Variable choice:
Medications are an important part of patient care. It has been shown that as the number of medications, the frequency of taking medications or the complexity of the prescription increases the more difficulty patients have in complying with the therapy. Compliance with medications is extremely important as medication non-compliance; misuse and drug-drug interactions may cause admission and/or readmission to the hospital, increased length of hospital stay and may lead to serious complications, including organ failure or death. I have long been an advocate for having an accurate medication list at every clinic visit therefore I choose to look at the number of medications the vascular surgery patient population is taking. …show more content…
The sample population ranged in age from 25 to 93 years old (men 25-91 years old, women 31-93 years old), with a median age of 61.89 years old (mean age for men 61.34 years, women 62.56 years).
The sample population number of medications ranged from 1-33 with a mean and median of 12. The number of medications for men ranged from 2-33 with a mean of 12.1 and a median of 11.5. The number of medications for women ranged from 1-26 with a mean of 12.2 and a median of 13. The majority of the sample population (80%) had between 6 and 20 medications (75% of the men and 86.1% women), with 12.5% had less than 6 medications (15.9% men and 8.3% women) and 7.5% with more than 20 medications (9.1% men and 5.6% …show more content…
This tells me that if I take other samples of the vascular surgery population their mean number of medications would fall between 10.6 and 13.4 medications 95% of the time.
Conclusion:
It is surprising to me the number of medications the vascular surgery patients have. I would have expected the majority of the population to have around 6 medications (1-2 antiplatelet medication, blood pressure medication, a cholesterol lowering agent, a pain medication and one or two medications for another chronic condition) but with the mean and median of 12 medications this is double of what I expected to find. I was also surprised that the number of medications for the population was very consistent between men and women.
Section 2
Define the variables.
I choose to look at the number of medications as they related to the age of the population. As above medication is an important piece of patient care and patient wellbeing. I would expect that the number of medications a patient takes increases with age, as chronic illness and medical conditions increase in
Medications are an important part of patient care. It has been shown that as the number of medications, the frequency of taking medications or the complexity of the prescription increases the more difficulty patients have in complying with the therapy. Compliance with medications is extremely important as medication non-compliance; misuse and drug-drug interactions may cause admission and/or readmission to the hospital, increased length of hospital stay and may lead to serious complications, including organ failure or death. I have long been an advocate for having an accurate medication list at every clinic visit therefore I choose to look at the number of medications the vascular surgery patient population is taking. …show more content…
The sample population ranged in age from 25 to 93 years old (men 25-91 years old, women 31-93 years old), with a median age of 61.89 years old (mean age for men 61.34 years, women 62.56 years).
The sample population number of medications ranged from 1-33 with a mean and median of 12. The number of medications for men ranged from 2-33 with a mean of 12.1 and a median of 11.5. The number of medications for women ranged from 1-26 with a mean of 12.2 and a median of 13. The majority of the sample population (80%) had between 6 and 20 medications (75% of the men and 86.1% women), with 12.5% had less than 6 medications (15.9% men and 8.3% women) and 7.5% with more than 20 medications (9.1% men and 5.6% …show more content…
This tells me that if I take other samples of the vascular surgery population their mean number of medications would fall between 10.6 and 13.4 medications 95% of the time.
Conclusion:
It is surprising to me the number of medications the vascular surgery patients have. I would have expected the majority of the population to have around 6 medications (1-2 antiplatelet medication, blood pressure medication, a cholesterol lowering agent, a pain medication and one or two medications for another chronic condition) but with the mean and median of 12 medications this is double of what I expected to find. I was also surprised that the number of medications for the population was very consistent between men and women.
Section 2
Define the variables.
I choose to look at the number of medications as they related to the age of the population. As above medication is an important piece of patient care and patient wellbeing. I would expect that the number of medications a patient takes increases with age, as chronic illness and medical conditions increase in