Browsing by Author "Isli, Fatma"

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    POLYPHARMACY PREVALENCE AMONG GERIATRIC PATIENTS IN PRIMARY HEALTHCARE SETTINGS ACROSS TURKEY: A CROSS-SECTIONAL ANALYSIS THROUGH THE NATIONWIDE PRESCRIPTION INFORMATION SYSTEM
    (2020) Aydos, ToIga Resat; Emre Aydingoz, Selda; Lux, Karl Michael; Efe, Oguzhan Ekin; Isli, Fatma; Aksoy, Mesil; Kadidoi, Esma; 0000-0002-3243-7843; 0000-0002-1832-9336; 0000-0001-7823-7620; W-7908-2019; AAJ-7279-2020; ABA-4291-2020
    Introduction: Polypharmacy has become a common health problem as populations age. We aimed to determine the prevalence of chronic and cumulative polypharmacy in the geriatric population using primary healthcare services in Turkey. Materials and Methods: The electronic prescriptions ordered by family physicians across Turkey for geriatric patients (>= 6.5 years) in the Prescription Information System during 2018 were studied. Chronic polypharmacy criteria were proportion of patients who were given prescriptions containing >= 5 drugs four or more times during a year. Cumulative polypharmacy was defined as proportion of patients who were prescribed >= 5 drugs with different ATC4 codes in a month or in each quarter of the year. Results: Turkey's total population is 82 million; 7,186,204 are aged 65 and over, constituting 8.8% of the total. Of this geriatric population, 6,104,798 (85.0%) had at least one prescription in 2018. Each geriatric patient had 6.4 prescriptions, with each prescription containing an average of 2.9 drugs with different fourth-level Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical codes. Each drug was prescribed in 2.7 boxes on average. Of these prescribed patients, 14.3% received prescriptions containing >= 5 drugs four or more times during 2018. The percentage of patients who received at least one prescription per month containing >= 5 drugs ranged between 16.4% and 20.7%. The most commonly prescribed drugs were acetylsalicylic acid, diclofenac, paracetamol, and pantoprazole. Conclusion: Polypharmacy is a critical health problem among geriatric population in Turkey as in other industrialized countries. Educating physicians as well as the public is essential to overcome polypharmacy.
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    Rational Use of Medicine in Dentistry: Do Dentists Prescribe Antibiotics in Appropriate Indications?
    (2017) Koyuncuoglu, Cenker Z.; Aydin, Mehtap; Kirmizi, N. Ipek; Aydin, Volkan; Aksoy, Mesil; Isli, Fatma; Akici, Ahmet; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4044-9366; 28462430; HLX-0937-2023
    There are concerns regarding appropriate use of antibiotics in dentistry practice. Data on dental antibiotic prescribing patterns by dentists is relatively limited. This nationwide study aimed to examine dentists' antibiotic prescriptions in a diagnosis-based manner in Turkey. This retrospective study on utilization of systemic antibiotics for dental problems was based on the national health data of the dentists obtained from Prescription Information System between January 2013 and August 2015. Only those prescriptions containing single diagnosis and at least one systemic antibiotic were included in the study. Antibiotic prescribing was compared by diagnoses and expertise of dentists. A total of 9,293,410 antibiotics were detected in 9,214,956 prescriptions that contained "single diagnosis and at least one antibiotic." The number of antibiotics per prescription was 1.01. "Periapical abscess without sinus" (28.1%), "dental examination" (20.7%), and "dental caries" (16.2%) were the three most common indications in which antibiotics were prescribed by dentists. While only 3.4% of antibiotics were prescribed upon the single and appropriate "cellulitis and abscess of mouth" diagnosis, the remaining 96.6% was prescribed for irrational/uncertain indications. Consistent in all diagnoses, "amoxicillin + enzyme inhibitor" (58.6%) was the mainly prescribed antibiotic. Analysis of the most preferred "amoxicillin + enzyme inhibitor" prescriptions by expertise of dentists showed significantly much higher prescription rates among Group A specialists and Group B specialists (67.0 and 67.8%, respectively) than those in unidentified dental practitioners (58.2%, p < 0.0001). This study showed that dentists prescribed antibiotics in an arbitrary and mostly unnecessary manner. In general, their antibiotic choices for examined diagnoses could be regarded as irrational. These results indicate the urgent need for improvement of rational antibiotic prescribing habits of dentists.