug interactions.